She didn't know what countries were in NAFTA ...This clip with Bill O'Reilly's excuses is even wackier. I'll give her a pass on the "Wilsonian exceptionalism." That's a bit subtle.
Adviser Scheunemann fed Bill Kristol a "stream of poison."
Operation Leper (h/t Pundit Nation)
And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. — Mark 1:40-41
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I wish I could have told you more at the time but all of it was put off the record until after the election.
"Was put." Great passive-voice journamalism there, Carl.
I don't buy it. While I have no desire to ever see Palin in the White House, I do not, for a single second, believe she could be this dumb.
I also find it hard to believe that, if you stopped and thought about it yourself, that you'd believe it too.
My morning spit-take was the fellow over at The Right View Wisconsin: Your Home For Off-Base Mambo-Jumbo, who said "WELL John, ask many people and they will make the mistake of Africa was a country, not a continent. After all we say, African-Americans, wouldn’t we correctly say African-North Americans or Kenya-Americans?"
TJ, perhaps you have a theory about why so many would eagerly repeat the notion that Obama thinks there are 57 states.
It does seem hard to believe, but why on Earth would Fox News, of all places, make this sort of stuff up? Spite?
My favorite part is the GOP lawyers headed for Alaska to inventory/audit the shopping spree.
why on Earth would Fox News, of all places, make this sort of stuff up?
It's not that Cameron made it up, but being the brownnosing nimrod he is it's likely that he took the anecdote on faith from his favorite "source" in the campaign.
I would guess there's a core truth to the story - that she demonstrated some level of ignorance (and, even more likely, indications that she doesn't give two shits about Africa and doesnt see why she should) during the debate prep - which soon grew into the notion that she doesn't know anything.
Foust, I guess I've been living in a cave because this is the first I've heard of an "Obama / 57 states" issue.
As for why it's being reported (on FOX even), I think it's because the McCain aides are starting to point blame as to why they lost. The fact of the matter is, they lost because McCain stopped being McCain. For being such a maverick, he certainly folded when he was told he couldn't have Lieberman. Fuck that, if he wanted Joe he should have picked Joe and told the Republican Party to either accept it, or go vote for Obama.
I think it's important to note the difference between stupidity and ignorance. I don't doubt that Sarah Palin is a human being of relatively high intelligence. She handled the Alaskan political system very well.
What's equally clear is that she just doesn't know that much about anything beyond her former sphere. She didn't seem to have had any interest in national, let alone international politics.
I like to think I'm a smart guy but I don't have anything approaching the necessary knowledge-base to be a surgeon and I wouldn't expect that much on-the-job training. The same could be said of Palin's qualifications for the Vice Presidency.
I must be reading more mainstream Republican blogs than you, TJ, because I saw it all the freaking time since May when he said it. Asking the Google (correctly, with quotes) for 'obama "57 states" ', it finds about 144,000 results. It even made Snopes. He was obviously tired, he says he has one state left to go plus Hawaii and Alaska, and yet the chuckleheads repeated the gaffe as literal truth over and over and over, as "proof" that Obama was dumb, or even more outlandishly, that this was a secret Islam reference because there are 57 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Foust, regardless ... what does it have to do with anything? As if stupid reporting justifies further stupid reporting? That dog just don't hunt in my world, does it hunt in yours?
i can understand why nicole wallace would be one of the "lepers." she has the same name as a recurring character on "law and order:c.i.",who happened to be a serial killer.
TJ, yes, these reports are ridiculous. As I point out, many believe them and are even willing to defend the "X is so dumb" conclusion. As I asked you at first, do you have any theory why so many people do believe these reports?
I don't find the reports especially implausible.
There's no reason to think Palin would have needed to know anything about NAFTA to win the Alaska governorship, and there's no sign that she goes out of her way to learn/remember things she doesn't have to know.
And, what? She was proud to be blessed by a guy who used to chase out witches in Africa, but it's inconceivable that she doesn't actually know a lot about Africa?
I'd stop well short of saying I believe these particular allegations, but I can't see much grounds to conclude that she couldn't be this dumb.
If we had been blessed with more than a few weeks of time to get to know Palin at the national and international level, and had a few more interviews and press conferences, maybe we'd be better judges of her levels of understanding.
Overall I don't think it's a bad thing for a reporter to start asking general-knowledge questions if a politician is reciting platitudes and streams of words that seem to indicate unused space between the ear muffs.
Personally, I like the wild theory that Stevens will step down and Palin will appoint herself to the seat.
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