do we really need another thread on how Sarah Palin is an unqualified idiot? yeah, we do http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/opinion/04herbert.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Palin’s Alternate Universe By BOB HERBERT Published: October 3, 2008 Sarah Palin is the perfect exclamation point to the Bush years. We’ve lived through nearly two terms of an administration that believed it could create its own reality: “Deficits don’t matter.” “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.” “Those weapons of mass destruction must be somewhere.” Now comes Ms. Palin, a smiling, bubbly vice-presidential candidate who travels in an alternate language universe. For Ms. Palin, such things as context, syntax and the proximity of answers to questions have no meaning. In her closing remarks at the vice-presidential debate Thursday night, Ms. Palin referred earnestly, if loosely, to a quote from Ronald Reagan. He had warned that if Americans weren’t vigilant in protecting their freedom, they would find themselves spending their “sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in America when men were free.” What Ms. Palin didn’t say was that the menace to freedom that Reagan was talking about was Medicare. As the historian Robert Dallek has pointed out, Reagan “saw Medicare as the advance wave of socialism, which would ‘invade every area of freedom in this country.’ ” Does Ms. Palin agree with that Looney Tunes notion? Or was this just another case of the aw-shucks, darn-right, I’m-just-a-hockey-mom governor of Alaska mouthing something completely devoid of meaning? Here’s Ms. Palin during the debate: “Say it ain’t so, Joe! There you go pointing backwards again ... Now, doggone it, let’s look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education, and I’m glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and God bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right?” If Governor Palin didn’t like a question, or didn’t know the answer, she responded as though some other question had been asked. She made no bones about this, saying early in the debate: “I may not answer the questions the way that either the moderator or you want to hear.” The problem with Ms. Palin’s candidacy is that John McCain might actually win this election, and then if something terrible happened, the country could be left with little more than an exclamation point as president. After Ms. Palin had woven one of her particularly impenetrable linguistic webs, Joe Biden turned to the debate’s moderator, Gwen Ifill, and said: “Gwen, I don’t know where to start.” Of course he didn’t know where to start because Ms. Palin’s words don’t mean anything. She’s all punctuation. This is such a serious moment in American history that it’s hard to believe that someone with Ms. Palin’s limited skills could possibly be playing a leadership role. On the day before the debate, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, made an urgent appeal for more troops, saying the additional “boots on the ground,” as well as more helicopters and other vital equipment, were “needed as quickly as possible.” The morning after the debate, the Labor Department announced that the employment situation in the U.S. had deteriorated even more than experts had expected. The nation lost nearly 160,000 jobs in September, more than double the monthly losses in July and August. Conditions are probably worse than even those numbers indicate because the government’s statistics do not yet reflect the response of employers to the credit crisis that has taken such a hold in the last few weeks. Where is the evidence that Governor Palin even understands these complex and enormously challenging problems? During the debate she twice referred to General McKiernan as “McClellan.” Neither Ms. Ifill nor Senator Biden corrected her. But after Senator Biden suggested that John McCain’s answer to the nation’s energy problems was to “drill, drill, drill,” Ms. Palin promptly pointed out, as if scoring a point, that “the chant is ‘Drill, baby, drill!’ ” How’s that for perspective? The credit markets are frozen. Our top general in Afghanistan is dialing 911. Americans are losing jobs by the scores of thousands. And Sarah Palin is making sure we know that the chant is “drill, baby, drill!” not “drill, drill, drill.” John McCain has spent most of his adult life speaking of his love for his country. Maybe he sees something in Sarah Palin that most Americans do not. Maybe he is aware of qualities that lead him to believe she’d be as steady as Franklin Roosevelt in guiding the U.S. through a prolonged economic downturn. Maybe she’d be as wise and prudent in a national emergency as John Kennedy was during the Cuban missile crisis. Maybe Senator McCain has reason to believe that it would not be the most colossal of errors to put Ms. Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency. He’s got just four weeks to share that insight with the rest of us.
Well, St. Sarah finally told us that she reads the New York Times. I wonder if she'll read this op-ed piece.
the NY times? LOL. I'm not defending Palin by any stretch, but seriously look at the other VP for once. Biden? LOL!
Got a call from my father in law today. He donated money to McCain's campaign sometime back. He's very conservative. He asked if I saw the debate. I was careful with my words. He said, "man, i'm getting worried. this woman is clueless. I don't know what to think. She can't answer a question. She can read a speech, but she can't answer a question to save her life. I can't vote for Obama...but I'm sure not excited about having Palin be so close to the presidency. If McCain gets elected, my nightmare will be what happens if he dies."
Does it shock you that the NY Times wrote an article bashing a right wing conservative? seriously, it's like reading an article by Jason Whitlock ridiculing black people.
I'm starting to worry about your father in law..he may need help. Seriously...Obama is so underqualified it's scary. If studying law from a liberal slant is qualification...Great...But it is still the study of law slanted towards liberal/socialistic ideals...This is everything against the notion of the ideology of "very conservative"...
ummm...he agrees with you. he will not vote for obama...he was expressing his concerns with palin. i think you're both wrong. about obama...i think he's right about palin.
I learned quite a bit about the people that support Palin a couple of days ago. I'm sitting in the bus station waiting for my bus to show up. I overhear a couple of late middle age men discussing Palin. One guy tells the other guy: "Let me tell you what I like about Palin: that she doesn't know everything. She just needs to go to the debate and say she is studying up and will be ready to be VP by the time they get elected. If she doesn't know answers tonight, she should just say 'I don't know, but I'll try to figure it out before I take office.'"
But at least ROXRAN got a personal attack on your father in-law, a man he never has and never will meet!
