This one is particularly painful to watch:

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COURIC: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?
PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land-- boundary that we have with-- Canada. It-- it's funny that a comment like that was-- kind of made to-- cari-- I don't know, you know? Reporters--
COURIC: Mock?
PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.
COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.
PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our-- our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia--
COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?
PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state.

What you see here, as has been the case with Palin's other notable flubs, is the difference between a seasoned politician and an unseasoned one. A more practiced politician would bat away this question from Katie Couric, perhaps with humor, perhaps by resorting to stronger talking points, perhaps by even answering a different question than was asked. This, of course, doesn't yield exciting television, but at this point Palin doesn't need excitement, she just needs to pass the test.

But rather than deftly deflecting Couric's question, Palin tries to answer it -- and fails miserably in doing so. This isn't at all unlike the exchange last night from Couric's interview with Palin that garnered so much attention, with Palin apparently unable to recall a single instance of John McCain calling for greater regulation.

I suppose it could be the case that voters find Palin's inability to deal with a question in an effective manner endearing -- that she isn't like a typical politician -- yet considering that Palin's numbers have come down dramatically, with more likely voters viewing her unfavorably than viewing her favorably, I'm probably not going too far out on a limb to say that these "Bush Doctrine" moments aren't much helping Palin or McCain.

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Katie Couric promised that there would be no "gotcha" moments during her interview with Sarah Palin. But given Palin's wildly obvious lack of preparation, that wasn't a promise Couric could keep.

Here's the transcript:

COURIC: You've said, quote, "John McCain will reform the way Wall Street does business." Other than supporting stricter regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, can you give us any more example of his leading the charge for more oversight?

PALIN: I think that the example that you just cited, with his warnings two years ago about Fannie and Freddie--that, that's paramount. That's more than a heck of a lot of other senators and representatives did for us.

COURIC: But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.

PALIN: He's also known as the maverick though. Taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about--the need to reform government.

COURIC: I'm just going to ask you one more time, not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation?

PALIN: I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.

As Marc Ambinder asks, "This should have been an easy question for Palin to answer, right?" And we wonder why Palin is staying away from the media -- and John McCain is running away from debates.

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