News Sarah Palin found something useful to do

[Nebula815]

What I do hear is many, many comments on her intelligence, and she has not effectively refuted them.

I agree; as said, she has the perfect forum to do so now, so if she does not, that is her fault. Palin is like a wild card right now, because on the one hand, for example, she was known to be a very good debater from her Alaska debates. However, on national and international issues, she seemed to be rather clueless in too many areas. Then there is what Steve Schimdt supposedly said, but then they also said she was a quick study nonetheless.

Then there was her Katie Couric interview where she couldn't name what publications she reads. I mean even if she doesn't read them, how hard is it to just tick off the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, etc...? It seems like she is intelligent, but rather ignorant in many areas, but if she is in fact intelligent, she can fix the ignorance part and re-brand herself. On issues she doesn't know much about, she comes acorss as very canned, however if she knows an issue, she seems to come across fine with it.

So we will see.

But lack of intelligence isn't a character flaw either; rather, it's an inadequate foundation from which to lead.

No no, I wasn't trying to imply that it was, and I agree, if someone is legitimately ignorant or stupid, you don't want them leading.

 

[Cyrus]

Yes, I read it and parsed it thoroughly to try to figure out what you meant. Palin is sly, back-biting, and mercenary, and is shamelessly self-promoting, and she can make a ton of money off the celebrity granted her by McCain's ill-conceived VP choice. That does not mean that she is smart. Her "intelligence" is highly over-stated in the face of glaring evidence to the contrary.

Greedy, crafty, willing to quit her obligations when there is money to be made? Yes. Smart? Not unless you are a Ferengi, and measure greatness in money.

Again - as I said. She is smarter than you give her credit for.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Again - as I said. She is smarter than you give her credit for.

I suppose you could call it another type of intelligence. I heard some snippets of her debates from the AK race. She certainly sounded good though if you paid attention she was really just making a slick side step of most questions and spewing sound bites from her platform.

 

[Char. Limit]

Statu, that's what politicians do.

That's the way they get elected.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

This one is smarter than you people give her credit for. Next time she's up for election she's going to know the issues much better, and she gets air time every single day in the process while being paid. Smart move on her part.

She also continues to expose herself as a crackpot. The fact is that the more America got to know Ms. Palin, the less they liked her. Her polls shot up for a few weeks and continually dropped after that, She will appeal to the wacky base, of course, but even after the last decade, it is hard to imagine that all but the extreme right will fall for her line of bull again. Her only real advantage was that no one knew anything about her. McCain brought her on hoping that the gun-toten mama image would be enough to last the election. It wasn't. Now even he admits that he screwed up.

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care...

- Sarah Palin
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/sarahpalin/a/palin-top-10.htm
http://politicalhumor.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=politicalhumor&cdn=entertainment&tm=538&gps=512_363_1276_571&f=00&su=p504.3.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.facebook.com/note.php%3Fnote_id%3D113851103434

When you say smart, do you mean in that she is willing stoop to any level, no matter how low, in order to terrorize the country into voting for her? I would agree that she is ruthless and highly deceptive; I'll give her that. But that doesn't require that one be intelligent. Any fool can be ruthless and deceptive.

Perhaps you could explain the basis for your statement? I don't see taking easy money from Fox as being smart; it's a no-brainer. What else is she going to do? Did she ditch the Governer's office for advanced political training? Probably. So, she's a quitter; she failed to perform her duties when elected to office; has never completed a full term of office, beyond that of city mayor. That will go far in an election. An absolutely cunning move!

I am more than amused when I hear about how competitive she was in Alaska - population, 687,000. And even they probably wouldn't take her back now.

 

[Cyrus]

I didn't say she is book smart.

If you are reporting the news every day, do you think she is going to stumble like she did her first go at the election? Not in a million years. Does she get free media exposure, day in, day out - you betcha. That makes her very dangerous to tangle with. Americans have an attention span of five minutes. They will long since forget her blunders in four years.

 

[Nebula815]

She also continues to expose herself as a crackpot.

How is she a crackpot?

The fact is that the more America got to know Ms. Palin, the less they liked her. Her polls shot up for a few weeks and continually dropped after that,

That will happen to any new fresh politician who comes on the scene then generates controversy. Plus Palin made a few blunders herself.

She will appeal to the wacky base, of course, but even after the last decade, it is hard to imagine that all but the extreme right will fall for her line of bull again.

Both sides have wacky bases if you are talking the hard social fundamentalist religious Right or the hard socialist ultra-Left

Her only real advantage was that no one knew anything about her. McCain brought her on hoping that the gun-toten mama image would be enough to last the election. It wasn't. Now even he admits that he screwed up

I would say it was McCain who lost the election. He ran a horrible campaign. Even Steve Schimdt says that despite Palin's misgivings, they would have lost by a larger margin without her (and the margin wasn't that large).

McCain had a few big negatives going for him:

1) He acted like he didn't understand anything about the economy (and he probably didn't, because earlier in the campaign he said he didn't understand the economy; why he never bothered to read any books on basic economics all those years in the Senate is beyond me, why he would admit such a thing is even stranger).

2) He never went after Obama on issues he could have, such as the tax issue, the cap-and-trade issue (as a strict politician, despite believing in global warming, he could have used the cap-and-trade issue as a way to say he believes in GW, but doesn't want to wreck the economy)

3) He was a member of what was (and still is) and unpopular party with an incredibly unpopular President of said party as well

4) He was against a very charismatic candidate

I would actually say it was Obama who made the mistake in his choice of Biden as VP. Biden could have destroyed the Obama campaign with his mouth, the media covered him up as best they could. I mean here you had the man whom Obama was choosing for his "experience" and he makes those huge gaffes? Imagine the devastation to the McCain campaign if Palin had made those gaffes She gaffed with Katie Couric to a degree (couldn't name what she read or which Supreme Court cases were most important to her), but then she managed to do okay enough in the debate against Biden to fix that.

If Obama had chosen Hillary as his VP, he would have wiped the floor with McCain easily, because that would have pulled the Hillary voters. Instead he chose Biden, so McCain picked Palin, which was designed to throw the Obama campaign off-balance, and it did. It also pulled a significant number of Hillary voters, in the end however, not enough to overtake Obama.

 

[Cyrus]

She She gaffed with Katie Couric to a degree? - a degree??

She was a blundering incoherent fool.

 

[Nebula815]

I didn't say she is book smart.

If you are reporting the news every day, do you think she is going to stumble like she did her first go at the election? Not in a million years. Does she get free media exposure, day in, day out - you betcha. That makes her very dangerous to tangle with. Americans have an attention span of five minutes. They will long since forget her blunders in four years.

Yes, she can make or break herself now. It is up to her to re-brand herself.

 

[Cyrus]

Yes, she can make or break herself now. It is up to her to re-brand herself.

Let's just say, I'm not root for her to do well - that's the polite version.

 

[Nebula815]

She She gaffed with Katie Couric to a degree? - a degree??

She was a blundering incoherent fool.

Incoherent yes, but she did not make any major gaffes to the degree Biden did. Biden made a gaffe with Couric where they literally would've had to pull Palin from the ticket if she'd done that. One other thing, do not judge intelligence by the person's coherence with the media. Look at Caroline Kennedy when they were interviewing her, when she was being considered for the New York Senate seat. She is a highly-educated woman, very book smart, but you never would have known it if you went solely by the interview.

 

[Cyrus]

Incoherent yes, but she did not make any major gaffes to the degree Biden did. Biden made a gaffe with Couric where they literally would've had to pull Palin from the ticket if she'd done that.

Which gaffe are you referring to? As far as I remember, she couldn't name a damn newspaper she read. It was pathetic, and that's an understatement.

 

[Nebula815]

Let's just say, I'm not root for her to do well - that's the polite version.

How come?

 

[Cyrus]

How come?

I think her views, politically, are BS. Her knowledge is next to nothing, and she says one thing and acts another. She needs to quietly disappear into an abyss.

 

[Nebula815]

Which gaffe are you referring to? As far as I remember, she couldn't name a damn newspaper she read. It was pathetic, and that's an understatement.

That is the specific Palin gaffe I mentioned, and yes it was pathetic. Go read my previous posts. She also couldn't name the specific Spreme Court cases most important to her. One of the first things I would have done if I was her was make sure i knew all the major SCOTUS cases, as that can be used as a gotcha question).

Biden's major gaffe was when he talked about FDR getting on the television in 1929 to calm the people down about the crash. Now I don't know what history he was reading, because:

1) FDR wasn't President in 1929
2) There was no television then

 

[Cyrus]

That is the specific Palin gaffe I mentioned, and yes it was pathetic. Go read my previous posts. She also couldn't name the specific Spreme Court cases most important to her. One of the first things I would have done if I was her was make sure i knew all the major SCOTUS cases, as that can be used as a gotcha question).

Biden's major gaffe was when he talked about FDR getting on the television in 1929 to calm the people down about the crash. Now I don't know what history he was reading, because:

1) FDR wasn't President in 1929
2) There was no television then

Wow, FRD was not president and there was no television. Wow......this matters.

Maybe if he was running for History professor. But not for VP. There is a big difference not knowing that, and not knowing relevant modern court cases or what newspaper you read.

 

[Nebula815]

Her knowledge is next to nothing,

Hence me saying she can either make or break herself now. She has a forum to fix this image of herself. I agree that her knowledge is too limited, she speaks too much in platitudes.

and she says one thing and acts another. She needs to quietly disappear into an abyss.

Depends. On being pro-life, she is very solid. On being fiscally conservative, she had the Bridge to Nowhere.

 

[Nebula815]

Wow, FRD was not president and there was no television. Wow......this matters.

Maybe if he was running for History professor. But not for VP. There is a big difference not knowing that, and not knowing relevant modern court cases or what newspaper you read.

By that standard, then it shouldn't be any problem whether Palin knew anything about SCOTUS cases or the history of anything. History is very important. And we expect our elected reprentatives at that level to know basic history.

 

[Cyrus]

By that standard, then it shouldn't be any problem whether Palin knew anything about SCOTUS cases or the history of anything. History is very important. And we expect our elected reprentatives at that level to know basic history.

No, that is incorrect. Please do not make a clownish extrapolation of my statement like this.

Knowing FDR was president in 1929 is irrelevant. Knowing that Americans did or did not have TV at the time - is a petty argument to make.

Not knowing important court cases that are going on TODAY, modern politics, or newspapers - is a very big deal. She is uncultured at best, ignorant at worse.

Your argument does not stand up.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

How is she a crackpot?

I provided one of her quotes.

Both sides have wacky bases if you are talking the hard social fundamentalist religious Right or the hard socialist ultra-Left

I wouldn't want a crackpot lefty either.

The fact is that I have a long history as a conservative voter - I am a registered Independent. Any suggestion that I am coming from the hard left is only valid from the extreme right, where everything is to the left.

 

[Nebula815]

No, that is incorrect. Please do not make a clownish extrapolation of my statement like this.

I didn't. You just said Biden wasn't running for History professor. You can't say knowledge of history isn't important for one candidate and is for the other.

 

[Nebula815]

Knowing FDR was president in 1929 is irrelevant.

Not at that level.

 

[Cyrus]

I didn't. You just said Biden wasn't running for History professor. You can't say knowledge of history isn't important for one candidate and is for the other.

.....

Would you also like to gripe about the color suit he wore? Honestly, this is pathetic.

 

[Nebula815]

Would you also like to gripe about the color suit he wore? Honestly, this is pathetic.

I disagree. But either way, I am not saying Palin didn't still gaffe big-time, so your overall point I agree with

 

[russ_watters]

The fact is that I have a long history as a conservative voter - I am a registered Independent. Any suggestion that I am coming from the hard left is only valid from the extreme right, where everything is to the left.

History describes where you were, not where you are. The fact that you consider Obama to be moderate despite the fact that his voting record was the most liberal of all senators is clear evidence you are not in touch with just how far to the left you really are.

Anyway, why you keep bringing that up is beyond me - are you trying to convince us or yourself?

Back to topic...

Obama did win enough true moderates to win the election, and he won them in three basic ways:
1. Not-Bush-ism
2. Palin is an idiot
3. Obamamania caused people to believe the obvious BS Obama was spewing during the election.

Why I have hope for a massive Republican victory in the upcoming midterm election and even a possible Obama defeat in 2012 is that #1 and #2 can't be in force then (unless the Republican powers-that-be let Palin run for something in 2012). And Obama's plummeting approval rating shows that #3 is losing steam. This is obvious, of course, since once in office, the "is he a liberal?" question is no longer a hypothetical, but a demonstrable reality. Simply put: as people wake up up from Obamamania and start seeing reality, they realize they were duped.

 

[BobG]

McCain had a few big negatives going for him:

1) He acted like he didn't understand anything about the economy (and he probably didn't, because earlier in the campaign he said he didn't understand the economy; why he never bothered to read any books on basic economics all those years in the Senate is beyond me, why he would admit such a thing is even stranger).

2) He never went after Obama on issues he could have, such as the tax issue, the cap-and-trade issue (as a strict politician, despite believing in global warming, he could have used the cap-and-trade issue as a way to say he believes in GW, but doesn't want to wreck the economy)

3) He was a member of what was (and still is) and unpopular party with an incredibly unpopular President of said party as well

4) He was against a very charismatic candidate

I would actually say it was Obama who made the mistake in his choice of Biden as VP. Biden could have destroyed the Obama campaign with his mouth, the media covered him up as best they could. I mean here you had the man whom Obama was choosing for his "experience" and he makes those huge gaffes? Imagine the devastation to the McCain campaign if Palin had made those gaffes She gaffed with Katie Couric to a degree (couldn't name what she read or which Supreme Court cases were most important to her), but then she managed to do okay enough in the debate against Biden to fix that.

If Obama had chosen Hillary as his VP, he would have wiped the floor with McCain easily, because that would have pulled the Hillary voters. Instead he chose Biden, so McCain picked Palin, which was designed to throw the Obama campaign off-balance, and it did. It also pulled a significant number of Hillary voters, in the end however, not enough to overtake Obama.

Items #1 and #3 are very true.

With the economy in the state it was in the fall of 2008, any candidate of the incumbent party is probably facing defeat. While #1 normally wouldn't be a deciding factor, being very, very strong on the economy was the only way a candidate could have overcome being from the party in power when the economy crashed. Realistically, I don't see how he could have possibly been strong enough on the economy to overcome what was happening last year.

The percentage of people that identified themselves as conservative, moderate, and liberal didn't change from the two previous elections. The number of people that identified themselves as Republicans plummeted in the 2008 election.

In that sense, selecting Palin was a stupid choice. She gave him one short-lived spike and that was it. Her approval ratings among people that would vote Republican no matter what stayed high. Her approval ratings among everyone else plummeted as people learned more about her. McCain needed a VP that might possibly stem the flow of all but the most hardline conservatives away from the Republican Party. Worse than not helping, pairing Palin with a candidate as old as McCain meant Palin probably hurt McCain more than you'd normally expect, since VP candidates usually have only a minor impact (if any).

I also disagree about Obama selecting Clinton as VP. Clinton would have shored up support among Clinton Democrats, but I don't think very many of them defected to the Republican Party just because she wasn't on the ticket. Turning the ticket into a way to get a semi-third term for Bill Clinton would have been a sure fire way make all of those moderate conservatives leaving the Republican Party to do an about face and go back to McCain.

I don't think either VP candidate actually helped their Presidential candidate. Obama at least avoided picking a VP that would hurt him, while McCain wasn't able to avoid that pitfall. In any event, who was VP for either candidate wasn't the deciding factor as items #1 and #3 pretty much ensured an Obama victory.

 

[BobG]

I didn't say she is book smart.

If you are reporting the news every day, do you think she is going to stumble like she did her first go at the election? Not in a million years. Does she get free media exposure, day in, day out - you betcha. That makes her very dangerous to tangle with. Americans have an attention span of five minutes. They will long since forget her blunders in four years.

I think the jury's out on her actual intelligence level.

The fact of the matter is that she wasn't stupid when she was running around Alaska. She fit in very well and did very well. She was a smart governor of Alaska.

She was definitely out of her league running for VP of the US. I think that says volumes about how different Alaska is from the lower 48 more than it says about Palin's intelligence. You would have done just as well picking the smartest guy sitting in the corner tavern and picking him to run for VP. It doesn't matter how intelligent he may be, he's going to quickly be exposed as a guy that's spent most of his life sitting in the corner tavern.

She might have done better running for Senator and spending a few years figuring out how Washington works. I'm not sure how this helps her, just as I'm not sure how Huckabee's stint on Fox helps him. I think both wind up with careers on Fox rather than viable Presidential candidates for the future.

Sheesh! Next thing you guys will be suggesting is so-so would be a great candidate because he knows that scene from that Jimmy Stewart movie by heart, or that so-so is a better candidate because you should hear him play the saxophone. Those sort of talents might supplement your political achievements, but surely it can't replace them.

 

[turbo]

I'm sure Palin will do well at FOX. They'll feed her softballs, record anything that comes out OK and erase all the gaffes. Gullible viewers will say to themselves "Wow! She's come a long way since the campaign."

 

[Alfi]

I'm sure Palin will do well at FOX. They'll feed her softballs, record anything that comes out OK and erase all the gaffes. Gullible viewers will say to themselves "Wow! She's come a long way since the campaign."

lol - erase all the gaffes

and If nothing is left over after that ... what then?

 

[cronxeh]

I really do hope she runs for Republican nomination in 2012. That is the only way she can finally be ripped apart during the debates, torn into thousand little incompetent pieces, and swept under the rug of Americana