Charlie Gibson Wrong on Bush Doctrine

In an interview with Sarah Palin, ABC's Charlie Gibson played "gotcha" with Sarah Palin on the Bush Doctrine. Unfortunately he (along with the NY Times) got it wrong. As Charles Krauthammer points out, he was the one who first used the phrase and it has had several distinct and different meanings since it was first used.

But frankly, Gibson should have known better from his previous definitions of it (from Weekly Standard, which also points out several other people's usage of the term):

September 21, 2001
CHARLIE GIBSON: The president in his speech last night, very forceful. Four out of five Americans watched it. Everybody gathered around the television set last night. The president issued a series of demands to the Taliban, already rejected. We'll get to that in a moment. He also outlined what is being called the Bush Doctrine, a promise that all terrorists organizations with global reach will be found, stopped and defeated.

September 21, 2001
CHARLIE GIBSON: Senator Daschle, let me start with you. People were looking for a Bush Doctrine. They may have found it when he said the war on terror will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped or defeated. That's pretty broad. Broader than you expected?

The whole point is silly anyway. I'm pretty sure that one-term Sen. John Edwards' first interview as VP candidate was not a grilling on his knowledge of foreign policy. It consisted of a handful of softball questions.