The National Review came up in a recent CNN interview with Gov. Palin:

CNN: Yeah. Governor, you've been mocked in the press. The press has been pretty hard on you, the Democrats have been pretty hard on you, but also some conservatives have been pretty hard on you as well. The National Review had a story saying that, you know, I can't tell if Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt or all of the above.

Palin: Who wrote that one?

CNN: That was in the National Review, I don't, have the author.

Palin: I'd like to talk to that person.

CNN: But they were talking about the fact that your experience as governor is not getting out. Do you feel trapped in this campaign, that your message is not getting out, and if so who do you blame?

Palin: No, I'm getting my message out right now, through you and with you, Drew, to the American people who are watching CNN, and I appreciate this opportunity. No, you know that, I am obviously an outsider of the Washington elite and of the conventional, I think, media, targets or media characters that have been a part of this for years and, I think that is fine, that is good for the American electorate to understand. They have a choice here in our ticket of having the experience and the reputation that comes with John McCain as being the patriot and the maverick in the Senate, you take that and you combine it with a team member who is new and fresh with new ideas, new vision, new energy that needs to be infused into Washington, D.C., with that commitment to clean it up in D.C. Put government on the side of the people and fight hard for Americans. You have that, that combination and I think that some in the media, maybe in The National Review, they don't know what to make of that, they're like, gee, she's, you know, where'd she come from, surely, you know, it should be our job I think they assume is to, pick and, and be negative and, and find things to mock and, that's just I guess part of the political game, I guess. But we're very committed and focused and moving forward between now and November 4, getting that message out to the American people that our plan to get this economy back on the right track, and to win the wars, put government on the side of the people. It's the right thing to do, and, I think we have the right message, despite the mocking that comes our way.

I think her non-answer actually answered the question.

It's painfully obvious why the campaign curtained her off from the media. She's still caught in the headlights, and many of her answers don't make sense because they are cobbled together from coaching sessions. They don't always add up.

In the same interview, she cites a comment made by Joe Biden regarding a kind of international crisis that will serve as a kind of "test of mettle" for Obama if he becomes elected. Interesting comments in light of an ongoing international crisis - and possibly crises that the next American president will obviously inherit. For valid reasons or not, many people do not feel McCain is the candidate to best handle these based on his responses and actions over the past several months. Palin makes no attempt to argue this, instead choosing to go for the throats of the other ticket.

Palin's response has nothing to do with the question asked and she stumbles on the specifics that she attempts to bring up. She also doesn't seem to realize that Fidel Castro is no longer the Prime Minister of Cuba and that the ongoing six-nation talks with North Korea have born enough fruit that direct talks are no longer an issue as the nation was recently removed from the U.S. state sponsors of terror list. If she does realize these things, then she brings them up because she assumes most viewers/readers don't know them to be irrelevant and outdated. Furthermore, if you're going to cite 'four or five scenarios' of crises as something your opponent won't be able to handle, it helps to know what those scenarios actually are - she claims that those scenarios are dangerous enough to cause people to re-think Obama as a candidate, but then says she has no idea what Biden was talking about. He actually mentioned Russia and the Middle East - not Cuba or North Korea - so at least some people - though apparently not her - have an idea what he was talking about.

Perhaps she doesn't think about her responses and is just rattling off preloaded ammunition. Due to the inclusion of phrases like 'the scars to prove it,' I think this may be likely the case.

CNN: Governor, if in two weeks you're not elected, do you come back at the top of the ticket in 2012?

Palin: I'm concerned about and focused on just the next two weeks, Drew, and again getting that message out there to the American public. Thankfully, too, the American public is seeing clearer and clearer what the choices are in these tickets. I think, some revelation just occurred, not just with Joe the plumber but revelation occurred with [Democratic vice presidential candidate] Joe Biden's comment the other night that, he telling his Democratic financial donors saying that, he said mark my word, there's gonna be economic, and, or international crisis he said, if Barack Obama is elected, because he will be tested and he said there are four or five scenarios that will result in an international crisis with an untested presidential candidate in Barack Obama and -- first I think we need to thank Joe for the warning there. But, Joe's words there I think, can shed some light, too, in terms of the contrast you have in the tickets. John McCain is a tested leader. He has gone through great adversity. He has the scars to prove it. He has shown his true leadership. It hasn't just been all talk, and Joe Biden's comments there about an untested, as he had said in the primary, unprepared candidate to be president, I think was very telling.

CNN: Have you guys been briefed on any scenario like this?

Palin: On the four or five scenarios, that, well, who knows what Joe Biden was talking about, you know? It, all you have to do, though, is look back at Obama's foreign policy agenda and you can assume what some of those scenarios may be. As he considers sitting down and talking to [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad or [former Cuban President] Fidel Castro or [North Korean President] Kim Jong Il, some of these dictators, without preconditions being met, essentially validating some of what those dictators have been engaged in, that could be one of the scenarios that Joe Biden is talking about is, as a result of that, that proclamation that he would meet without preconditions being met first. That could be a scenario that results in a testing of our country, and, the four or five other scenarios that he's talking about, I don't know, I hope that Joe Biden will explain it.

I still have no idea how anyone with any political depth (as in not just backing her because 'she's one of us') can back this woman as a vice presidential candidate. If you do, please elaborate.