# Palin Resigns as Gov? WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 3, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843 "2009-07-03T19:53:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 35
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/681 "2009-07-14T22:08:12Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I think she wrote it. It has grammatical errors and an odd cadence. I do think that she might have written it with the help of an outline prepared by someone else (“the chattering class”? Who the hell came up with that?)… “Grammatical errors”? Are you suggesting that this Hero of the GOP had an inadequate eduction in the English language? It must be the fault of all the liberals who are in charge of that pinko-commie State of Alaska! ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/682 "2009-07-14T22:19:58Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > “Grammatical errors”? Are you suggesting that this Hero of the GOP had an inadequate eduction in the English language? It must be the fault of all the liberals who are in charge of that pinko-commie State of Alaska! No, I think she probably went to school before liberals decided that because flunking kids made them feel bad about themselves, it would be better to pass them whether they’d learned anything or not. It’s more likely that the number of years since she was in school are simply taking their toll. Happens to all of us. I used to be a much better speller than I am now. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/683 "2009-07-14T22:24:05Z")
I’m not sure why anyone thinks Palin couldn’t have written that. She’s not illiterate. The editorial is pretty weak. The writing quality is average. The ‘analysis’ thin and not very interesting. It’s full of cliches and weird statements (“Westerners are _literally_ sitting on mountains of oil and gas”) that a proper editor would have rejected. It’s also peppered with phrases Palin uses, such as “hungry markets”. I think this comes straight from the pen of Sarah Palin. And that’s not a good thing. She writes like a B-grade blogger. On the other hand, so do a lot of politicians when they write op-eds. Not a lot of super-geniuses in the political class. I’m not sure what you guys were expecting if you think she couldn’t have written this. You’ve let the caricature go to your heads. This isn’t even the first such Op-Ed she’s written. Here’s one on [polar bears](http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/08/29/alaska-govenor-sarah-palins-op-ed-on-polar-bears-and-climate-change-in-the-nyt/). ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/684 "2009-07-14T22:24:28Z")
> [@leander](#): > > Is there anyone, supporter or hater, that actually thinks this woman wrote those words? Yes, actually. It reads more like a Palin stump speech, edited somewhat to remove the “You Betchas” and whatnot, than like an actual professionally written op-ed piece. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/685 "2009-07-14T22:30:32Z")
I think it’s Palin by way of an editor. It looks like somebody translated her normal prattle into a written piece. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/686 "2009-07-14T22:32:40Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > So are the noises she makes while sitting on the toilet. This post wins the 2009 SDMB award for “Claim least likely to be met with a demand for ‘Cite?’” ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/687 "2009-07-14T23:31:11Z")
For comparison, here are some other opinion pieces, ostensibly written by Palin, that were published in Alaskan newspapers: [http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/063009/ope\_355171524.shtml](http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/063009/ope_355171524.shtml) [http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/060209/ope\_348548656.shtml](http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/060209/ope_348548656.shtml) [http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/060209/ope\_348548656.shtml](http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/060209/ope_348548656.shtml) I think it is likely she wrote them, then they were heavily edited. Her speeches are peppered with her pet words, like “agenda”, and her unique syntax, like “progressing our state”, but you don’t see those Palin signatures in the opinion pieces. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/688 "2009-07-15T00:06:49Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > So she’s the Republican party’s William Jennings Bryan? Sorry, but he was much tougher and INFINITELY more erudite. Even in a world of political soundbites the ability to string more than three words into a conherent soundbite is valuable. WJB also lost three times. I’m fine with her imitating that. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/689 "2009-07-15T00:29:10Z")
> [@Oy](#): > > In Palin’s defense, I’ll point out that it’s a whole different thing, writing, from talking. You get to organize what you’re saying, and you aren’t trying to hammer a single “talking point” again and again. You aren’t trying to “fire people up.” Some portions of Obama’s speeches would read pretty silly too. Not really. She _is_ just as bad at writing. Cite: [http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/07/full-text-of-palins-resignation-speech.php](http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/07/full-text-of-palins-resignation-speech.php) ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/690 "2009-07-15T02:07:06Z")
On that note,[Peggy Noonan](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124716984620819351.html) has a good piece in the Wall St. Journal on Palin’s resignation. It’s not that she’s bad at writing; she’s bad at _thinking_. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/691 "2009-07-15T02:09:45Z")
She, like a friend of mine, seems to suffer from It Made Sense in my Head Syndrome. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/692 "2009-07-15T05:23:51Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > No, I think she probably went to school before liberals decided that because flunking kids made them feel bad about themselves, it would be better to pass them whether they’d learned anything or not. And here, I thought you had me on ignore! You really, really believe this nonsense that liberals ruined the school system for the entire nation because they wouldn’t flunk anybody, don’t you? :rolleyes: I wonder what I should tell the people I grew up with who _did_ sometimes flunk, not to mention the increasingly rigorous final testing required beyond course work to get the diploma, which some people had a rough time passing and couldn’t get their diplomas without it. Of course I think those tests were and are basically crap (although I passed them myself with no trouble), but they hardly seem like the result of liberal thinking. Anyway, Sarah Palin graduated from high school in 1982, in the midst of the heady gloriousness known as Reaganism. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/693 "2009-07-15T05:25:58Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I’m not sure why anyone thinks Palin couldn’t have written that. She’s not illiterate. The editorial is pretty weak. The writing quality is average. The ‘analysis’ thin and not very interesting. It’s full of cliches and weird statements (“Westerners are _literally_ sitting on mountains of oil and gas”) that a proper editor would have rejected. It’s also peppered with phrases Palin uses, such as “hungry markets”. For the record, I agree with everything Sam Stone just said. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/694 "2009-07-15T05:44:33Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > And here, I thought you had me on ignore! > > You really, really believe this nonsense that liberals ruined the school system for the entire nation because they wouldn’t flunk anybody, don’t you? Yes, after having read about it years ago in mainstream news programs and publications, and after having confirmed it with several teachers myself in the meantime, yeah, I believe it. Something else I believe too because I’ve read of and confirmed it with teachers is that in the wake of forced busing it was recognized that urban kids lacked the discipline and study experience needed to keep up with their white peers, and so the liberal reaction, typically, was to dumb down the curriculum so that all was ‘fair’. Now to me, being a conservative and all, I would think the better option would be to try to find ways to bring the urban kids up to speed so that they could join their peers and everyone could get the education they need instead of crippling everyone with a substandard education. But the liberal way always seems to be what’s easiest and requires the least effort with absolutely no regard for the consequences. As a matter of fact, that is one of my chief complaints about liberalism. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/695 "2009-07-15T06:44:09Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > As a matter of fact, that is one of my chief complaints about liberalism. You’re wrong about what liberal thinking says and does. Totally wrong. You are just running with some wild exaggerations and distortions, and knocking down little grotesque straw men. People don’t think what you say they think, and they don’t do what you say they do. It’d be one thing if you understood and had a principled disagreement. But you don’t. You’ve got nothing but a bizarre, unrecognizable caricature. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/696 "2009-07-15T13:14:13Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > It’s more likely that the number of years since she was in school are simply taking their toll. Happens to all of us. I used to be a much better speller than I am now. We’ll give you a break on spelling, **Starv**. After all, there have been so many new words invented since you were in school. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/697 "2009-07-15T13:38:56Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Yes, after having read about it years ago in mainstream news programs and publications, and after having confirmed it with several teachers myself in the meantime, yeah, I believe it. > > Something else I believe too because I’ve read of and confirmed it with teachers is that in the wake of forced busing it was recognized that urban kids lacked the discipline and study experience needed to keep up with their white peers, and so the liberal reaction, typically, was to dumb down the curriculum so that all was ‘fair’. > > Now to me, being a conservative and all, I would think the better option would be to try to find ways to bring the urban kids up to speed so that they could join their peers and everyone could get the education they need instead of crippling everyone with a substandard education. \*\*But the liberal way always seems to be what’s easiest and requires the least effort with absolutely no regard for the consequences. > \*\* > As a matter of fact, that is one of my chief complaints about liberalism. \ I might agree with you somewhat on the details but when you make ridiculous blanket statements like the one I bolded your credibility takes a plunge. I disagree with some of the liberal agenda and their proposed solutions to problems but I don’t believe they have “absolutely no regard for the consequences” any more than I believe all conservatives are religious nuts or racist assholes. Different schools have different issues and throwing money at it or lowering minimum standards is not a good solution IMO, however, a good education benefits society as well as the individual. It requires study and effort not this kind of offhand blaming BS. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/698 "2009-07-15T14:40:24Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > … urban kids lacked the discipline and study experience needed to keep up with their white peers… So, er, urban and white are antonyms? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/699 "2009-07-15T14:45:16Z")
By my count, there are at least three current, on-going threads that have been totally hijacked and derailed by **Starving Artist** ’s ridiculous anti-liberal schtick. I wonder if it would be possible to contain it to a single thread. Probably not. I blame the liberals. ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843/700 "2009-07-15T14:46:55Z")
> [@elelle](#): > > On that note,[Peggy Noonan](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124716984620819351.html) has a good piece in the Wall St. Journal on Palin’s resignation. It’s not that she’s bad at writing; she’s bad at _thinking_. Noonan’s not wrong about Palin’s intellectual shortcomings, but it is sort of hilarious for a woman who is pretty much the modern definition of “conservative elite” try to pin the blame for Palin’s existence on conservative elites. And then somehow manages to turn that into an argument for electing _more_ conservative elites! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843.md?page=34) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-resigns-as-gov-wtf/501843.md?page=36)