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Opinion: Williams drops the ball

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Like every journalist, I have kicked myself after conducting an interview for not asking an obvious -- in retrospect -- follow-up question. So I don’t want to be too harsh on Brian Williams. Nevertheless, Williams bungled big-time when he allowed John McCain and Sarah Palin to exploit Joe Biden’s knuckleheaded prediction that a new President Barack Obama would be tested by America’s enemies.

Contrasting himself with Obama, McCain said: I’ve been tested.’ Then he harped on the fact that Obama is ‘young and untested,’ and Palin chimed in, calling Biden’s comment the ‘most telling’ utterance of the campaign.

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Whoa! ‘Young and untested’? Isn’t that also a description of Palin, who as even her supporters acknowledge is a foreign-policy novice? Wasn’t the obvious follow-up for Williams this zinger: ‘If, Senator McCain, you had a fatal heart attack on Jan. 21, would our enemies be tempted the next day to provoke a crisis to test President Palin?’

True, Williams later asked the Republican couple to comment on Colin Powell’s criticism of McCain’s choice of Palin, which evoked a defense by Palin -- who didn’t want to toot her own horn -- of her executive experience. But the subject was foregn policy, wasn’t it?

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