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# Charlie Gibson’s gaffe
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/charlie-gibsons-gaffe-editor/
- Published: 2008-09-23T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T21:04:35.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Eric Cooper Santa Monica*

Jack Neworth continues his misguided and factually incorrect assault on Sarah Palin. He ridicules her for asking Charlie Gibson to clarify the “Bush Doctrine.” Jack seems to think everyone should know what the Bush Doctrine means.

The truth: Nobody really knows what the Bush Doctrine is because, as the Washington Post (Michael Abramowitz, Sept. 14) points out, there are many distinct definitions of the Bush Doctrine.

Peter Feaver, who worked on the Bush national security strategy as a staff member on the National Security Council, has counted at least seven versions.

The various version include the president’s second term “freedom agenda”; states harboring terrorists should be treated no differently than terrorists themselves; the willingness to use a “coalition of the willing” if the United Nations does not address the threat; and, then what Gibson thought was the only definition, the doctrine of pre-emptive war.

Gibson was in error. He thought there was only one definition when actually there were many definitions. Sarah Palin gave the smart answer asking him to clarify and in the process exposing his ignorance.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 23, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092308.pdf?ref=smdp.com)