The NYTimes’ Alessandra Stanley calls part I of Charles Gibson‘s three-part interview with Gov. Sarah Palin, “meaty, touching on Iraq, Israel and Russia and aspects of her Christian faith.” (By now, Part II was expected to have taken place. Portions will air tonight on Nightline and more tomorrow on Good Morning America.) Stanley writes about the “tough road to navigate” for Gibson. “If [he] were too soft, Democrats would accuse him of being afraid of the Republican news-media-bashing machine…If his questions were too tough, he would very likely stir up charges of sexism or elitism.”

Mr. 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.

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.