I’ve been posting so much about election issues, of late, and so little about local issues, that I hesitated to comment on last night’s Charlie Gibson interview with VP candidate Sarah Palin. But, as today wears on, like many, I find that the subject continues to bother me. So, I’ve taken a break from my other work to put up a few thoughts. (And I look forward to hearing yours.)
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She reminded me of someone whose boyfriend had helped her cram the night before the test and, although clearly bright and able to parrot many of the words that were supposed to be in the essay questions (i.e. Saakashvili), and could get right many of the multiple choice questions, she didn’t really understand the material. The moment a question veered out of her area of cramming (Bush doctrine), Sarah Palin was screwed.
What was worse, Palin did not seem to know as much as an avid reader of the New York Times (or the Wall Street Journal) or even Time or Newsweek—which, as the governor of Alaska, one would hope she would be. Truthfully, I would expect Arnold Schwarzenegger—the former actor and body builder—- to perform much, much better, if Arnold were questioned by Gibson right now, even without coaching, than did our pitbull Sarah.
Yet like a student who had skipped classes all semester but had studied like mad for the final, she had memorized some snazzy buzz phrases (Rose Revolution and Orange Revolution), and had practiced a few of the more ostentatiously difficult-to-pronounce names: Rather than say “Iran,” in response to Gibson’s questions about her attitude toward a possible Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear plants, she used every opportunity to say “Ahmadinejad“—-deliberately flashing the moniker that took some newscasters months to master, as one might a newly-acquired, gaudy diamond.
The only topic with which she seemed truly at home was about drilling in ANWAR. It is not that her answer was so complex or notable; it wasn’t. But it was clear she had a real opinion about the issue and could have easily conversed with knowledge and intelligence off-script.
However, with most of her responses, save the personal ones, this was far from the case.
If one merely reads Palin’s answers to Charlie Gibson’s questions, they are largely unremarkable—except for the deer-in-the-headlights “Bush doctrine,” moment. She stayed with her script and her memorized answers and would not be deflected from them. It was only in the video version that one can see the unsureness and the defensiveness—-and the absolutely lack of any kind of generalized comprehensive knowledge or informational framework about world affairs.
Palin is an interesting, charismatic governor and a very talented politician who seems to genuinely love her home state of Alaska (except for, you know, wolves and bears). But she is a frightening choice as a Vice President who could easily become the president should McCain be elected.
Thus far, she has shown no aptitude or interest in national issues, past what has been crammed in to her. This is quite different from Obama, who caught our attention with his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention because of his obvious aptitude for seeing the big picture, and nearly uncanny depth of understanding of the direction the country and its people (both red and blue leaning) needed now to move——despite his then lack of national experience.
What Palin does have is a national-size ambition and an abundance of mediagenic appeal. Yet, what is clear from this first Gibson interview, for anyone paying close attention, is this woman does not have the knowledge or the vision to back-up that ambition and political charisma, a situation evidently not at all bothersome to her or to those who would promote her. That’s scary.
Nonetheless, despite those facts, McCain’s choice of her as his running mate was, and still is, a game-changer.
And that’s even scarier.
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PS: If you have not read Jeffrey Goldberg’s article about John McCain in next month’s Atlantic Monthly, it is very much worth your time.
And, for entertainment value, be sure and check out the video’s of McCain’s appearance on the View.
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PPS: FYI: This is writer pal Tod Goldberg’s latest “status update” on Facebook: Tod Goldberg has a new default answer to any befuddling question: In what respect, Charlie?
So will Charles Gibson get the traditional Gaff Award for his question regarding the “Bush Doctrine”? Don’t be fooled, these arrogant, “non-partisan” newsfolk are extremely full of themselves. I thought Gov. Palin did an admirable job of standing up to the onslaught. There’s surely more to come and she’s shown herself a worthy adversary to the traditional feeding frenzy.
Does “non-partisan” really deserve the scare quotes? Did you see his performance in the Democratic debate? His questions to Palin were valid.
“Drinking with tony” says the newsfolk are extremely full of themselves and that Gov. Palin did an admirable job of standing up to the onslaught. The press has to ask questions of the nominees and nobody is crying about the onslaught Obama got from Bill O’Reilly (a bit more arrogant than Gibson).
Fine, quit asking hard questions. Quit trying to find out if the people we vote into office are qualified. It is that attitude that has created the mess in Iraq and the reason we have Bush in office in the first place. The campaign process is so refined and works so well, Bush and the gang kept it going once in office…and that is about to happen again if people don’t wake up and realize what a joke, absolute world-wide joke, McCain and Palin are.
Wearing a blindfold to ignore Palin’s lack of knowledge, experience and education just because you agree with her ideology will put the world in a very dangerous place.
Celeste nailed it on the head about the ANWAR response. It looked like 1,000 lbs were magically lifted off of Palin’s chest when she answered that one, just driving home the point at how scripted and nervous she was in every other question.
If you agree with her religious and social ideology fine, but do not continue to go Rush Limbaugh here and blame her lack of expertise on a liberal media. There is a big crowd that will buy that crock of bullsh*t, but not here…they aren’t too computer savvy.
Quiz: What is the Bush Doctrine?
a) The United States had the right to treat countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups as terrorists themselves.
b) The United States had the right condust preventive war, which holds that the United States should depose foreign regimes that represented a threat to the security of the United States, even if that threat was not immediate,
c) The United States will support democraciecs around the world, especially in the Middle East, as a strategy for combating the spread of terrorism
d) All of the above.
e) None of the above.
Don’t cheat and look at Wikipedia.
Sarah gets to go first…
Oh wait – she already answered:
(F) “His world view ?”
Impressive.
It is very poor test construction to offer more than one correct choice among an array of choices. It nullifies the validity and reliability of the test question.
The answer for those who have not researched the issue is (D) All of the above.
The worst people to make decisions of national importance and to judge those who do are journalists, most of whom have low logical brain processes and less for ethics. If there are any below them, they are the left-wing commenters here.
Celeste, ask for your tuition money back from USC and the rest of you go get real educations. All of you are in a lather over Palin and might also need rabies shots.
Fortunately, I was educated at Cal State Northridge — a school likely worse than the one Ms. Palin attended (and when do we get to look at her transcripts?) — and therefore don’t fall under Woody’s rubric, and thus I feel safe in saying this: Sarah Palin is the biggest fucktard to grace the world’s political stage in a very, very long time. Her lack of nuanced thought and logic, irrespective of political party, is truly frightening for someone up for public office. I think John McCain is an intelligent person, who, prior to selling his soul to the devil (and not the one Palin believes we’re fighing in Eye Rack), was able to make decisions based on what he actually perceived to be good policy and then was able to change his view when policy ended up sucking. I don’t agree with 90% of what he believes, but i respected him as a politician. Sarah Palin seems like she’d be really good at getting the local AYSO to run properly.
Tod … FUCKTARD should be capitalized. Oh, and did we notice the impatience with which Ms. Painful said “In what respect, Charlie?”
Why conservatives love Sarah Palin/b>
#1) She’s VERY conservative: and McCain is a moderate, so that balances it out for us. We were all holding are nose to vote for McCain, but then along came Sarah.
#2) She’s a reformer: and we are all sick of corruption especially Republican corruption, which is worse that Democratic corruption. The added benefit is that she doubles McCain’s strength in this area and she has an established record of helped get rid of the corrupt Republicans in Alaska.
#3) She is the right person at the right time: OK, no one believes she has any real experience in foreign affairs and many of you who are reading this blog are more aware of national events then her, but Sarah Palin appears to be the single best person John McCain could have picked to win this election and she has our values and executive experience, which to us is more important, just as Wall Street hires a successful CEO from one industry to run a company in another industry where the CEO has no experience. It’s the successful executive experience and judgment that matters.
#4) Most people can relate to Palin: She is not a lawyer, she isn’t rich, she didn’t go to Yale, her husband loves his racing machines, she didn’t abort her new baby boy, her daughter is pregnant, she was a PTA mom, but she also is the Governor of the largest sate in the USA, which has more people than Vermont, North Dakota or Wyoming.
#5) She not from Washington: We are sick of the Washington DC cesspool.
#6) She will make us first: We would have liked to have been first with a black Republican presidential candidate but Bush pissed off Colin Powell and Rice won’t do it. We have been called sexists for years and we are happy to stick it to liberals like Gloria Steinem with our example of the “Feminine Ideal”.
#7) The Liberals hate and fear of Sarah Palin: OK, this is incredibly cheering to us conservatives, to watch the insane gnashing of teeth of the media elite and people like Tod refer to her as a “fucktard”, which only debase themselves in the process.
Adapted from — http://tinyurl.com/3n5v8r
Sorry about the all bold!
Charlie Gibson Got In Wrong
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202457.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
How Obama can still win
The Obama message of change cannot be heard over the Palin frenzy both from the left and from the right. As they say in show business any news is good news and right now all the news is about Palin and McCain and Obama is getting ignored except when he mentions something related to Palin even if it is only lipstick.
Obama need to focus his message on a few big changes he will bring to the USA:
#1 Millions of new high paying jobs through a massive investment in energy independence and alternative energy projects on a scale larger than Kennedy’s commitment to go to the moon, funded by a tax on oil profits.
#2 Millions of new high paying jobs though a massive investment in 100% clean electric cars, by guaranteeing 100’s of billions of dollars of loans to the automotive industry, grants to small innovators and prizes.
#3 Affordable HealthCare which provides guaranteed eligibility with the same benefits that are give congressman and senators.
Pokey, thank you for your honesty in regards to Sarah and her blatant lack of experience in foreign affairs. It’s one thing to admit you like her because you appreciate her conservative views, and quite another to paint her as prepared to take over the Presidency because the state she has governed for 20 months is “close to Russia.”
Hate on Journalists all you want (Woody, I am looking at you, handsome) but real reporting — where journalists are paid to get FACTS, REFERENCES and SOURCES — has gone by the wayside, and replaced by cable news and internet sites where subjective, unsubstantiated journalism runs rampant. Everyone can scream and shout about what is a lie and what is the truth, but very few can find the real facts to back things up. That being said, it is my humble opinion that the Republican party has taken great advantage of the new media free-for-all, going above and beyond in their efforts to distort and fabricate the hard facts. And then, of course, they’re the first ones to cry victim when the “elite media” doesn’t lean in their favor.
Bottom line: Sarah Palin is in no way prepared to be President of the United States. If I know more about current events and foreign affairs (yes, Pokey, I aced your quiz, and I have been very familiar with the Bush Doctrine for some time), then something is deeply wrong here.
ARE YOU PALIN SUPPORTERS KIDDING????? Palin has been out of the country ONCE. She hasn’t met any dignataries, she had to attend five colleges,she has no clue about foreign affairs, took millions in earmarked funds then lied saying she was against them, her family obviously has no morals because her son Track has been addicted to Oxycotin for two years, Palin threw Bristol out of house when she found out she was pregnant and forced to live with her other sister and the same reporter who broke John Edwards affair is breaking news that Palin had an affair with her husband’s business partner, she kills defenseless animals for sport. Yes, this is a true model for the American Family we want in the White House.
“this woman does not have the knowledge or the vision to back-up that ambition and political charisma, a situation evidently not at all bothersome to her or to those who would promote her. That’s scary.
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Wasn’t he elected president not once but twice.
Palin is clearly more intelligent that Charlie Gibson and, if you don’t think that she’s prepared now (after all, she is only a governor, as was Bill Clinton), she has the capability and four months until inauguration day to be ready. It won’t take that long. You left-wing creatures are pathetic.
Celeste your right on about Palin in my opinion, while watching the production number with Gibson I couldn’t help notice her unconvincing, scripted, and coached replies, her uncomfortable voice level and tone, her tight tense body language (like she was ready to pounce on poor ol Charlie), and her ambiguous replies to the softball questions handed to her.
It is scary to me to consider that Palin is a heartbeat away from the Presidency of the USA, a country that has the nuclear capability of destroying the whole world, and here we have Palin admonishing Russia and suggesting military intervention over the Russian/Georgian conflict. Yikes!
I would think that the major industrial country’s of the world are shaking their collective heads incredulously
Palin has the appearance and demeanor of someone in way over their head, like the Mayor of a small Podunk town like Wasilla Alaska or the owner of a suburban Real Estate Co.
Gimme Shelter!
Do you suppose that Gibson was wrong with Obama and right against Palin?
Media Matters – Jan 7, 2008
During NH debate, ABC’s Gibson characterized Obama’s Pakistan position as “essentially the Bush doctrine,” ignoring Bush contradictions
You know what’s truly disgusting in oberving the phony outrage the sheep of the rightwing noise machine are ginning up in “defense” of real and mostly-imagined or fabricated instances of insult against Palin? Remind yourself of what these Disingenuous Depositories of Doodoo have been throwing at Hillary Clinton over her entire career. Consider the charges of murder that this resident buffoon casually lobbed in Hilllary’s direction over and over and over during the months of the primary.
I’m no Clinton fan, but the casual slander that was tossed in her direction by the likes of Limbaugh and his imiitators was indecent. John McCain himself joked about Chelsea – “she’s ugly because Janet Reno is her father.” Limbaugh called her a “dog.” Hillary got compared to a Nazi, among other things. If one wanted to compile a list of this crap, it would overload this blog’s available storage space. But now we have the absurd spectacle of phony outrage at Palin even being asked questions that test her knowledge of critical issues. Palin serially lies about her own record, attempting to cast herself as “anti-pork”, when there has been no governor and few mayors who went after pork with more gusto. But don’t dig into her record with tough questions or expose blatant contradictions because it’s sexist.
As for her family, there is no question but that certain of the delicate issues have drawn far less offensive comment – and there definitely has been some – from the “left” than would have rained incessantly from the right if the Obama family faced similiar straits. There is no question, given the proven record of indecency on the part of folks like Ann Coulter and Rush – who aren’t anonymous commenters but rightwing heroes with access to the highest GOP circles (see Rush’s birthday show with the entire Bush family telling him how great he is.)
This current charade is puke-worthy. Woody, you really need your ass kicked. I’m convinced it would take some payback that drastic to make you think twice about playing the perennial punk with absolutely no scruples or bar for one’s behavior.
With Palin, the Bush Doctrine “tell” wasn’t that she didn’t answer to Gibson’s satisfaction, because in fact Gibson misstated the Bush Doctrine as “pre-emptive war” rather than “preventive war” which is the difference between pro-active defense against an imminent and clear threat and “preventive” offense against a potential future threat that isn’t clear or imminent. (Why am I not surprised Gibson doesn’t know this shit?) The “tell” was her obviously not having a clue what terrain she was on, regardless of intepretation or alleged complexity, by responding to “what is the Bush Doctrine ?” with that kid-in-the-back-of-the-class-who-didn’t-do-the-homework line: “His worldview ?” That kills any argument from the Krauthammers, et al, that Palin was merely parsing the nuances in her steel-trap mind.
Just to clarify, Pokey, I am the media elite, too. And I debase myself on a regular basis, not just about politics. That doesn’t change the fact that Sarah Palin is a fucktard, nor does it change the fucktard status of other people. For instance, Gray Davis: fucktard. George W. Bush: Fucktard. Now, here’s a surprise: Dick Cheney: Not a fucktard. Why? Well, because he is smart. He uses his powers for evil and might well be the dark overlord, but I don’t think he’s a moron.
I’d like to hear one original thought Palin has had, just one, that reveals some sense of intellectual ability. She’s a fucktard not because she clings to her guns and religion, but because she doesn’t have anything else to hold onto. She can quote a statistic like the best of ’em, but where is her actual ability to think? To create. To not parrot the words of other morons? If she were a democrat, i’d feel the same way.
Gibson definitely was condescending to Palin, like a put-upon Honors English teacher leading a slow pupil through the basics of 7th-grade reading comprehension. But Palin didn’t deliver a single specific that would have bolstered her case, except to have argued that Obama’s grandiose plans would cost billions. (Which Gibson poo-poo’ed with liberal bias, demanding “prove it!” stats, sounding like reg and randy. He’s clearly drunk the Obama Kool-Aid.) She sounded simple-minded and whiny. The whole thing was unpleasant to watch all around.
The Dems have undermined their own case against her, though, by derided Hillary’s claims to experience domestically and with world leaders, education and just her life-long vetting process. There’s the opposite of Palin: poor white girl gets into top schools by own brains, works like hell and is ambitious as they come. Defers more children to career and “serving the country.” And the Obots derided her for her sense of “entitlement.” Now they’ve got someone definitely not entitled to aspire that high, but by choosing someone else with more ego than experience or accomplishment (although Obama’s definitely smarter and more articulate), they’ve made it seem more hypocritical to belittle her for that.
WBC, if it’s any consolation, this Obamamaniac can see why the Hillaryites are a teensy bit irritated, given the ironic turn of events.
About “simple-minded and whiny,” after watching Bill Maher last night, which featured Roseanne Barr, I suddenly realized what Palin’s voice sounds like: a northern exposure Roseanne Barr, only Barr comes off as much smarter.
Her voice reminds me of Frances McDormand’s in Fargo, just speeded up. Something about living in areas of wilderness vs. metro areas maybe.