Of the Iselins, she seems more like John than Eleanor.
Stranger
Oh, no worries on that; I am perfectly capable of being an idiot in many other spheres. 
I admit nothing. You are a miserable excuse for a human being. 
Er, cite?
I’ve looked, but I found there’s nothing here to debate!
It is pretty thin stuff. In a book review of Going Rogue, a New York Times critic claims that in a different work (or maybe in an article published prior to the book–that much is unclear), Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe quote or paraphrase Palin’s father as saying
The syntax is so garbled (and the provenance of the statement is so obscure) that it is hard to take it seriously. The exact meaning of the statement is hard to discern. It certainly sounds as though Palin might have had some issues, but just what those issues might have been is impossible to tell. And that is the sum total of Palin’s alleged ethnic bigotry.
It’s pretty clear. Her father said Asians made her uncomfortable. She didn’t like being a “minority.”
Here’s the original New Yorker article, by the way.
You’re dodging the question. I asked Diogenes to support his claim that “struggled for years through a battery of community and state colleges to amass enough credits for a Bachelors Degree.” So far, we have plenty of speculation but absolutely no direct evidence.
Y’know, it’s poor form to disparage somebody’s intelligence while simultaneously substituting speculation for logic and evidence.
If getting educated truly was not a priority, she probably wouldn’t have bothered re-enrolling anywhere.
Of course, you are free to draw your own conclusion. Personally, I prefer to recognize that we don’t know for sure why she changed schools. Just as I wouldn’t want a liberal to be judged unfairly without sufficient evidence, I would not want to draw harsh conclusions about Sarah Palin without knowing her specific motives for moving around and changing schools.
The cites have already been provided. I don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. She went number of dfferent state and community colleges (the list of which has already been cited) and finally cobbled together enough credts for a BA.
Deeply harmed her own side of politics by running for VP when she was entirely unqualified and unsuited, indeed on current evidence unqualified and unsuited to run a lemonade stand?
“Death Panels” was pretty stupid in that it marginalized her own side. Accusing Obama of changing “In God We Trust” on money was pretty stupid too.
None of which support your specific claim.
Yes, you do. I asked you to support your claim that she “struggled for years through a battery of community and state colleges to amass enough credits for a Bachelors Degree.” You have demonstrated that she changed schools multiple times, but that’s obviously not the same thing.
Which is not the same as “struggling for years.” Heck, it doesn’t even mean that she had any particular difficulty with her schooling. You are attempting to draw conclusions that simply aren’t there… and all the while ridiculing another person’s intelligence.
Actually, I was only contesting the assertion that her college degree was evidence of above average intelligence. Nothing about her college career suggests anything but an average intellect, at best.
I didn’t dodge any question you asked me-I merely asked you a separate question.
Fair enough, I suppose, but we’re talking about a prospective Presidential candidate here. The last six Democratic presidential nominees (including Obama) had postgraduate degrees (all from law schools, natch) and all but Mondale were Harvard or Yale grads. Mondale attended the University of Minnesota law school.
Jimmy Carter went to a community college (Georgia Southwestern College, which then offered only two-year degrees), and the US Naval Academy, and had almost qualified as a nuclear submarine engineering officer when his father died and he had to resign his commission.
Even if we assume that Palin’s school-switching is entirely based on, say, economic or family difficulties, it still doesn’t bode well for her.
Republican Presidential candidates have historically been nearly as well-qualified. John McCain had no postgraduate education, but attended the USNA and of course had years of field experience in the Navy. GWB had an MBA from Harvard. Bob Dole switched schools because he enlisted during WWII in the middle of his undergraduate studies, and later graduated from law school. GHWB only had a bachelor’s, but it was from Yale. Reagan was the last President with similar academic credentials to Palin.
One of the examples used in this thread to demonstrate Palin’s “stupidity” was that she didn’t know how/why there is a North & South Korea. I think many Americans look at it from a different perspective than many of the studied and learned members who post here.
I have a decent degree of intellectual curiosity, but I thought about it and realized that I don’t know much about the politics of what went on 50 years ago re:the Korean War. I know that the North was backed by communists and the Soviet Union and the South was backed by the US. I don’t know why the North and South were at each other’s throats to begin with. I know that we were, “Making the world safe for Democracy.” McCarthyism in the US was fueling that sentiment.
Truman was President and he had some sort of conflict with one of the leading generals in Korea (was it MacArthur?). The war never technically ended. Now that’s about all I know off the top of my head and that’s probably about as much as your average non-history buff is likely to know about the Korean conflict of the 1950’s. Most Americans, Palin included, are too young to have lived through the Korean war and is distant & lacks relevance to most Americans today.
Were I about to be set on a national stage and told that I may be asked why Korea is divided. I would just say that I don’t know anything about it and ask to be filled in.
Of course if you’re Sarah Palin and you use this strategy it’s “OMG she doesn’t know anything about N & S Korea!111 LOL!!111. She talks funny LOL !1!!!1!11. Tina Fey FTW !@!!11!.” Your average American who probably knows about as much as I do about the war in Korea or the politics of a distant country won’t be offended that Palin doesn’t either. It continues to play into the “She’s one of us” mentality. Which is why she’s popular.
What Sarah Palin is great at is more important than being able to quote policy or recite history lessons, or getting herself elected. She will be instrumental in helping to turn over congressional seats currently held by Democrats in the upcoming election cycle. That takes a certain kind of intelligence. She’s one in a hundred-million and the left would be well advised to accept it.
The constant mocking of Palin makes the left look like what many voters suspect: intellectual elitists who are out of touch with America.
Go Sarah!
Ehh, everyone has “a certain kind of intelligence”. You’d have to look pretty hard to find a person who isn’t good at anything. That doesn’t make you smart, though. It doesn’t even make you average.
If Palin was just some housewife in Alaska we wouldn’t be mocking her. She’s not. She was a candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States of America - one cherry pit from the most powerful seat in the world.
Democrats (and smart Republicans) want our President to be smart. Smarter than us. We couldn’t run the country, so we sure as hell don’t want someone who may not even be as bright as us trying.
And it’s unfortunate that this kind of campaigning-by-catch-phrase is something many Americans find compelling. The intellectual elitists, as you call them, are just as American as any other American. In fact, it’s kind of sad to think that many Americans think America is a place where intellectual curiosity and knowledge are somehow unAmerican. Palin not knowing the history of the Korean peninsula off the top of her head doesn’t bother me, it’s the attitude that someone who does know isn’t to be trusted. Anything remotely complex about science, history or government policy becomes her fodder, writing it all off as the product of liberal elites who can’t connect with common folk like herself and her supporters, and they love her for it because cheering is easier than thinking.
Fuck, yes, I’m an elitist. That countries be run by the smartest people should be obvious to all.