On blinking

Ok, so I've watched some video from the Palin interview, and wow -- pardon me if this is shrill -- but it's way more annoying than reading the transcript. What reads on paper as considered (if dodgy) discussion comes across as blustery. Yeesh.

Here's what we've learned about Sarah Palin so far: She doesn't believe in blinking. At all.

Not when she's offered one of the most important leadership positions in the world:

You have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we're on, reform of this country and victory in the war. You can't blink. So I didn't blink then even when asked to run as his running mate

And not when you're making decisions in the war on terror:

GIBSON: But, Governor, I'm asking you: We have the right, in your mind, to go across the border with or without the approval of the Pakistani government.

PALIN: In order to stop Islamic extremists, those terrorists who would seek to destroy America and our allies, we must do whatever it takes and we must not blink, Charlie, in making those tough decisions of where we go and even who we target.

Blinking, apparently, is bad. So let me torture this metaphor, just a bit.

Palin's "blinking" references presuppose an approach to the world that only rarely makes sense: The idea of America as a white-hatted gunfighter standing in a dusty street, twenty paces away from an outlaw, both men ready to duel. Blink, and you die. It's foreign policy in constant crisis mode. And it doesn't have to be that way.

In real life, blinking is enormously helpful. It helps clear your vision. It's necessary. And that helps you see details in the world that you might otherwise have missed. It's the split-second you take -- often involuntarily -- to be able to see better. And just to make this ridiculous: If you run around the world without blinking, your eyes dry out and fill with dust. You end up bumping into easily avoidable obstacles.

Sorry. Like I said, I tortured the metaphor.

For what it's worth, the Palin approach described above stands in contrast to what the Bush Administration has actually done. When it came to going after terrorists in Pakistan's border areas, the administration spent more than half-a-decade in one long, slow blink. And perhaps with good reason: The need to get the terrorists had to be balanced against violating the territory of a nuclear-armed state.

Palin's answers suggest she believes in foreign policy by gut, without regard for the need to take a moment to consider the right course of action -- with contempt, in fact, for people who do take time to do such contemplation. We've been governed by gut for the last eight years. It's been a lousy approach to the world.