I think you’re right, which is all the more damaging. I can’t say Palin’s an idiot (i.e. “high-functioning moron”), but c’mon, she’s willfully ignorant about the world around her. That’s bad enough for Joe Sixpack, but I want my leaders to be better than that. I want them to be more knowledgeable about the world, more interested, more curious than I am. If they’re not, what the hell good are they? Talk about a waste of taxpayer’s money…
She’s just like W. Which is to say, a waste of taxpayer’s money.
Minor issue, Oy? For DC’s gun laws, the Supreme Court is locally. Part of it being a unique city.
But are the Supremes DC’s local district appeals court? My point being that if the city votes that they want local gun control, they should be allowed to have it, that’s all. No biggie to me, probably a biggie to gun rights advocates.
And as I will recall, due to the repug’s rewriting of history, President-For-Life Palin will be just as great as W. Betterer, even!
[/sarcasm]
Look, George W. was elected twice and proudly proclaimed that he did not read newspapers or news magazines. Reagan stated that he had people read them for him and then kept him up to date and he was elected and reelected president. Is the ability to read a newspaper absolutely necessary to be elected? Apparently not. As a professional print journalist, I sure as heck value it, but I may well be in the minority.
I think the error here is that McCain’s (who are apparently hers also) handlers aren’t letting her run an Alaskan Governator-style election as Arnold would have if he were running (yeah, I know he can’t). I hate to make pig references, but they are trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear when the sow’s ear would have probably worked fine if they would have sold it as such. But after George W., maybe sow’s ears won’t sell as well.
I would guess any subscriptions to the liberal media would have been cancelled, then touted as a victory the war against wasteful spending. No cite.
I’ve seen clips of an interview with her and Charlie Rose when she was simply Governor. She was smart and charming. Ignorant of national affairs, but no one was asking. They’re trying to force her into the Party Line and screwing her up badly. I think they’re realized that and are trying to undo it, but I don’t know if they’ve done it in time.
I didn’t say anything in my post about it being necessary for a candidate to read newspapers or magazines. I said I want them to be smarter, more curious, and all around better than I am. I’m perfectly eligible to be president, as outlined in the Constitution. And I read the news, and keep up with world events, more or less. But I sure as hell wouldn’t want someone like me running the free world (or as second in command). I want someone better than I am. And I don’t think that person, or people, is embodied in the Palin/McCain ticket.
Hey, hey, Johnny! Won’t you come out and play?
Oh, and something I just remembered. There’s tons of clips out there on the net of Kouric recorded off-air, which show her to be an unpleasant, idiotic, twat. That Palin can’t figure out how to lay a smackdown on Kouric tells me she’s even dumber.
Care to link to any of them? I have not turned up any doing my own search…
Come on folks… Palin obviously has to stay abreast of news outside of Alaska. Governors are asked to comment on such issues all the time, and often what happens at the Federal level affects the Governors of the states. When she gives interviews as Governor, she’s sometimes asked to weigh in on issues that are in the news.
Palin may be unprepared to be VP, but she’s not a drooling idiot. I’ve linked to interviews she’s done and debates she’s had before being picked as VP, and no one watching those would think she was stupid or particularly ill-informed.
I think C3 nailed it. She’s been over-managed, over-coached, intimidated, and terrified of making a gaffe. You could ask her what color the sky is, and she’d probably start thinking, “What’s the right answer? What if I say blue? Is it raining out? Are they trying to find out if I pay attention to nature? Is this is a science question? Am I supposed to know why?” Then she’d hesitate and say, “Uh, sky can be many colors…”
This isn’t an excuse for her. Ultimately, the responsibility for presenting herself lands on her. If McCain’s people are trying to control her so tightly that she can’t even speak coherently, it’s her fault for not telling them that she’ll be her own person. If she’s so freaked out by the media that she can’t be herself and tries to guard every answer, that in itself is a negative trait that can reasonably be held against her.
But painting her as some clueless hick with no brain and who doesn’t read, while typical of Democratic attacks on Republicans, is just off base. Go watch some of her earlier interviews if you don’t believe me.
How is “overcoaching” an excuse for not being able to name a single newspaper or magazine or not being able to name a single Supreme Court case?
Can you link to some examples of her talking about national issues or issues involving other states?
I agree with you. The campaign has handled her miserably. They should have left her alone and let her talk to the press all along. She’s a big girl; she would have handled herself just fine.
ETA: Now it’s probably too late.
I agree. The “lipstick on a pig” notion is exactly right here. She should have been left alone to be herself, rather than being dressed up as something she isn’t. But isn’t it lucky for the Good Guys that they did? She might have been a formidable force, otherwise.
I can’t see this debate doing McCain much good, no matter how she does. If she tanks, she hurts his campaign. If she does fine, those who like her will keep on liking her. The harm already done isn’t going to be wiped out by one short evening.
In Palin’s defense, I think that she isn’t an ideological conservative, so she’s got “her answers” and “their answers” fighting each other in her head.
Put it this way: Imagine the McCain camp is trying to coach you, and for whatever reason you want to do well for them. You’d be fighting your instinctive gut response a lot.
VP candidates always stumble more than Presidential candidates. If she comes from a very different political starting point, she’s going to stumble way more often than, say, Fred Thompson.
I’m putting a big “if” in there, but I still have seen very little evidence that she has approached her political positions with any sort of conservative ideology. Pro-life isn’t enough.
It’s almost assured that it’s too late. We’ll see this Thursday - she is relaxing in Sedona with her family…preparing. We’ll see how she does Thursday, but if it’s even half as bad as the couric interview…Obama’s numbers will continue to climb and McCains will decline. The sturdier statistical numbers that are significant are polling those who know who they are voting for, but who then decide they may change their mind before election day. These are republicans and democrats - who know who they are voting for - and who tell a pollster, "yes I may change my mind before election day. It is a question asked by Quinnipiac. That number for McCain it’s 23% of the people voting for him say they may change their mind. For Obama that number is 11% and going down. This number bites into the fabric of the voters, and usually has a smaller margin of error taken by itself.
Of course, looking uninformed in debates or interviews is just as bad as actually being uninformed, as we’ve seen from the aforementioned James Stockdale discussions. I too was convinced at the time that Stockdale was useless; only later on did I learn about his background and see that he was in fact no mental midget…far from it, in fact. But by that time it was rather too late to repair my first impression.
I think more of the blame for the Palin debacle (and by now I think it qualifies as one) rests on McCain. I think when McCain’s first VP choice was shot down by the RNCC, he had no second choice in mind. So he tried to think of a pro-life, evangelical candidate who could potentially pick up a traditionally Democratic demographic…hey, how about that governor from Alaska? Yeah, that’ll work.
I will put this up for debate: If McCain had picked Kay Bailey Hutchinson as his running mate, he might well have won this election. We certainly wouldn’t be sitting around here wondering whether Hutchinson was fit to be VP or should resign from the ticket.
Could you post a link to some?