Sarah Palin - Seriously?

Great Debates
1

Is this the future voice of the country? I don’t want to get into a Republican/Democrat debate. I want to discuss her, period. I want your opinions. If you want to debate, start another thread in GD. If you want to flame her, go to the pit. This is a sincere opinion thread. I am genuinely curious of what you think the appeal is.

She ***SOUNDS ***like an idiot.

I think there is a very simple reason for this. She IS an idiot.

However, she’s still very popular.

Is the reason she appeals to so many is because our country is full of morons?

I can’t believe she gets any time on any network to speak, and yet she does. Continually. I don’t care what your politics are. If this woman is the future of the leadership of this country, we are in more trouble than we can all possibly imagine. I know she is identified as a Republican, but that’s not the concern for me. The idea that she is actually considered a viable candidate is.

When McCain picked her, I was stunned. I was even more stunned to hear people speak about what a great choice it was. Now, with the anger in the country about Obama’s less than stellar first year, she is becoming a voice of the Tea Party, a group of angry Republicans and Democrats (many of whom voted for Obama in 2008). Whether this group will be able to maintain its steam for the next presidential election remains to be seen. Perhaps it will be absorbed into the republican party, or those that are democrats will go back to the democratic party for 2012.

What am I missing? Is she popular because she appeals to the bulk of the American voters, who can relate to a person that speaks like she struggled to get her GED? This is the best we can do as a country?

If I am looking at Obama vs. Palin in 2012, I may be looking to emigrate.

<sigh>

2

Seriously?

No.

Palin and serious does not compute.

3

Moving thread from IMHO to Great Debates.

4

You mean like this:

She’s stretching her 15 minutes as much as possible by tapping into emotions. which makes her a popular speaker and symbol. But polls continue to show her as a non-viable presidential candidate, even among Republicans. She also seem to generate this odd fascination from the left, reflected by the multitude of threads about here on this MB.

5

She may have struggled to get her GED because she’s such a crappy cheater.

Long clip, better clip.

6

Here’s a great photo of her hand: http://www.google.com/gwt/x?ei=6sZuS4iSJpGNoAeP7b3PDQ&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com/stefan-sirucek/did-palin-use-crib-notes_b_452458.html&wsc=gh&wsi=3bcf03d25ab3ea1e

Her cheat sheet read Energy Budget (with a line through it), something I can’t make out) Taxes and Lift Amerircan Spirits.

Seriously, she can’t keep these things in mind? And she actually writes notes on her hand? Can anyone argue for her as presidential material?

7

That’s the new PalmPrompter®

8

I believe very few of the tea baggers voted for Obama in 2008. If the tea bag movement splits the right and opens the floodgates for a Democratic tsunami in 2012, more power to them.

9

Tea Baggers will soon start writing “Energy Budget” on their hands as a show of solidarity

10

I don’t find anything particularly strange about that. She’s highly photogenic, she delivers consumer eyeballs, and her statements provide useful (and profitable) pre-packaged controversy for the news outlets to attract more consumer eyeballs. In any event, would any major news network other than FOX, the Jedi masters of prepackaged controversy, have actually hired her as a commentator? While we’re talking, has she actually, as yet, done much commentary for FOX?

Oh, come on. Why didn’t you emigrate when faced with the choice of Obama vs. McCain (/Palin)?

11

People believe what they want to believe. I think the people that support her like to believe that a sassy, attractive(-ish), “common sense” just plain folks type from a rural, outside-the-beltway kind of place can put those pointy headed, intellectual, elitist, insider, smarty pantses in thier place. Her supporters are postponing thinking about how effective she would be in reality. Or if they are far enough into the fantasy, they are certain that she will be the solver of all our big problems because that would be so great!

12

Ahem, not only are outlines (which is really all that is) very commonly used by some of the most intelligent and accomplished people out there, but Obama uses teleprompters when speaking to elementary school kids.

Can we at least try to keep the hypocrisy around here on a level subtle enough that one has to at least think a little in order to spot it?

13

Well, she’s smart enough to know that people eat up her brand of red meat.
Which is why I doubt she’ll run for president. I’ve read excerpts of her book, and she seems incredibly naive about how the campaign trail works. I can’t imagine she’d want to subject herself to a year of being under the microscope competing for a job that pays 400 grand a year and carries a shitload of responsibility, when she could easily sit back and collect a seven figure paycheck for making the occasional Fox News appearance.
I’m sure she’ll throw out some hints to tease her supporters and keep interest in herself alive, but I doubt she’ll jump into the fray.

14

I have been public speaking for years. Lately as a politician. And I use such notes. Generally on index cards but occasionally on my hand and such. I make a joke out of it in case someone notices.

My notes are similar to hers. Just one of two words per theme I wish to hit. It’s so I don’t miss one. To say that makes her dumb is foolish.

Now I think she’s a terrible candidate and I oppose most of her positions, it’s true. But claiming she’s stupid when she’s clearly not is hazardous.

15

I believe she consulted her “notes” during the Q&A portion of the broadcast.

16

I believe in a recent thread on this subject, it was established that this did not in fact happen. Please acknowledge this and retract your claim.

BTW, I don’t have any problem with Palin having prompting notes handy, whether on her hands or elsewhere. AFAIK, lots of public speakers use similar prompts.

17

There was a 60 minutes story about her not long ago where her handlers said she didn’t understand the basics of US or world history. So they had to explain WW1, WW2, the Korean war and various other events.

They said that she still didn’t understand why Korea was 2 countries. This is a problem because if McCain had won, died and she became president, she’d be the one making final decisions about North Korea (a country she doesn’t even understand exists).

Anyway. There is a website called 538 that does a good job of predicting political winners using polling and math manipulations. They predicted the results of the 2008 election in the senate & presidential races (including a state by state rundown). They predicted Obama would win with about 370 electoral votes and that the democrats would have 59-60 senate seats. And they predicted which states would vote which way in the senate & electoral college with high accuracy.

They showed Obama ahead pretty much all year until Palin was picked. After Palin was picked, for about a month afterwards McCain was set to win. Picking Palin pushed states like Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio and a few others away from Obama & into the McCain camp.

So it is worse than you think. After picking Palin was the only time McCain had any realistic chance of winning according to 538. However after news stories about her lack of intelligence came out, the shift went back to Obama. Plus the economic collapse pushed people away from McCain too.

I really don’t know. I think we are a nation of people who either don’t care about competence, or don’t pay enough attention to notice it isn’t there. At the very least enough voters fit that bill to sway elections (maybe 40-70%).

Long term, I have no idea what this means for the country. Its not that Palin is secretly a dullard. It is that she is openly a dullard and way too many people don’t even care. People don’t seem to care that someone who isn’t capable of grasping economics or policy shouldn’t be in charge of the economy & military. Its not a democrat or republican thing, it is a competence issue. If she were a democrat I’d be just as upset, probably more because I identify with the democratic party.

I really don’t know. Say what you want about the policies of people like Nixon, Cheney, Carter, Obama, Clinton, etc. These are all extremely intelligent people who could at least understand the issues. Palin cannot. The fact that so many people didn’t care in the slightest is bothersome.

18

I just can’t take her as a serious political figure.

She’s too devisive. That plays well to the inner circle but you can’t get elected by just the inner circle. Throwing raw meat to ultra-conservatives is fine if you want to get a job on Fox news but you need some moderates to get 51% of the vote.

She can’t take it. Constantly talking about how the liberals are picking on her plays well for gaining sympathy. But it’s going to make conservatives see her as a mascot not a leader. A woman running for office better project an image like Hillary Clinton or Margaret Thatcher - somebody who’s tough enough to kick ass.

She has a reputation for not being intelligent. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not - the reputation is there. Now she’s like Dan Quayle - she’s always going to have to be defending her intelligence and that’ll put her a step behind other candidates whose intelligence will be assumed as a given.

She’s a woman. That shouldn’t matter but for some people it still does - and a lot of the people for whom it matters are in her ideological base. That means she’s always going to be vulnerable to some other conservative who has a penis swooping in and stealing her base out from under her.

19

And that’s simply not true:

Just one source.

20

I know quite a few 'baggers, some in my family. I live in a very red state and she is quite popular. The tea baggers will tell you over and over that it’s not just Democrats they are against, that both parties have been guilty of abuses, blah, blah , blah. When election day comes, they will vote Republican.

Tea Party is a marketing campaign for the GOP.