# Palin/Rice Innuendo **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 17, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572 "2011-09-17T00:10:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572/42 "2011-09-23T23:19:14Z")
Does the word “abstinence” mean something different to you than to the rest of us? ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572/43 "2011-09-23T23:41:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Does the word “abstinence” mean something different to you than to the rest of us? Not at all. At least I don’t think so. You might have some nutty ideas. Can you point to Mrs Palin saying anything about consenting adults having sex? I’ve never read it, if so. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572/44 "2011-09-24T19:28:19Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Sarah lost her protection against going back in time,when she accused Obama of palling around with terrorists, when he was on a council with Ayers who was a radical 50 years earlier. Obama was a kid when Ayers was a weatherman. Palin was 23 when she went on a sex spree with a basketball team. I know white guys get incredibly paranoid when it comes to white women having sex with black guys, but having sex with one guy(assuming it happened) doesn’t equal “a sex spree with a basketball team.” ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572/45 "2011-09-24T19:32:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Out of curiosity, is there a reason you capitalized “Black” but not “white”? A good number of publications aimed at (sigh) African-Americans do that. Ebony & Essence magazines, for instance, as well as the Memphis-area newspaper Tri-State Defender. I think the point of it is to treat “Blackness” as being parallel to, say, Frenchness or Italianness or whatnot. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572/46 "2011-09-24T20:09:49Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > I think race is a factor in this “story” (scare quotes intended). First, I think everyone knew that her and Todd were getting it on before they were married, but that could be handwaived away as being consistent with her (professed? implied?) moral values that sex is meant for a husband and wife. So, they started a bit early but they knew they were the ones for each other or some such thing. > > Now, if you throw in that she slept with a basketball player (white or black) for a one night stand while reporting then that takes her sexual habits from professed into hypocrisy. She didn’t know Rice, wasn’t in love with him, didn’t see a future, etc., it was just casual sex. This is something that cannot be reconciled with her current views on abstinence. > > I think race comes into it because, again, there is that Magic Johnson/Wilt Chamberlain image left over from basketball and it makes Sarah Palin look like a groupie whore. And of course for the true, true diehard racists, it makes Sarah Palin a nigger’s groupie whore. > > In other words, a significant non-zero portion of the population looks down upon a white girl for having sex with a black guy. Those people are likely to be older and more conservative: a demographic that would most likely support Palin, and therefore be turned off by this revelation. (Note the converse is not true. If you support Palin, it doesn’t make you a racist.) > > Anyways, no credence should be given to this book without any further evidence. Politics is a nasty game, and allegations should not be taken as true without something else to go on. I used to be a social conservative. I wouldn’t have cared about the Black thing. I would have definitely cared about having sex out of wedlock, especially if she doesn’t apologize for it. In fact, if she was even on my radar, I’d still care about it, because I honestly, through experience, do not buy that it’s so dadblasted hard to not have sex. (And I know people 10 times prettier than her that have done it, so it’s not just about me being unattractive or male.) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572/47 "2011-09-24T20:19:33Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > Not at all. At least I don’t think so. You might have some nutty ideas. Can you point to Mrs Palin saying anything about consenting adults having sex? I’ve never read it, if so. Abstinence-only education teaches that sex requires more than just consenting adults. It requires a committed relationship with someone else who has also remained abstinent (or at least knows they are not infected). All of the reports refer to her having sex one time, not in a committed relationship. The only confounding factor in whether she is a hypocrite is the time differential, and, of course, what I mentioned before of not hiding past transgressions while asserting other young people ought to be able to keep it in their pants. ETA: And, of course, whether the statement is true. I’ve been assuming it is for argument’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572/48 "2011-09-25T16:34:37Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Abstinence-only education teaches that sex requires more than just consenting adults. It requires a committed relationship with someone else who has also remained abstinent (or at least knows they are not infected). All of the reports refer to her having sex one time, not in a committed relationship. It can. When has Sarah Palin ever said that unmarried adults shouldn’t have sex? I’ve never heard her say that. What school curriculum a state uses is not necessarily a reflection of the governor’s attitudes on the subject. If it were, every governor whose state included a civics course in high school would be as much of a hypocrite as Palin. Also, at the same time that Palin was getting her jungle fever on, Michelle Bachmann was a lawyer for the IRS. Now she thinks that you should keep every dollar that you earn. Does that make her a hypocrite? No it makes her an idiot, or at least someone who doesn’t think through what her policies actually mean. If you can’t come up with a reason not to vote for either on of them without resorting to “hypocrisy,” then, well, I don’t know what to say to you. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572/49 "2011-09-25T17:19:56Z")
Upon further reflection, it occurs to me that Palin’s supporters won’t really care if she screwed a few blacks here and there as long as she promises to screw them all when she’s elected. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572/50 "2011-09-25T18:00:41Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > Upon further reflection, it occurs to me that Palin’s supporters won’t really care if she screwed a few blacks here and there as long as she promises to screw them all when she’s elected. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572/51 "2011-09-25T18:34:25Z")
Palin has spoken many times in favor of abstinence-only education. One would hope that this means that she herself favors abstinence. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572/52 "2011-09-25T18:58:27Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Rice has confirmed it. He said that they even chatted from time to time for a while afterwards. No, he has not. He has confirmed meeting her, and has declined to deny it. Of course, I’d probably do the same thing if someone claimed I’d banged some hot celebrity … I do find it interesting that many people who thought Clinton’s affairs were nobody’s business, find allegations of what an ex-governor did 20 years ago to be a national concern. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-rice-innuendo/596572.md?page=2)