# Palin's it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someone's-misspeaking hypocrisy. Oh, and she is a liar, too. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 27, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043 "2010-11-27T03:31:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/61 "2010-11-29T23:08:13Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I used to think the nearly year-long and cumbersome American primary system was ridiculous but since it will almost certainly keep a flash-in-the-pan like Palin out of office (i.e. if she tries for the nomination, she’ll have to compete with members of her own party who are just as ambitious as her, but way smarter), I have to admit it’s not all bad. Smart has nothing to do with it. The electorate doesn’t like smart people, they detest them. You think someone is going to come out ahead in a debate because they are smarter than Palin? Like Reagan, Palin is a master at the snappy one-liner. “There you go again”. What the fuck did that mean? He wasn’t refuting the point that Carter was making, just cleverly diverting it. Palin will say things like “how’s that hopey changey thing going?” and the electorate will eat it up. In some ways, being smart isn’t as important as being able to frame ideas of national importance into phrases that people can understand. If Reagan wanted to have gays serve openly in the military he would have had some clever phrase like “Men and women who put their lives in danger to protect our freedoms should not have theirs taken away because of our fears”. That sucks, but Reagan would have come up with some way of saying it so that it would be un-patriotic to continue DADT. ---
**Author:** ![carm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@carm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carm)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/62 "2010-11-29T23:48:39Z")
Am I the only one who thinks Bristol and Willow Palin don’t sound mean, bigoted or petty, and just sound exactly like a normal pair of teenage girls? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/63 "2010-11-30T00:04:02Z")
> [@sh1bu1](#): > > Smart has nothing to do with it. The electorate doesn’t like smart people, they detest them. You think someone is going to come out ahead in a debate because they are smarter than Palin? Well, yes, but not because they’re sufficiently smart to impress the electorate, but that they’re smart enough to plan on how to take out Palin, but playing up her considerable weaknesses. And, frankly, if that’s not enough and Palin wins anyway on a tide of willful populist ignorance, then your country is pretty fucked and the best you can hope for is that Congress won’t play along, she’ll be an ineffective one-term executive and the powers of the President that have been disturbingly expanding over the last few decades will get cut back. > [@](#): > > Like Reagan, Palin is a master at the snappy one-liner. If that’s true, then the standards of mastery have really slid these past 30 years, like getting a karate black belt from a vending machine. > [@](#): > > If Reagan wanted to have gays serve openly in the military he would have had some clever phrase like “Men and women who put their lives in danger to protect our freedoms should not have theirs taken away because of our fears”. How does this grab you: A Palin presidency will not be a sign that American has been taken by the right, but that it was casually given away by the middle. ---
**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:** [November 30, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/64 "2010-11-30T00:07:48Z")
> [@sh1bu1](#): > > Oh crap, did they move Alaska next to Washington when I wasn’t looking? No, but evidently you weren’t looking when the “lower 48” was being quite acceptably described as “the continental United States.” ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/65 "2010-11-30T00:11:08Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > If that’s true, then the standards of mastery have really slid these past 30 years, like getting a karate black belt from a vending machine. “Death Panels” may have killed effective UHC all by itself. Instead of focusing on real issues the proponents had to go around refuting that stupid lie, and people still believe it. > [@](#): > > How does this grab you: A Palin presidency will not be a sign that American has been taken by the right, but that it was casually given away by the middle. I agree with that. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/66 "2010-11-30T00:14:53Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > No, but evidently you weren’t looking when the “lower 48” was being quite acceptably described as “the continental United States.” So there was a big earthquake and Alaska fell off the continent? Now that we have lost the meaning of “continental” what do we have to replace it? BTW, the “lower 48” only makes sense if you are in Alaska and referring to the contiguous United States. Unless that earthquake moved Hawaii too. ---
**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:** [November 30, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/67 "2010-11-30T00:17:53Z")
> [@sh1bu1](#): > > So there was a big earthquake and Alaska fell off the continent? Please try to keep in mind that we’re discussing language and usage; we are not discussing geography and plate tectonics. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/68 "2010-11-30T00:21:36Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > No, but evidently you weren’t looking when the “lower 48” was being quite acceptably described as “the continental United States.” And BTW, this is Wiki’s take: > [@](#): > > Continental United States is a term that is used to describe part of the United States of America. It describes the 48 states, Alaska, and Washington, D.C.. The term Continental United States does not include Hawaii which is a group of islands, but Alaska, which is separated from the other states by Canada, is part of the north american continent and thus necessarily part of the “Continental United States”. Some references erroneously mistake “continental” with “contiguous” when referring to the United States with or without Alaska, respectively ---
**Author:** ![padabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/919ad9/32.png) [@padabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/padabe)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/69 "2010-11-30T00:23:14Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I used to think the nearly year-long and cumbersome American primary system was ridiculous but since it will almost certainly keep a flash-in-the-pan like Palin out of office (i.e. if she tries for the nomination, she’ll have to compete with members of her own party who are just as ambitious as her, but way smarter), I have to admit it’s not all bad. Two years, and still climbing–that’s a helluva long flash. They were talking about the Republican primaries on the Chris Matthews show (I think), and the consensus seemed to be that she’d do okay in the debates. The reasoning was that Gingrich (or whomever) would be too concerned about alienating her base–he would probably handle her with kid gloves. Sounds distressingly spot-on. If the GOP is serious about keeping her away from the nomination, they need to take her out at the knees, soon. But I’m not convinced they are, and I don’t think they will. I heard a poll had Obama beating Palin 48-40%, head to head. Make of that what you will. ---
**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:** [November 30, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/70 "2010-11-30T00:24:19Z")
> [@wiki](#): > > Some references _ **erroneously mistake** _ “continental” with “contiguous” when referring to the United States with or without Alaska, respectively Huh. Prescriptivism and redundancy in the same two words. How 'bout that. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/71 "2010-11-30T00:41:53Z")
> [@padabe](#): > > I heard a poll had Obama beating Palin 48-40%, head to head. Make of that what you will. That’s an amazing number, can you imagine thinking it could be that close a year ago? 4 out of 10 voters say they are willing to put the country’s fate in the hands of a person who quit a Govenership and apparently is uninformed about pretty much anything other than how to gut a bear. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/72 "2010-11-30T00:51:55Z")
> [@sh1bu1](#): > > That’s an amazing number, can you imagine thinking it could be that close a year ago? 4 out of 10 voters say they are willing to put the country’s fate in the hands of a person who quit a Govenership and apparently is uninformed about pretty much anything other than how to gut a bear. Wanna bet that she has no fucking clue how to clean an animal? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/73 "2010-11-30T00:56:15Z")
> [@padabe](#): > > Two years, and still climbing–that’s a helluva long flash. Well, flash is easy to maintain when nobody tries to start a campfire with it. Palin abandoning her governorship was a smart choice since she can maintain her fame with fluff like _Sarah Palin’s Alaska_ and avoid the hard, boring, unglamorous work of being a professional politician. I figure if she ever tries to get back into the professional political game (i.e. putting her flash to use) rivals in the Republican Party will be eager to snuff her because they want to be President, too. Her best bet is to merely _hint_ at a 2012 run, make a splash in Iowa and/or New Hampshire, pick out and back the rival whose political base most closely matches her own (so that if he or she gets elected, she can claim at least partial credit) and return to the lecture/personal appearance circuit describing herself as a kingmaker. I just hope she doesn’t ever get a cushy appointment as a reward, like Ambassador to Canada. ---
**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:** [November 30, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/74 "2010-11-30T00:57:54Z")
Why not? They can either take back Bieber or put up with her. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/75 "2010-11-30T01:13:04Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Well, flash is easy to maintain when nobody tries to start a campfire with it. Palin abandoning her governorship was a smart choice since she can maintain her fame with fluff like _Sarah Palin’s Alaska_ and avoid the hard, boring, unglamorous work of being a professional politician. I figure if she ever tries to get back into the professional political game (i.e. putting her flash to use) rivals in the Republican Party will be eager to snuff her because they want to be President, too. > > Her best bet is to merely _hint_ at a 2012 run, make a splash in Iowa and/or New Hampshire, pick out and back the rival whose political base most closely matches her own (so that if he or she gets elected, she can claim at least partial credit) and return to the lecture/personal appearance circuit describing herself as a kingmaker. > > I just hope she doesn’t ever get a cushy appointment as a reward, like Ambassador to Canada. I can see her as Ambassador to Russia (from my house). ---
**Author:** ![padabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/919ad9/32.png) [@padabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/padabe)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/76 "2010-11-30T01:42:34Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Her best bet is to merely _hint_ at a 2012 run, make a splash in Iowa and/or New Hampshire, pick out and back the rival whose political base most closely matches her own (so that if he or she gets elected, she can claim at least partial credit) and return to the lecture/personal appearance circuit describing herself as a kingmaker. She may do just that, if she’s solely motivated by fame and money. But I suspect she’s been bitten by the power bug, as well. Still kind of cringe-inducing, though, to imagine someone making a (debatably) credible run at the nomination _strictly for the book deals and speaking engagements_. Going back to the “flash in the pan thing” and other republican contenders: the funny thing is, she’s beaten them at their own game. I mean, she literally spouts bumper sticker slogans. She’s distilled it into an art form. Can you imagine Gingrich and Romney being the ones trying ineffectively to tease out nuanced policy points during the debates? I wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I realize this comes across like I think the right is dumb–I don’t. I just think they’re better at soundbites, and that soundbites play too big of a role, it seems sometimes. Hell, I’m not even really a lefty. There’s nothing I’d love more than a smart, legitimately conservative candidate facing a smart liberal. Been a while since we’ve done that, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/77 "2010-11-30T03:51:57Z")
> [@padabe](#): > > Still kind of cringe-inducing, though, to imagine someone making a (debatably) credible run at the nomination _strictly for the book deals and speaking engagements_. Well, it’s not entirely unprecedented for someone to enter an election just to get or maintain or recapture fame. A hypothetical Palin 2012 run is just unusual in its scale. And if elected, she would be the President America obviously deserves. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/78 "2010-11-30T04:26:16Z")
> [@velvetjones](#): > > I wish you were wrong about that but I’m afraid you are exactly correct. My mother always said “the masses are asses”. Well, your mother’s an elitists. She deserves to be punished by having to live in a country ruled by someone who represents the lowest common denominator. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/79 "2010-11-30T05:38:54Z")
> [@carm](#): > > Am I the only one who thinks Bristol and Willow Palin don’t sound mean, bigoted or petty, and just sound exactly like a normal pair of teenage girls? I used to be a teenage girl. I’m pretty fucking sure I wouldn’t have behaved like that, and neither would most of my friends. While there certainly are poorly behaved kids, in my experience, the cruelest age group is around age 11-13. By the time you’re sixteen, you should know better than that. At age 16, you’re a junior in high school, you’re thinking of college, you’re responsible enough to be able to drive. If your parents have raised you right, you don’t go around calling people fat faggots at all, let alone in public. And if you do, your parents should punish you, not defend you, because that’s terrible and immature behavior. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043/80 "2010-11-30T08:08:17Z")
> [@carm](#): > > Am I the only one who thinks Bristol and Willow Palin don’t sound mean, bigoted or petty, and just sound exactly like a normal pair of teenage girls? A pair of teenage girls raised in an atmosphere where intolerance and hateful language (though perhaps not outright slurs) are a part of the regular discourse, well, to quote their mother, you betcha. A pair of teenage girls raised in a home where they’re taught Christian ideals like “do unto others” and actually held to that standard, like I was (raised in the same denomination of the Heath family, Sarah’s parents, etc.) absofreakinlutely not. And that’s what’s notable. Sarah claims to be an uberChristian, and has the unflagging support of the evangelicals for standing up against “godless” ideas like equality for minorities and women having autonomy over their own bodies. But that falls apart not in the broad behavior of Bristol getting pregnant (I recall in our evangelical megachurch that _visibly_ happened about once a year, who knows how many girls terminated pregnancies) or Willow getting busted at a high school house party that got out of control, but in their attitudes, in their language, not just the kids, but Sarah herself. Much as a I loathe him and his holier than thou thing, compare and contrast evangelical Tim Huckabee with Sarah Palin. The same religiously influenced prejudices are there, but in Huckabee you don’t have the coarseness, you don’t have the selfishness, you don’t have reporters being called bastards (even when they’ve said fairly bastardly things about him) and so on. Sarah, to get all down into the evangelical parlance, talks the talk – sometimes – but she’s not walking the walk, and somehow, she’s getting a pass for it because she talks about lovin’ God and lovin’ this great nation of ours as if that’s the heart of the gospel. Someone’s gonna have to explain that one to me, but my former friends in the evangelical set are waaaay too toxic in discussions of politics for me to ask any of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-it-is-unfair-to-nitpick-someones-misspeaking-hypocrisy-oh-and-she-is-a-liar-too/562043.md?page=5)