It struck me last night that when Sarah Palin veered so sharply in response to Gwen Ifill's question about her Achilles heel that perhaps Palin doesn't know what an Achilles heel is. It is of course possible that she was under instructions to under no circumstances acknowledge weakness, a standard Republican ploy, but her response seems so vague and rambling, not only non-responsive to the question, but without any reference whatsoever to the question. 
It seems she heard those words "lack of experience" and went straight into talking points la-la land. It would not be too surprising that Sarah Palin doesn't know what an Achilles heel is, much less what her Achilles heel is.
Here's the transcript:

IFILL: Let's talk conventional wisdom for a moment. The conventional wisdom, Gov. Palin with you, is that your Achilles heel is that you lack experience. Your conventional wisdom against you is that your Achilles heel is that you lack discipline, Sen. Biden. What id it really for you, Gov. Palin? What is it really for you, Sen. Biden? Start with you, governor.

PALIN: My experience as an executive will be put to good use as a mayor and business owner and oil and gas regulator and then as governor of a huge state, a huge energy producing state that is accounting for much progress towards getting our nation energy independence and that's extremely important.

But it wasn't just that experience tapped into, it was my connection to the heartland of America. Being a mom, one very concerned about a son in the war, about a special needs child, about kids heading off to college, how are we going to pay those tuition bills? About times and Todd and our marriage in our past where we didn't have health insurance and we know what other Americans are going through as they sit around the kitchen table and try to figure out how are they going to pay out-of-pocket for health care? We've been there also so that connection was important.

But even more important is that world view that I share with John McCain. That world view that says that America is a nation of exceptionalism. And we are to be that shining city on a hill, as President Reagan so beautifully said, that we are a beacon of hope and that we are unapologetic here. We are not perfect as a nation. But together, we represent a perfect ideal. And that is democracy and tolerance and freedom and equal rights. Those things that we stand for that can be put to good use as a force for good in this world.

John McCain and I share that. You combine all that with being a team with the only track record of making a really, a difference in where we've been and reforming, that's a good team, it's a good ticket.

Not long ago, former senator and McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm famously told us that America has become “a nation of whiners.” This week the whiners came out in force. On Monday House Republicans began whining loudly about how mean Nancy Pelosi was, in a speech before the failed bailout vote, for citing the Republican Party’s culpability in bringing about the financial meltdown that was rocking Wall Street and the world. Graham himself, as chair of the Senate Banking Committee, had played a major part in the collapse through his reckless deregulation policies over the years. Now here were his colleagues whining plaintively about how harsh it was to hear the truth. Being scolded by Nancy Pelosi was unacceptable, it just wasn’t bipartisan. They picked up their toys and went home, leaving the bailout deal undone.

So let’s see. Republicans have for decades now been saying nasty, often exaggerated or altogether untrue, things about Democrats, turning the very word “liberal” into some kind of hideous epithet. Republicans have been using demeaning, offensive, disrespectful and downright anti-democratic tactics to pass laws (or evade them), but when the Democrats get a little fresh by actually pointing out how Republican  foolishness has gotten us into this mess, they start pouting and forget the seriousness of their work. Perhaps they never really took the work all that seriously in the first place.

Phil Gramm, we have seen your whiners and they are y’all.