Jeffrey Goldberg writes that he’s watched Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric three times and his “astonishment does not diminish.” He goes on:

Her nonsensical answer about Russia has deservedly been highlighted, but let me focus on another question, this one concerning the export of democracy. Couric asked, “What happens if the goal of democracy doesn’t produce the desired outcome? In Gaza, the U.S. pushed hard for elections and Hamas won.”

Palin flipped on the blender that is her mind, chopping and mixing all her rehearsed answers to other questions, and said a bunch of nonsense, the beginning (and thrust) of it being: “Yeah, well especially in that region, though, we have to protect those who do seek democracy…”

Goldberg again:

The issue here is not that Palin didn’t know the answer. There are many possible answers to this question, some of which are right and some of which are wrong. The issue here is that she didn’t know the question. Because she was apparently ignorant of the subject, she endorsed Hamas’ victory, and, in essence, called for the U.S. to “protect” Islamists who seek to use democratic elections to lever themselves into power.

Then he goes on to give one hypothetical answer in keeping with the Republican platform just to prove that, you know, it’s possible to give a coherent answer (“Yes, Katie, it’s true that if you push for democracy, sometimes you get an outcome that you don’t want…”) and concludes:

See? Not that hard. Unless you don’t:

a) Know what happened in Gaza;
b) Know where Gaza is;
c) Know who rules Gaza today;
d) Care.