This writeup below seems fair.  I caught a little of the second part which was on Nightline.  It was more on energy policy where you could tell she was in her element.  At one point he pushed a little prefacing a question with "call me a cynic, but.." and made a point about her position and maybe McCain's evolving on energy policy.  She let him finish and said, "you're a cynic" and this is why.....
http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=16089626 Showing a confidence, in prepared answers
By Alessandra Stanley
Friday, September 12, 2008
"I got lost in a blizzard of words there," Charles Gibson of ABC said to Governor Sarah Palin, with a trace of irritation in his voice. "Is that a yes?"
Palin didn't look rattled or lose her cool in her first interview with Gibson, the network anchor, on Thursday night, but sailed through with general answers, sticking to talking points that flowed out quickly and spiritedly — but a little too much by rote to satisfy her interviewer that she was giving his questions serious consideration. When Palin seemed not to know exactly what the Bush Doctrine is, Gibson made a point of explaining exactly what it means — pre-emptive self-defense — and demanded that she tell him whether she agreed with it.
ABC News delivered the first glimpse of Palin without a script or a cheering audience, and it was a strained and illuminating conversation. Palin, who kept inserting Gibson's nickname, "Charlie," into her answers, as if to convey an old hand's conviviality, tried to project self-confidence, poise and even expertise: She let Gibson know that she had personally reassured the Georgian prime minister and correctly pronounced his last name, Saakashvili. At times, her voice hesitated, and she looked like a student trying to bend prepared answers to fit unexpected questions.
Gibson, who sat back in his chair and wriggled his foot impatiently, had the skeptical, annoyed tone of a university president who agrees to interview the daughter of a trustee, but doesn't believe she merits admission.
When he asked her, slowly and solemnly to "look the country in the eye" and say whether she truly felt qualified to be vice president and possibly commander in chief, Gibson seemed to expect Palin to express at least a moment of humility and self-doubt. Palin said she had no doubts whatsoever when asked to be Senator John McCain's running mate. ("I answered him yes because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can't blink. You have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we're on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can't blink.") Gibson suggested that her brash, unwavering confidence sounded like "hubris."
That first portion of ABC's three-part interview, broadcast on "World News," was meaty, touching on Israel, Iraq and Russia and aspects of her Christian faith, but it is unlikely to end the debate about her qualifications or the Republican complaints about news media bias and sexism. Mostly, it supplied all sides with lots of fresh material.
It was the first real test of Palin's ability to handle questions about foreign and domestic policy, but almost as much of a challenge for Gibson. He was chosen by the McCain campaign for the first interview partly because he is seen as courteous, mild-mannered and unlikely to play "gotcha" with such an important "get."
His was a tough road to navigate. If Gibson were too soft, Democrats would accuse him of being afraid of the Republican news-media-bashing machine, which has been scouring the press and Senator Barack Obama's speeches for any hint of sexism or elitism. If his questions were too tough, he would very likely stir up charges of sexism or elitism. His questions were tough but he was careful in the first part of the interview not to ask anything too frivolous (viewers of "World News" didn't hear questions about lipstick, pigs or juggling family and career). But his attitude was at times supercilious: He asked if a nuclear Iran posed an "existential threat" to Israel, as if it were the land of Sartre, not Sabras.
It was a tough first interview for Palin, but it was also a cautionary dress-rehearsal for Obama's running mate, Senator Joseph Biden Jr., in his debate with Palin next month: On television, tone matters as much as content.
