# Help Me Demonstrate Sarah Palin Is a Moron **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 26, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551 "2010-08-26T16:42:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/141 "2010-08-28T23:41:02Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Bonus points if you can contrast with extemporaneous speeches from Obama (i.e., when he’s not reading off a teleprompter). Also: I’m an Obama supporter, but has there _ever_ been a time when what you describe has occurred? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/142 "2010-08-29T03:48:19Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > > [@Kyla](#): > > > > [From here](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5782924&page=2) > > > > I don’t think it’s that stupid or bad of a point, actually. She’s just saying that Russia is close to Alaska and it’s important to maintain good relations with a neighboring country. I don’t think she’s saying that the proximity gives her any special knowledge of Russia, although it looks like Charlie Gibson tried to get her to say something to that effect. > > The fact that Russia is close to Alaska was not an answer to the question. Saying it’s important to maintain good relations with Russia is not an answer to the question. Correct. Even if you generously allow that she wasn’t trying for the inference that proximity gave her insight, when Gibson said it, she should have immediately demurred. “Charlie, my point isn’t that being 3 miles away from a Russian island gives me any special insight to the thinking in Moscow. My point is that stability in Russia is very important to the world, the United States, and most especially to the state that’s only 3 miles away from a Russian island. No, my actual foreign policy insight comes from [insert valid source here].” If she’d said that, maybe she’d be relaxing on the grounds of the Naval Observatory right now. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/143 "2010-08-29T05:10:38Z")
Who was that maroon who was asked who his favorite _political_ philosopher was, and answered “Jesus Christ”? Can’t quite remember, and when I try to remember, it hurts so much I stop trying… ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/144 "2010-08-29T05:55:59Z")
Sarah Palin did expand and defend the socialist Alaskan Oil Fund, and we all know that socialists are morons, right?😉 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/145 "2010-08-29T06:58:45Z")
First time I heard about Alaska citizens getting checks like that, I thought somebody ought to point out to them the history of Texas, want to see what happens when the oil industry and the state government get real cozy. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/146 "2010-08-29T13:59:26Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > First time I heard about Alaska citizens getting checks like that, I thought somebody ought to point out to them the history of Texas, want to see what happens when the oil industry and the state government get real cozy. No need to point it out, just look at how many Alaska politicians (Republicans, all) went to prison in the last couple of years, all because of selling out to VECO. It was a huge scandal up there. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/147 "2010-08-29T18:28:43Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > > [@SteveG1](#): > > > > Even when she and they ARE morons and idiots? > > Well…yeah. What do you suggest? Shall we pretend that these cretins are making sense and might be right? Shall we nod our heads and respect (or have to pretend we respect) any horse shit that falls out of their mouths? A lot of them play the “you have to respect my opinion” card. Bullshit. I don’t think so. There’s no reason to coddle stupid people. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/148 "2010-08-30T14:55:32Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > But maybe if we weren’t all so quick to fling insults, we wouldn’t have such a fucked up political environment. Ah yes, it’s the \*left’s \*fault that the right ignores reason and evidence, because we made the mistake of \*calling \*them morons. :dubious: > [@CanvasShoes](#): > > She didn’t “not know what reading material” she herself read, she sniped out an answer based on Kouric’s snarky question. If someone asked you a question which implied that you didn’t read, would you innocently spout your top 5? … If someone asked me what I was reading, I wouldn’t have to hem and haw about it. As for periodicals, I could tell you that I used to read the NYT regularly, and I currently irregularly follow the Milwaukee _Journal Sentinel_, the Milwaukee _Business Journal_, and the _Wall Street Journal_, with a bit of \*Fortune \*and _Business Week_. For books, I’m in the middle of _Look to Windward_ by Iain M. Banks, Volume 2 of \*The Gulag Archipelago \*by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, _Generation A_ by Douglas Coupland, \*Anna Karenina \*by Leo Tolstoy, as well as a variety of other books that I pick up and put down. See how easy that was? If you actually read things, you don’t have any problem naming them. > [@Kyla](#): > > Hey, **luci** , can we not use misogynistic language, please? If you have a problem with it, report a post and ask them to move this thread back to a more appropriate forum. I started it in GD, and one of the mods there decided it was a “rant thread,” despite the fact that it’s a discussion of evidence. The more people we have requesting a move to GQ, IMHO, or back to GD, the more likely it is to happen. > [@MTCicero](#): > > Isn’t that just like a little lady to do that? Yeah, my uterus just crawls up and strangles my brain. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/149 "2010-08-30T16:13:29Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > > [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > > > Palin’s VP answer is about as right as Cliff Clavin’s Final Jeopardy answer, while it is technically right, it is most assuredly not the answer that is needed in the situation. When the student asks what does the Vice-president do, that is not the kind of answer that she should be giving and would almost certainly not get you much credit on a Civics exam. > > > > No matter, there are plenty of other ways to refudiate her intelligence. > > OK, what’s the answer needed in that situation? OK the question wasn’t what would you do as Vice President, the question was What does the Vice President do. So.. “Well, of course the Vice President is there to take over in case anything happens to the President, so first and foremost the Vice President works closely with the President on many of his duties and also helps advise the President. The Vice President also represents the US at many diplomatic functions because the President is often too busy to do it all himself. Secondly, the Vice President gets to preside over the Senate, which means he or she gets to cast tie breaking votes. Finally the Vice President has many speicifc duties, like did you know the Vice President is the Chairman of the Board of NASA?” ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/150 "2010-08-30T17:44:05Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > The “refudiate” thing, but not (mainly) for the initial error of conflating “refute” and “repudiate”. When she tried to correct herself, she incorrectly chose “refute”, instead of the correct “repudiate”. > > If you were derided nationally for bad English usage, wouldn’t you crack open a dictionary and make sure you got the correction right? IMHO, that’s far worse than the original mistake of conflating the two words. No, the worst part was, instead of just saying, “Oops, brain fart” she then tries to dfender her own ignorance by comparing her use of the language with Shakespeare. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/151 "2010-08-30T17:57:08Z")
I’m all for portmanteaus and other wordplay, but at least I’m aware of when I’m using a word that isn’t a word. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/152 "2010-08-30T18:05:55Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > > [@Revtim](#): > > > > The “refudiate” thing, but not (mainly) for the initial error of conflating “refute” and “repudiate”. When she tried to correct herself, she incorrectly chose “refute”, instead of the correct “repudiate”. > > > > If you were derided nationally for bad English usage, wouldn’t you crack open a dictionary and make sure you got the correction right? IMHO, that’s far worse than the original mistake of conflating the two words. > > No, the worst part was, instead of just saying, “Oops, brain fart” she then tries to dfender her own ignorance by comparing her use of the language with Shakespeare. > > -Joe The brain is a funny thing, and is actually separate from the ‘mind’. The brain has many functions and it’s quite chaotic in there. A portion of the mind is dedicated to making sense of all the confusion, which leads to conversation, among other things. A typical short discussion would go: “Why are you leaving?” “Because I have a doctor’s appointment.” When the mind becomes panicked because the actions are not easily explained, it results in non-sequiturs and nonsense. “Why are you leaving?” “There’s going to be an earthquake.” People who seem to often lie about things are often just the victims of an immature development of this portion of the mind. It’s the only logical explanation as to why Palin couldn’t come up with a reasonable response to questions like “What magazines do you read?” and other questions where she babbled incoherent answers. She panicked, and the mind had her blurt out the first thing that came into her head. Frankly, I’m surprised that she didn’t say something completely inane like “Jabberwocky, Katie!!” Now that she’s become more relaxed with media events, she could probably field softball questions like that without panicking. Then again, stress in those situations is difficult to control once you’ve made a fool of yourself. Hence the crib notes on her hand. ---
**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:** [August 30, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/153 "2010-08-30T19:20:15Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The brain is a funny thing, and is actually separate from the ‘mind’. The brain has many functions and it’s quite chaotic in there. A portion of the mind is dedicated to making sense of all the confusion, which leads to conversation, among other things. A typical short discussion would go: > > “Why are you leaving?” > “Because I have a doctor’s appointment.” > > When the mind becomes panicked because the actions are not easily explained, it results in non-sequiturs and nonsense. > > “Why are you leaving?” > “There’s going to be an earthquake.” > > People who seem to often lie about things are often just the victims of an immature development of this portion of the mind. It’s the only logical explanation as to why Palin couldn’t come up with a reasonable response to questions like “What magazines do you read?” and other questions where she babbled incoherent answers. She panicked, and the mind had her blurt out the first thing that came into her head. Frankly, I’m surprised that she didn’t say something completely inane like “Jabberwocky, Katie!!” > > Now that she’s become more relaxed with media events, she could probably field softball questions like that without panicking. Then again, stress in those situations is difficult to control once you’ve made a fool of yourself. Hence the crib notes on her hand. To a small degree I agree that much of her inability to answer questions was due to panic and fear, but that excuse just simply isn’t good enough for me (not that I think you were trying to excuse her, just _explain_ her). In particular, I was completely gobsmacked that she couldn’t name a single Supreme Court decision she disagreed with outside of Roe v Wade. Frankly, I think a lot of people probably couldn’t do that, because, let’s be honest, most people just don’t follow Supreme Court rulings that closely, or have forgotten some of the more controversial ones that happened decades before they were even alive. But Sarah Palin had no good excuse not to bring up [_Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker_](http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-219.pdf), which had just been decided barely a month earlier. For crying out loud, it involved the state she was the current Governor of, not receiving the punitive award the lower courts had decided, to help compensate her state for the enormous losses they suffered when a drunk Captain turned over control of the Valdez to 2 men who hadn’t even had 6 hours of rest (as mandated), so they put the tanker on friggin’ auto-pilot, running it into a reef and spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Alaska Sound. And it’s not as if she didn’t know about it, or hadn’t already [been asked to comment on it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H-26MOxH34), expressing her dissatisfaction! But you know what? Even if one wanted to give her a “pass” for that one based on nerves, how the hell does one then explain how, given plenty of time to reflect, Ms. Palin ends up calling that decision a “victory”, and going even further to **take personal credit for it** , in her ghost-written memoir, Going Rogue? \* “It took years for Alaska to achieve victory. As governor, I directed our attorney general to write an amicus brief in the case, and, thanks to Alaska’s able attorneys arguing in front of the highest court in the land, in 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the people,” she writes in her book. “Finally, Alaskans could recover some of their losses.” But Palin’s claims of victory for the plaintiffs and of playing a role in achieving that victory are highly distorted, said the chief attorney for the approximately 32,000 plaintiffs that sued Exxon over damages from the worst oil-tanker spill in U.S. waters. “That is the most cockamamie bullshit,” said Dave Oesting of Anchorage, lead plaintiff attorney in the private litigants’ civil case against Exxon and its successor, Exxon Mobil Corp. “She didn’t have a damn thing to do with it, and she didn’t know what it was about.”\* [http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2009/11/18/palins-exxon-valdez-account-draws-guffaws/](http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2009/11/18/palins-exxon-valdez-account-draws-guffaws/) She’s not only a moron, she’s a damn self-serving liar on top of it. It hardly gets any more despicable than that. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/154 "2010-08-30T21:18:56Z")
Sure it does. She’s a Republican. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/155 "2010-08-30T21:48:56Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > > [@Chefguy](#): > > > > The brain is a funny thing, and is actually separate from the ‘mind’. The brain has many functions and it’s quite chaotic in there. A portion of the mind is dedicated to making sense of all the confusion, which leads to conversation, among other things. A typical short discussion would go: > > > > “Why are you leaving?” > > “Because I have a doctor’s appointment.” > > > > When the mind becomes panicked because the actions are not easily explained, it results in non-sequiturs and nonsense. > > > > “Why are you leaving?” > > “There’s going to be an earthquake.” > > > > People who seem to often lie about things are often just the victims of an immature development of this portion of the mind. It’s the only logical explanation as to why Palin couldn’t come up with a reasonable response to questions like “What magazines do you read?” and other questions where she babbled incoherent answers. She panicked, and the mind had her blurt out the first thing that came into her head. Frankly, I’m surprised that she didn’t say something completely inane like “Jabberwocky, Katie!!” > > > > Now that she’s become more relaxed with media events, she could probably field softball questions like that without panicking. Then again, stress in those situations is difficult to control once you’ve made a fool of yourself. Hence the crib notes on her hand. > > To a small degree I agree that much of her inability to answer questions was due to panic and fear, but that excuse just simply isn’t good enough for me (not that I think you were trying to excuse her, just _explain_ her). > > In particular, I was completely gobsmacked that she couldn’t name a single Supreme Court decision she disagreed with outside of Roe v Wade. Frankly, I think a lot of people probably couldn’t do that, because, let’s be honest, most people just don’t follow Supreme Court rulings that closely, or have forgotten some of the more controversial ones that happened decades before they were even alive. > > But Sarah Palin had no good excuse not to bring up [_Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker_](http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-219.pdf), which had just been decided barely a month earlier. For crying out loud, it involved the state she was the current Governor of, not receiving the punitive award the lower courts had decided, to help compensate her state for the enormous losses they suffered when a drunk Captain turned over control of the Valdez to 2 men who hadn’t even had 6 hours of rest (as mandated), so they put the tanker on friggin’ auto-pilot, running it into a reef and spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Alaska Sound. > > And it’s not as if she didn’t know about it, or hadn’t already [been asked to comment on it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H-26MOxH34), expressing her dissatisfaction! > > But you know what? Even if one wanted to give her a “pass” for that one based on nerves, how the hell does one then explain how, given plenty of time to reflect, Ms. Palin ends up calling that decision a “victory”, and going even further to **take personal credit for it** , in her ghost-written memoir, Going Rogue? > \* > “It took years for Alaska to achieve victory. As governor, I directed our attorney general to write an amicus brief in the case, and, thanks to Alaska’s able attorneys arguing in front of the highest court in the land, in 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the people,” she writes in her book. “Finally, Alaskans could recover some of their losses.” > > But Palin’s claims of victory for the plaintiffs and of playing a role in achieving that victory are highly distorted, said the chief attorney for the approximately 32,000 plaintiffs that sued Exxon over damages from the worst oil-tanker spill in U.S. waters. > > “That is the most cockamamie bullshit,” said Dave Oesting of Anchorage, lead plaintiff attorney in the private litigants’ civil case against Exxon and its successor, Exxon Mobil Corp. “She didn’t have a damn thing to do with it, and she didn’t know what it was about.”\* > [http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2009/11/18/palins-exxon-valdez-account-draws-guffaws/](http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2009/11/18/palins-exxon-valdez-account-draws-guffaws/) > > She’s not only a moron, she’s a damn self-serving liar on top of it. It hardly gets any more despicable than that. Believe me, I wouldn’t even attempt to detract from her stupidity and vapidness. Most of what she has said comes from a deep misunderstanding and ignorance of reality, and a complete lack of intellectual curiosity. If McCain had never come along, she would have faded back into the rural ignorance that defines Wasilla, Alaska once her attempt at governance had ended. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551/156 "2010-09-01T20:44:11Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > - > > “That is the most cockamamie bullshit,” said Dave Oesting of Anchorage, lead plaintiff attorney in the private litigants’ civil case against Exxon and its successor, Exxon Mobil Corp. “She didn’t have a damn thing to do with it, and she didn’t know what it was about.”\* > [http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2009/11/18/palins-exxon-valdez-account-draws-guffaws/](http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2009/11/18/palins-exxon-valdez-account-draws-guffaws/) > > She’s not only a moron, she’s a damn self-serving liar on top of it. It hardly gets any more despicable than that. Oesting sure can’t put it any clearer than that, but what the hell does anyone expect from her? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-demonstrate-sarah-palin-is-a-moron/551551.md?page=7)