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Poised and confident is not how she looked with Couric. On Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Couric asked Palin for an example of where McCain has led the charge for more oversight. Says Couric, “[McCain’s] been in Congress for 26 years. He’s been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation – not more.”

Palin: “He’s also known as a maverick though. Taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party.”

Couric: “I’m just going to ask one more time, not to belabor the point – specific example in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.”

Palin: “I’ll try to find you some, and I’ll bring ‘em to ya.”

On whether the $700 billion bailout of the U.S. financial sector is a good idea.

That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we’re ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Helping the—it’s got to be all about job creation too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans and trade—we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as competitive, scary thing, but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today—we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity.

If you didn’t quite catch the meaning of the above, don’t bother re-reading it.  It doesn’t get any clearer.  U.S. News and World Report columnist Robert Schlesinger called the statement a “talking points machine gone out of control.”

“Or magnetic poetry that you have on your fridge – in fact, you can try it at home. String together key words and phrases like “shore up the economy,” “reduce tax rates,” “healthcare reform,” and “trade” and see what kind of Palinisms you can create,” he writes.

Couric followed up with her on that statement asking her to “explain why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.”

Palin replied, “Well, it certainly does because our – our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They’re in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia…”

Couric stepped in with, “Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

“We have trade missions back and forth,” Palin began. “We, we do, it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is 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, to our state.”

This led LA Times columnist James Rainey to wonder:

“Certainly, Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir Putin, has demonstrated his willingness to invade its small neighbors,��� he wrote. “But have I missed news of recent provocations by Russian bombers over Kiwalik or Aleknagik?