# Dear God, thank you for not electing Sarah Palin **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 6, 2008, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399 "2008-11-06T03:01:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/41 "2008-11-06T15:55:34Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I wasn’t dismissive because she was a woman or from a rural state. I suppose I was on one side of the religion issue – but, fuck, that’s true for about 95% of Republicans. I take part of that back. I was a little dismissive because she’s from a rural state. But I have a frame of reference – I’m from a rural state. ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/42 "2008-11-06T16:01:50Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > And \*Central America \* is where the red states are. I think that’s _Real America_. Actually, scratch that. Real America is the conservative part of swing states. ---
**Author:** ![Peanut\_Gallery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@Peanut\_Gallery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanut_Gallery)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/43 "2008-11-06T16:11:00Z")
I hate the lady, but I can’t even believe the Africa thing is true. Something I read mentioned confusion over South Africa being a distinct country, and I think that has to have been the origin of “Doesn’t know Africa is a continent”. She may have thought that when she heard people talking about ‘South Africa’, it was being used like ‘Sub-Saharan Africa’. That is still some powerful stupid … enough to bar somebody from high office IMO… but it isn’t quite the unrealistic extreme of not knowing what Africa is. I can’t believe I just apologized for Palin. Somebody please punch me in the face now. Gotta say I’m loving all the dirt coming out now. It feels like the weekend after she was picked all over again. Giddy. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/44 "2008-11-06T16:14:41Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > What did she think that thing along the highway between Alaska and Seattle was, anyways? Disneyland? Hunting grounds. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/45 "2008-11-06T16:22:21Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > \On the plus side, if she really is that dumb, there’s no way in hell she’ll get anywhere near the WH in the future. You mean she is not even allowed to take the guided tour ? ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/46 "2008-11-06T16:43:49Z")
No. Stupid is contagious. ---
**Author:** ![Dolukhanova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c68b51/32.png) [@Dolukhanova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dolukhanova)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/47 "2008-11-06T16:53:59Z")
Yes, and Obama thinks there are 57 states. I heard him say it myself. Frankly, I think that anyone who actually believes that Palin actually thought that Africa was a country is pretty darn stupid. Or, more charitably, is sufficiently blinded by emotions/partisan fervor to have turned off the brain where Palin is concerned, even though capable of rational thought on other topics. ---
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/48 "2008-11-06T16:54:50Z")
Let me get in on this prayer circle. Dear God, Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. Amen. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/49 "2008-11-06T16:56:39Z")
> [@Dolukhanova](#): > > Or, more charitably, is sufficiently blinded by emotions/partisan fervor to have turned off the brain where Palin is concerned, even though capable of rational thought on other topics. Which explains why this is being reported by FOX News, who are known for their liberal partisan fervor? Look, I find it highly unlikely that anybody could be that stupid either, if not for two things: one, she _acted_ that stupid in the Couric interview; two, the Republicans were desperately hiding her from the media. If she were brilliant, the first wouldn’t have happened and the second wouldn’t have been necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/50 "2008-11-06T17:32:12Z")
> [@Dolukhanova](#): > > Yes, and Obama thinks there are 57 states. I heard him say it myself. wasn’t that how many primary contests there are? 50 states plus dc, pr, guam, samoa, virigin islands and overseas? > **[2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries | Delegate system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_States)_presidential_primaries,_2008#Delegate_system)** > > Delegates are the people who decided the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. Delegates from fifty US states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico had a single vote each, while delegates from American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, Guam and Democrats Abroad, as well as the states of Florida and Michigan, which contravened the schedule, had half a vote each. Thus, the total number of delegates was slightly higher than the total number of available delegate votes (4,049). This is n In... yup. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/51 "2008-11-06T17:53:29Z")
> [@Peanut\_Gallery](#): > > Something I read mentioned confusion over South Africa being a distinct country, and I think that has to have been the origin of “Doesn’t know Africa is a continent”. Bullshit. Was she asleep during the Apartheid era? I mean, c’mon. She’s in her 40s. And a politician. It was quite a big story… ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/52 "2008-11-06T18:01:29Z")
Boy, Rush is pissed today. Tee hee. ---
**Author:** ![Dolukhanova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c68b51/32.png) [@Dolukhanova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dolukhanova)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/53 "2008-11-06T18:17:31Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > Which explains why this is being reported by FOX News, who are known for their liberal partisan fervor? > > Look, I find it highly unlikely that anybody could be that stupid either, if not for two things: one, she _acted_ that stupid in the Couric interview; two, the Republicans were desperately hiding her from the media. If she were brilliant, the first wouldn’t have happened and the second wouldn’t have been necessary. Do you understand the distinction between reporting that an anonymous source in the campaign says that she believed this and reporting as a fact that she believed this? Do you understand that the claim that she could not possibly be that ignorant is not the same as a claim that she is brilliant? > [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by Dolukhanova > Yes, and Obama thinks there are 57 states. I heard him say it myself. > > wasn’t that how many primary contests there are? 50 states plus dc, pr, guam, samoa, virigin islands and overseas? > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democra...elegate\_system](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democra...elegate_system) > > yup. Yes. That was my point. Although Obama said words that would reveal remarkable ignorance if taken at face value (he said nothing about primaries; he specifically said he had travelled to 57 states), no rational person takes them at face value. We understand that he misspoke (as we understood, repeatedly, that Biden had misspoken yet again). Similarly, a rational person not blinded by emotional partisan bias would recognize that it is much more likely that Palin misspoke than that she is genuinely unaware that Africa is a continent, rather than a country. ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/54 "2008-11-06T18:19:35Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > God, Bill O defended her valiantly though, didn’t he? > > Can you imagine if Joe Biden didn’t know Africa was a continent? > I shudder to think the level of hypocrisy had that been the case. His defense of her was laughable. When he said she’d been under a tremendous amount of pressure, I said “Oh, poor baby”. Even if only half of it is true, it’s still pretty bad. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/55 "2008-11-06T18:27:31Z")
> [@Dolukhanova](#): > > We understand that he misspoke (as we understood, repeatedly, that Biden had misspoken yet again). Similarly, a rational person not blinded by emotional partisan bias would recognize that it is much more likely that Palin misspoke than that she is genuinely unaware that Africa is a continent, rather than a country. If she says 15 dumbass things, why must someone be blinded by emotional partisan bias to believe that she said one more? Like when she said she had lived the minority life due to being married to Todd? Couldn’t name two Supreme Court decisions? Or any magazines or newspapers she had ever read? Or that Putin rearing his head and flying incursions into Alaskan airspace qualified as foreign policy experience for her? She’s a ninny. The only question on the table is how big of a ninny she is. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/56 "2008-11-06T18:28:08Z")
So she thought when someone said “South Africa” they just meant the southern part of Africa, and not the country called, specifically, “South Africa”? I wonder if she thinks her party won both parts of Dakota. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/57 "2008-11-06T18:31:41Z")
> [@Dolukhanova](#): > > Do you understand the distinction between reporting that an anonymous source in the campaign says that she believed this and reporting as a fact that she believed this? Of course I understand it. I also understand that FOX News is trying to do damage control. People mis-speak all time; such gaffes often make the news. However, the odd slip of the tongue is rarely fodder for serious campaigning. Obama “57 States” didn’t prosecute McCain “My Fellow Prisoners” for slips of the tongue, and vice-versa. But importantly, _slips of the tongue don’t cause people to hide from interviewers._ Joe Biden was famous for his verbal gaffes but **nobody** called him uninformed. The combined facts a) Palin was concealed from the media, and b) her disastrous Couric interview, make c) Palin is an uninformed buffoon much much more likely. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/58 "2008-11-06T18:38:51Z")
> [@Dolukhanova](#): > > Similarly, a rational person not blinded by emotional partisan bias would recognize that it is much more likely that Palin misspoke than that she is genuinely unaware that Africa is a continent, rather than a country. Uhm, are you really saying the the people **inside** the McCain/Palin team are blinded by emotional partisan bias? Against Palin? Seriously? Because you do realize that that’s the source for this interpretation of her remarks, right? ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/59 "2008-11-06T18:48:07Z")
I totally knew shit like this would come out. Her stupidity and ignorance were so patently obvious. I can only imagine the contortions the (rapidly shrinking) brain trust of the Republican party had to go through in order to defend her. I don’t know a single well-educated Republican who found her appealing. Even my diehard Republican boyfriend (who really likes McCain) couldn’t stand to vote for that ticket solely because of her. That McCain didn’t step up to the plate and choose Romney does not speak well of him (though I generally think McCain’s an okay dude). All that said, I find it kind of sad that the GOP is now throwing her under the bus for what is really a gigantic problem within the party itself-the inability to attract intellectual conservative-moderates a la Peggy Noonan etc… Actually willing to run for office rather than work as political commentators. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399/60 "2008-11-06T18:50:03Z")
> [@Great\_Dave](#): > > wasn’t that how many primary contests there are? 50 states plus dc, pr, guam, samoa, virigin islands and overseas? > [2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_States)_presidential_primaries,_2008#Delegate_system) > > yup. Right, but that wasn’t the gaffe Obama made, btw. He said “57 states” when he meant to say “47 states”, which is clear from the context of his speech. It was just a slip of the tongue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-god-thank-you-for-not-electing-sarah-palin/471399.md?page=4)