I've finally gotten around to listening to the Palin/Couric interviews.  At the bottom of this note are some links so you can listen, too.

"Why didn't you get a passport until last year?"

Palin: I'm not one of those who maybe came from a background of, you know, kids who perhaps graduate college and their parents give them a passport and give them a backpack and say go off and travel the world.

No, I've worked all my life. In fact, I usually had two jobs all my life until I had kids. I was not a part of, I guess, that culture. The way that I have understood the world is through education, through books, through mediums that have provided me a lot of perspective on the world.

So, having a passport is some sort of foo-foo thing that only the rich give there kids?  It's some sort of special "culture"?  I didn't get my first passport until I was in my late 20's, and it was for a job.  Most folks I know didn't get their passports until they were adults, and they got them because they wanted to find out more about the world.  McCain has made a Big Deal that Obama hasn't made trips to Afghanistan.  His VP candidate didn't even get a passport to visit England, for heaven's sake!  I guess ignorance is bliss...

I do like this line:

through mediums that have provided me a lot of perspective

I usually use "media" to provide me with perspective.  But, as Mark Twain used to say "Let it stand..."

This interchange, though, is the clincher:

Couric: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

Sarah 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's funny that a comment like that was kinda made to … I don't know, you know … reporters.

Couric: Mocked?

Palin: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.

Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.

Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, 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 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 our state.

"Caricature", Sarah, the word is "caricature".  The sad thing is, when you see the SNL skit caricaturing Palin, it's very, very hard to see that it is a caricature.  I really, really, really, can't wait until Thursday night's debate.  In the same way the Bush makes me long for Nixon, Sarah makes me long for Dan Quayle. 

Ok, then...  videos (courtesy of an embed from CBS):