# Palin's still got it. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 3, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719 "2009-01-03T18:28:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/41 "2009-01-04T01:40:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Sarah Palin is not an “idiot.” The average IQ is about 100. I suspect but can’t prove that SP has an IQ at least that high, maybe higher. I know many college graduates who are around that level. Many, perhaps most, of them, would and could make the gaffes and have the blind spots SP has. I certainly know a number of Ph.D.'s who could readily be tripped up with some very simple foreign policy questions, for instance, who’s the President of Russia. You’d be amazed by how incurious even fairly smart people can be. I do assure you that I know doctors and lawyers who in the course of a year do not read a single book unrelated to work. Not a few of them, either. But Sarah Palin isn’t a doctor or a lawyer. She’s a politician who was running for national office. A Vice Presidential candidate not knowing who’s the President of Russia is the equivalent of a doctor who doesn’t know what a pancreas is or a lawyer who doesn’t know who Antonin Scalia is. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2009, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/42 "2009-01-04T01:44:35Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > Picking Palin was another. None of them worked. In retrospect, they could have been predicted not to work, but hindsight’s 20/20. Oh, come off it. Many people predicted that they wouldn’t work. I thought that while Palin solidified some of his wavering conservative support, she would drive away independents, and lo and behold, that’s pretty much what happened in several states that swung from Bush to Obama. McCain should have been less concerned about winning Alabama and more focused on getting Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/43 "2009-01-04T01:47:41Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But Sarah Palin isn’t a doctor or a lawyer. She’s a politician who was running for national office. A Vice Presidential candidate not knowing who’s the President of Russia is the equivalent of a doctor who doesn’t know what a pancreas is or a lawyer who doesn’t know who Antonin Scalia is. Believe you me, I know that and agree. She is probably just about a good enough (smart enough) politician to run Alaska, maybe. By no means do I think that she had the type or amount of intelligence, knowledge, experience for the different job for which she was put forward. That’s McCain’s gross error. Not picking someone who is objectively stupid (she’s probably not), but picking someone with no specialized qualifications for a position that, as you note, clearly requires some. If the original quote had been “political novice,” “politically ignorant,” or even “foreign and domestic policy idiot,” and not just “idiot,” I’d have not quibbled. Maybe the poster took those as implicit, if so, I stand corrected. I’m in no way suggesting McCain shouldn’t be judged harshly. She is who she is. He’s the true idiot who thought the Presidency could be taken so lightly that a spunky gal who never quite got around to reading the newspapers could probably just slide on by as leader of a country of 300 million people, maybe throw a bake sale or two and clear up the national debt while she’s at it. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/44 "2009-01-04T01:51:36Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > Oh, come off it. Many people predicted that they wouldn’t work. And many people didn’t so predict – I remember listening to more than one Democrat on the night of her first speech who said, crap, she’s lent a lot of charisma and charm to a campaign otherwise utterly lacking in them, and while she’s a total hayseed, she might pose a bit of a problem for us. Again, let none of this be construed as my thinking, now or at the time, that McCain’s actions were anything but stupid and desperate. In the event, it almost doesn’t matter – the margin of victory for Obama was so big, and the economy driving this so bad, that a brilliant campaign by McCain could likely not have ended up in any other result. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/45 "2009-01-04T02:16:02Z")
Forgive me if somebody already posted this link from the ever-reliable _Onion_, but it makes me laugh, in a kind of scared way: [Area Woman Becomes Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate](http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/area_woman_becomes). ---
**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:** [January 4, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/46 "2009-01-04T02:31:35Z")
> [@Jettboy](#): > > Still got _what_? An insane sense of her own worth? Syphillis? Could be either, I suppose. In my mind, “it” in this case means an unfailing and unerring ability to say exactly the wrong thing in any given venue, an unfailing knack for not preparing for what she is going to say to an audience, and an unfailing lack of knowledge about not only the world (which I could forgive somewhat), but also about her own state. That people this shallow and stupid rise to high office scares the crap outa me. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/47 "2009-01-04T02:58:09Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > Whenever Palin talks, it just turns into a jumble of random words in my head. She might as well be saying, “Rhubarb cancer face elaborate corvette spindle head” and it would make as much sense to me as whatever she thinks she’s actually saying. Boy howdy, you betcha! And we’re the greatest country in the world, also. Yup. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/48 "2009-01-04T07:15:51Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > McCain probably thought that her sex appeal would overshadow much of her stupidity, and that if they carefully orchestrated the campaign, people wouldn’t notice what a drooling idiot she was. McCain probably didn’t know anything about how smart or dumb she is. She wasn’t vetted. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/49 "2009-01-04T07:27:22Z")
Pity. If she were vetted, that would have been a good time to have her spayed. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/50 "2009-01-04T07:32:05Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > McCain probably didn’t know anything about how smart or dumb she is. She wasn’t vetted. She was talked about as a possible VP pick for quite some time before she ever got the call. There’s a rather famous clip of a reporter asking her if she were offered the nomination, would she take it, and Palin responding that she had no idea of what the VP did. I’m gonna say that anyone who saw that clip and _didn’t_ immediately think, “She’s a frickin moron!” is probably _also_ a moron. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/51 "2009-01-04T07:59:52Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But Sarah Palin isn’t a doctor or a lawyer. She’s a politician who was running for national office. A Vice Presidential candidate not knowing who’s the President of Russia is the equivalent of a doctor who doesn’t know what a pancreas is or a lawyer who doesn’t know who Antonin Scalia is. Yes, of course, that was what I meant when I said she was an “idiot”. I referred to her level of ignorance, her seemingly complete inability to come up with a sensible answer, even when the same question is asked to her a second time , her inability to understand what is going to reflect poorly on her, and so on. IOW, her complete unfitness and unpreparedness as a politician. Even a large village-level politician wouldn’t make such a fool of himself when asked about the papers he reads or about Russia, even if he doesn’t read any paper and doesn’t know the first thing about Russia. I admit she might be “average” and possibly better educated than someone picked at random in the population, but as a politician, let alone as a potential president, she was totally unfit and beyond the pale. Saying “complete idiot” was an hyperbole. Thanks to \*\* Huerta88 [/quote] for his response, though. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/52 "2009-01-04T08:09:48Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > and possibly better educated than someone picked at random in the population Though…not able to come up with _the name_ of a single paper??? Seriously??? ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/53 "2009-01-04T10:40:12Z")
No one really believes she couldn’t name a single paper. What she couldn’t do was supply the name of a single paper that, in her paranoid mind, wouldn’t carry sharp negative connotations. An Alaska paper? Too provincial. The Times or Post? Too alienating to her base. USA Today? Too superficial. The WSJ? Too eastern establishment elite. And on and on. So she froze, like a moose in the headlights. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/54 "2009-01-04T11:14:38Z")
Huerta88, I enjoyed your analysis. Very thoughtful and spot on, in my opinion. I also agree with Yookeroo. McCain’s tactic was a Hail Mary. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/55 "2009-01-04T13:49:21Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > By the way… There has been a debate between the candidates for vice-presidency. Why didn’t Biden call her on stuff like that, and contrarily to journalists, _insist_ on getting a straight answer about her foreign policy credentials and stances and the relevance of being able to see Russia from Alaska? Or did he? Because if he did he would come off looking like the guy that beat up a girl on the playground who was half his size and a third his strength. Easy to do but it would get to the point where the sympathy vote would work in her favor. Better to let it slide as the election results proved. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/56 "2009-01-04T14:39:36Z")
She won that debate far and skwar. She said she was gonna git 'er done, and by golly she got 'er did. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/57 "2009-01-04T16:15:20Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > Rhubarb cancer face elaborate corvette spindle head. Tango foxtrot whisky. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/58 "2009-01-04T16:35:50Z")
In other words, > [@](#): > > That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we’re ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh — it’s got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade, we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing, but 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that. Fey quoted that verbatim on SNL. It hardly needed satirization. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/59 "2009-01-04T16:45:02Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Pity. If she were vetted, that would have been a good time to have her spayed. We wouldn’t want her to trip and fall… Scratch that. Reverse it. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719/60 "2009-01-04T16:53:34Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > No one really believes she couldn’t name a single paper. What she couldn’t do was supply the name of a single paper that, in her paranoid mind, wouldn’t carry sharp negative connotations. An Alaska paper? Too provincial. The Times or Post? Too alienating to her base. USA Today? Too superficial. The WSJ? Too eastern establishment elite. And on and on. So she froze, like a moose in the headlights. Which is even worse than naming a paper or mag that would get her slammed. Pols are expected to be able to think quickly on their feet. I’m not sure she can tie her shoes. I would have been scornful of People Magazine, openly contemptuous of The Enquirer, but frankly, I’d rather have heard either of them then nothing at all. (and I’m not convinced that she reads at all–Bush is proud that he doesn’t, why not her?). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palins-still-got-it/479719.md?page=4)