Guest Post by Emily Goll
Sarah Palin has had a busy life since Senator John McCain plucked her out of obscurity during the 2008 election. Fortunately for us, the majority of this has been filmed and preserved as a now essential part of American history that we can relive over and over again on YouTube (thank you?). From interviews to speeches, here are the funniest, most outrageous and totally absurd Sarah Palin moments caught on tape thus far.
1. The Bush Doctrine

In her very first televised interview during the 2008 campaign, Charles Gibson asked Palin if she “agreed with the Bush Doctrine.” Uh oh. With obvious confusion, Sarah first tries to dodge the question and then when asked pointblank how she interprets the Bush Doctrine she responds (with obvious trepidation) that the Bush Doctrine is President Bush’s “world view.” Wrong. This interview was America’s first glimpse of why the governor of Alaska was simply not ready to be President of the United States.
2. Sarah Palin: “What does a VP do?”

In this clip, Sarah famously confesses on CNBC during the 2008 campaign that she has no idea what the vice president does. Yikes. The exact quote reads as follows: “As for that VP talk all the time, I tell ya, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me, what exactly is it that the VP does every day?”
3. Sarah Palin Prank Call

This Quebec comedy duo pranked Sarah during their radio show in 2008. Using nothing but French accents, they managed to convince the governor that she was speaking to France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy. Together, they discussed Nicolas’ beautiful wife, hunting, and promoting a special American advisor named Johnny Hallyday (a French singer). Sarah bought the prank up until they revealed themselves at the very end of the clip. An embarrassed Palin quickly got off the phone.
4. Interview Location Fail

Immediately following Sarah’s pardoning of a turkey on Thanksgiving in Alaska, Sarah proceeded to give an interview right outside of a turkey slaughter house. While discussing her career and “getting her message out,” we are given a clear view of turkey’s being killed directly behind her. Given the circumstances, you can’t help but laugh.
5. Palin: I Read All the News

Even Palin’s own camp admitted that her interview with Katie Couric went horribly, but this clip made headlines everywhere. When asked what newspapers specifically she read to keep informed, Palin responded, “Um…all of them.” Really, Palin? You read all the news? The media had a field day with this response and Palin ended up using it as an example of “gotcha media.” It was, after all, a pretty tricky question.
6. Palin on Foreign Policy

In this clip, Couric questions Sarah on citing Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of her foreign policy experience. Trying to redeem herself, Palin speaks nonsensically for about a minute on how this affected her duties as governor: “We have trade missions back and forth…it’s 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.” I’m sure Putin was shivering in his boots with Palin on watch!
7. Palin: Okay, I Didn’t Quite Say That

In September 12, 2008, Charles Gibson interviewed Sarah Palin and questioned her on her flip flopping stance on “The Bridge to Nowhere.” Gibson says, “It’s now pretty clearly documented that you were for that bridge before you opposed it.” Oops. This clip shows Sarah Palin trying to back pedal her way out the subject…and failing.
8. Stump the Candidate!

Apparently September 2008 was not a great month for Palin. Here is a clip (courtesy of CNN) showing Sarah trying to answer an audience question at a campaign rally on her foreign policy experience. She tells the audience that she “has that readiness and if you want specifics with specific policy or countries, go ahead and-and you can ask me. You can even play stump the candidate.” Yes! That’s great! We would love to play stump the candidate…but sadly, this is about where John McCain jumped in and took over the answering of questions. Lame.
9. Palin: No Second Guessing Israel’s “Security Efforts”

Here we see Palin’s interesting take on Israel. According to Palin, the United States should never “second guess” Israel, even if they choose to take action against Iran. She sums everything up very succinctly by saying that in a situation where Israel took action against Iran, “It seems obvious to me who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.” I had no idea foreign policy was so black and white!
10. Palin Declares War on Iran

When talking about what she and McCain will do in their first 100 days in office, Palin accidently said, “We’ll get this economy back on the right track and really sure up the strategies we need over in Iraq and Iran to win these wars.”What? We’re at war with Iran? Not Afghanistan? Better get to the nearest bomb shelter, stat!
Emily Goll is the editor of My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on online courses for Guide to Online Schools.