# Sarah Palin Knew That The USA's Credit Rating Was Going To Be Downgraded; What Else Does She Know? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 10, 2011, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265 "2011-08-10T23:24:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![otternell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecc23a/32.png) [@otternell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/otternell)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/21 "2011-08-11T15:48:57Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > If only. Guess who’s coming to our Iowa State Fair ('it’s a great state fair") this Friday? Just ahead of the big Ames straw poll on Saturday? > > I can hardly wait. :rolleyes: Although her presence at the fair just means one addition to the carny folk, I guess. She’ll fit right in with the freak show that is East Sider night! If she’s going to be there, I’m not really sure I want to go. But I won’t miss my annual corn dog. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/22 "2011-08-11T15:59:00Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I am more interested in Timothy Geithner (US Sec. of the Treasury and admitted tax cheat). He said (last week) that there was “no chance” of the US credit rating being downgraded. > Maybe Tim knew something we didn’t. > but of course, S&P is not the world’s most rel;iable rating agency-they gave Lehman Bothers a clean bill of health-one week before it went bankrupt. Ralph, you may want to check your notes more carefully. Geithner did say [that](http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/156747-geithner-no-risk-that-us-loses-its-top-credit-rating), but he said it \* last April \*. Before the Tea Partiers in the House decided to play iceberg to our economy’s Titanic. While I think it was entirely foreseeable that those jackasses would do what they did, you can’t really blame Geithner for thinking that, given that the debt limit raise has never been a big deal in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/23 "2011-08-11T16:04:38Z")
Did she know her movie would bomb? Anyway, I thought it was all about Bachmann these days. Palin is like acid-washed jeans and jelly bracelets – fun in a retro sort of way but nothing to take seriously. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/24 "2011-08-11T16:13:21Z")
This Onion [article](http://www.theonion.com/articles/bristol-palin-interview-accidentally-reveals-mothe,21089/) made me laugh out loud. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/25 "2011-08-11T16:26:05Z")
Like anyone who claims a successful prophecy after the fact, I would want to see the specific predictions she made, combined with evidence that she didn’t also make other predictions that failed. Since I doubt she knows the difference between debentures and dentures, I suspect this quest will be fruitless. Palin is idiotic. However, the last question asked by the OP is not a model of insightful analysis either. Even if Palin were the most brilliant econ guru since Keynes and the intellectual love child of Ludwig von Mises and Thorstein Veblen, she could legitimately not be aware of her daughter’s proclivities. The two sets of information are dramatically different. Information about the economy and the debt is freely available, and she has only to analyze it. Her daughter presumably sought, as most misbehaving teens do, to hide her behavior. Did the OP know this and deliberately ignore it, or was he unaware of this rather basic fact of human existence? ---
**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:** [August 11, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/26 "2011-08-11T16:40:35Z")
Levy was basically living at the house and sleeping in Bristol’s bedroom when Bristol got pregnant, so Sarah had to have known they were boning unless she’s even dumber than we thought. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/27 "2011-08-11T16:50:47Z")
Perhaps the Palin’s and Johnson’s practice [bundling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundling_(tradition))? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/28 "2011-08-11T16:55:53Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Levy was basically living at the house and sleeping in Bristol’s bedroom when Bristol got pregnant, so Sarah had to have known they were boning unless she’s even dumber than we thought. How was she to know that Bristol liked to get blackout, falling-down drunk and have lots and lots of unprotected sex? ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/29 "2011-08-11T17:05:43Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > How was she to know that Bristol liked to get blackout, falling-down drunk and have lots and lots of unprotected sex? Hell, doesn’t everyone like those things? I mean, those are not necessarily BAD things, are they? Maybe Palin the Elder was thinking, “Bristol, baby, you GO, girl.” ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/30 "2011-08-11T17:11:25Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > How was she to know that Bristol liked to get blackout, falling-down drunk and have lots and lots of unprotected sex? Facebook? ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/31 "2011-08-11T17:19:53Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Will nobody rid us of this turbulent MILF? _Picks up sword and mounts horse_ ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/32 "2011-08-11T17:42:24Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Levy was basically living at the house and sleeping in Bristol’s bedroom when Bristol got pregnant, so Sarah had to have known they were boning unless she’s even dumber than we thought. People can be blind to what is going in front of them when it comes to family & friends. Now I have to go take another shower because I just defended Sarah.:p:D ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/33 "2011-08-11T18:34:40Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > Hell, doesn’t everyone like those things? I mean, those are not necessarily BAD things, are they? Maybe Palin the Elder was thinking, “Bristol, baby, you GO, girl.” No, not everyone likes those things. And the question was not if it were possible she was thinking “Bristol, baby, you GO, girl.” The question was: how are we certain she knew about them? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/34 "2011-08-11T18:35:50Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > How was she to know that Bristol liked to get blackout, falling-down drunk and have lots and lots of unprotected sex? > [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Facebook? Did Bristol’s Facebook page reveal those things? Did Sarah know enough about Facebook to see them? ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/35 "2011-08-11T18:38:56Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Today Sarah Palin told the world that she tried to warn the world about the coming downgrade, and how she saw it coming from a mile away, saying “One doesn’t need a Harvard Law degree” to have foreseen the impending credit crisis. > > She talked of learning all about micro and macro economics at the University of Idaho, and wonders why Pres. Obama obviously didn’t get clued-in while he was studying at Columbia and Harvard… So what? Hell, I’m not an economist and yet I knew we were going to take it in the shorts on our credit rating. What’s your point? ---
**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:** [August 11, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/36 "2011-08-11T18:45:50Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > How was she to know that Bristol liked to get blackout, falling-down drunk and have lots and lots of unprotected sex? Because she was her mother. Palin is opposed to protected sex, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/37 "2011-08-11T18:47:48Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Because she was her mother. I thought you didn’t believe in telepathy. In fairness, the narrow question of “telepathy only between mother and daughter” was never asked. ---
**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:** [August 11, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/38 "2011-08-11T18:55:46Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Did Bristol’s Facebook page reveal those things? Did Sarah know enough about Facebook to see them? From what I remember, there were pictures of Bristol and and her bother (Kodiak or Sleet or whatever his name is) drinking and doing bong hits and stuff at a party. Pedantically speaking, no one is ever going to be able to prove that Sarah absolutely knew her daughter was engaging in some risky behaviors (and I would say it was behavior no worse than typical for upscale American teenagers), but come on. If she didn’t at least know enough to tell her daughter to use some birth control, then she wasn’t a very attentive or observant parent. ---
**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:** [August 11, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/39 "2011-08-11T19:01:04Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I thought you didn’t believe in telepathy. In fairness, the narrow question of “telepathy only between mother and daughter” was never asked. No telepathy required, just basic patenting. This isn’t a court of law. We don’t have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Sarah knew everything her kids were up to (and she probably didn’t know _everything_), but at a minimum, as a seated juror in the court of public opinion, I find by a preponderance of the evidence that she at least _should_ have known her daughter was drinking and was sexually active. If she couldn’t at least pick up on that much, then she wasn’t paying attention as a parent. ---
**Author:** ![AndyLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@AndyLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyLee)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265/40 "2011-08-11T23:25:07Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Levy was basically living at the house and sleeping in Bristol’s bedroom when Bristol got pregnant, so Sarah had to have known they were boning unless she’s even dumber than we thought. Just because someone is clueless in one area it doesn’t follow that they are clueless in every area. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-knew-that-the-usas-credit-rating-was-going-to-be-downgraded-what-else-does-she-know/592265.md?page=3)