Palin clarifies her stance

[realthog]

Sarah Palin was plugging her latest ghostwritten novel on FAUX News's Bill O'Liarly Show the other day. I gather even The Big Loofah himself had difficulty stomaching some of her utterances, and persecuted her Katie Couric-style by requesting she actually answer his questions. And then there was this . . .

O'Reilly: Let me be bold and fresh again. Do you believe you are smart enough, and incisive enough, intellectual enough, to handle the most powerful job in the world?

Palin: I believe that I am because I have common sense, and I have, I believe, the values that are reflective of so many American values. And I believe that what Americans are seeking is not the elitism, the, um, the, ah -- kind of spineless -- a spinelessness that perhaps is made up for that with elite Ivy League education and -- fact resume that's based on anything but hard work and private-sector, free-enterprise principles. Americans could be seeking something like that in positive change in their leadership. I'm not saying that that has to be me.

Comments

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Let's see, that would be a condemnation of George W. Bush, mayhap?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

More like a paraphrasalizing, I'd say.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

The Deciderer, you may recall, went to Yale (BA) and Harvard (MBA). "A spinelessness that perhaps is made up for that with elite Ivy League education."

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, but he didn't actually learn anything at either of those places, so he's off the hook.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

And furthermore.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, that Obama chappie. Not only is he a dangerous black man who is taking away places that ought to be held by white men who are more competent, since only they are capable of being educated, but he's actually learning instead of drinking.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

À propos of useless political leaders, I'm marking essays at the moment, and note the following effusion: "He was a royalist, meaning he was a supporter of King Charles I, whom ruled a monarchy. His views are consequently, pessimistic regarding human nature."

[realthog.livejournal.com]

he was a supporter of King Charles I, whom ruled a monarchy. His views are consequently, pessimistic regarding human nature

That follows.

Um . . .

[mylefteye.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad she's cleared that up.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Yes. It's a sort of defiant response to all those who'd dismiss her as simply an airhead. Now, we know that the air is polluted.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Er, what? I know you have some language variants over there, but I'm not at all sure she needs all those parts of speech.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I'm not at all sure she needs all those parts of speech.

You're right. She'd make more sense if she got rid of the nouns, verbs, prepositions, adjectives, articles and adverbs, and just stuck with the rest.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Conjunctions, interjections and intensives?

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

that just leaves the "Air Quotes"

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

And winks.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Yep, my thought entirely.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

What scares me is that she has so many supporters. One of my own neighbors supports her purely on the basis of the abortion issue. Dear God! As if there were nothing else to consider.
(Forgive my grammar, please? I have been taking lessons from the Bimbo from Wasilla).

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Eh? There's nothing wrong with your grammar!

As you say, it's terrifying that so many people (though I gather far fewer than the rightist media trumpet) would be prepared to vote for someone who's both stupid and an ignoramus (leave aside her vicious, vindictive streak) purely on the grounds that she dresses up nice.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

resume that's based on anything but hard work and private-sector, free-enterprise principles.

... because going from relatively poor to Harvard Law School grad doesn't require hard work? I mean, geez. Affirmative action, at the best, gets your foot in the door. It doesn't give you good grades or make you editor of the law review.

Also, I have worked in: the private sector, the public sector (government, to be precise), and education, and of the three? The government paid the best (relative to experience), and had the best hours, the best benefits, and the best coworkers.

Well, all right, one of the private-sector jobs had better food, but I doubt working at Panera makes someone ready to be president.

(I also doubt working as a file clerk makes someone ready to be president, but even so, I doubt the guy who was the president of the last place I worked had the brains to be mayor of his suburb, let alone president.)

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

The primary beneficiaries of affirmative action are white women, since they are the largest historically disadvantaged group. Somehow, I don't notice Palin mentioning that much.

(Declaration of interest: I am the beneficiary of affirmative action. It did, indeed, get my foot in the door. It certainly didn't get me the grades on my graduate transcripts, nor the graduate degrees.)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

You were able to construe all that, S, from Palin's effusion of Alphabetti Spaghetti? Must be your powerful legal brain -- you're surely destined for the big bux once you start practicing!

[elfie-harly.livejournal.com]

It's like she was reared on soundbites and doesn't quite know what to put between one soundbite and another.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

It's like she was reared on soundbites and doesn't quite know what to put between one soundbite and another.

Exactly. That's an astonishingly perceptive insight. Thank you for it. I've been quoting it to friends.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

I attribute this to her journalism background. Both in her old broadcast journalist background and in her political career so far, she didn't need to be able to manage more than two sentences at a time. Besides, in both, she had real writers supplying her content, which explains why she has such a horrible time speaking off the cuff.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

I'm not overly bitter toward my former major and profession when I advocate setting up a fund to give one journalism major per year the finances to finish drinking himself/herself to death. I just figure that natural selection sometimes needs a little bit of help. The fact that Palin got nothing out of her five years of journalism school (at four separate schools, in fact) makes me argue that educational institutions need to be held to the same "lemon laws" as automobile manufacturers. Yes, that means we'd have to nuke Southern Methodist University from orbit to make sure, but that's a sacrifice we're all willing to take.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

The fact that Palin got nothing out of her five years of journalism school (at four separate schools, in fact)

What's puzzled me is how she got into journalism school(s) in the first place. It's pretty obvious she possesses no coherence of thought, as must surely be required of even the kid stuck with reporting on council meetings and flower shows.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I'm not. As the joke goes, most journalism majors go down that path because they're too inept for medicine, too inarticulate for law, and too lazy and arrogant for food service. Very seriously, a lack of coherence has nothing to do with success or lack thereof in journalism: particularly in broadcast journalism, all Palin needed was the ability to read a teleprompter, the ability to wing a few pithy comments, and the drive to smash her opposition and listen to the lamentations of their women. (I wish I were being snarky about this, but I'm not. I could tell you tales of television reporters and anchorcritters that would leave your hair white. Some of the sad stories I have about radio personalities would make it fall out: let's just say that Glenn Beck started out as a morning radio deejay, and that he's actually relatively lucid compared to most of his brethren.)

All told, Palin is a perfect demonstration of the value of a journalism degree. The people drawn to journalism are powered both by an insane insecurity and by an absolute conviction that the world needs their message, no matter how banal. No matter how obnoxious, how deranged, or how perpetually stoned out of their minds, they're certain of their star power, and will go to ridiculous lengths to make sure that they get it. (One of my favorite horror stories was working for a Dallas weekly newspaper in the mid-Nineties, where the rest of the editorial staff made up fake "letters to the editor" gushing about the paper's columnist, because apparently he'd go into screaming tantrums if he didn't get fan mail. I can speak with authority that he blew gaskets if other staffers, and especially freelancers, got more fan mail than he did, and when he was appointed to an assistant editor position after he was fired from his day job at American Way magazine for smarting off to James Randi, he spent his time printing only negative letters concerning stories written by those other staffers and freelancers.) It's no surprise that the worst of the lot either go into sports journalism or into politics: in both, they're finally getting the uncritical adoration from proud know-nothings that they'd never receive while covering City Hall council meetings. Besides, being a good reporter requires work.

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

You can take cheer in knowing that if Palin runs against Obama three years from now we're guaranteed another four years of Obama as president.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I wish that were 100% certain. They re-elected Il Buce, you'll recall.