Here's an excerpt from the article (once you live past the tedious anecdotal lede): "(1)In the aftermath of the November election, the conventional wisdom among Palin’s supporters in the Republican establishment was that she should go home, keep her head down, show that she could govern effectively, and quietly educate herself about foreign and domestic policy with the help of a cadre of experienced advisers. (2) She has done none of this. Rather, she has pursued an erratic course that, for her, may actually represent the closest thing there is to True North. (3) Her first trip to Washington since the election was to attend the dinner of the Alfalfa Club, an elite group of politicians and businesspeople whose sole function is an annual evening in honor of a plant that would “do anything for a drink.” (4) Some of her handlers first said she had accepted—though she then went on to decline—an invitation to speak at the annual June fund-raiser for the congressional Republicans. (5) She created a political-action committee—Sarahpac—with the help of John Coale, a prominent Democratic trial lawyer. But just months into its existence the pac’s chief fund-raiser, Becki Donatelli, a veteran of Republican campaigns, suddenly quit. (6) One person familiar with the situation told me that Donatelli could not stand dealing with Palin’s political spokeswoman in Alaska, Meghan Stapleton, who has drawn withering fire from Palin friends and critics alike for being an ineffective adviser. (7) Also with Coale’s help, Palin formed the grandiosely named Alaska Fund Trust, to defray a reported half million dollars in legal expenses arising from a slew of formal ethics complaints against her in her home state—prompting yet another formal complaint, that the fund itself constitutes an ethical breach. (8) Onetime supporters have become harsh critics. Walter Hickel, 89, a former two-term governor and interior secretary, and the grand old man of Alaska politics, who was co-chair of Palin’s winning gubernatorial campaign, in 2006, now washes his hands of her. He told me simply, “I don’t give a damn what she does.”" So, as far as I can tell... (1) That squares with everything you read, and quotations from Sr. GOP brass. (2) None of this? Difficult to prove a negative. But it's hard to find true evidence of the positive -- that is, proof that she is attempting to rigorously educate herself beyond catch-phrases. (3) True. (4) Trues as far as I can tell. (5) So true. (6) Hearsay (7) True (8) Some truth though not pervasive at all. I believe the quote, but it may be out of context. I'm just looking at one interesting section. Authors arguments seem to mix a lot of facts, carefully ordered of course, with some insider "conversations" which a reader may or may not believe. By the way, that troll spray image is piss poor. Graphics programs can now place lettering on 3D surfaces like a cylinder, no problem. Tsk tsk.
Seriously, can you imagine if the media had done their job and exposed Obama's inexperience in the same way that they went after Palin? Talk about a free pass being handed out...
I know TJ likes to always tell us how smart he is but it is truly amazing that not only he read this fifteen page piece in 9 minutes and deducted that if it had been written about Michelle Obama (didn't know she ran for gov't office) that us equals in intelligence (because we would have been able to read the piece in 9 minutes) would have concluded it would have been a hate piece if written about michelle.
I hate bringing this up, but I never understood how people could consider a man with a history degree from Yale, and a MBA from Harvard to be an idiot.
because that guy barely got out his privileged hs and was a C student at Yale so he never should have been at Harvard or Yale btw. but you know that and that's why you hate bringing it up
I would be willing to bet that Michelle would not have qualified to get into an Ivy League institution (well, Cornell maybe) without ...ahem... help.
one is the son of a future president and the grandson of a senator, the fact that you defend him getting help and have a problem with afirmative action shows what your true issues are. ahem
The title of this thread is an oxymoron. The only people still fascinated by Palin are a core group of deniers and masochistic democrats who cannot let go.
Considering the admission standards alone, you have to be highly intelligent to attend either school.
I called it must-read because I found it very interesting. The election was just last year and here is an article that tells us tons we didn't already know about the VP candidate and a lot too about the McCain camp. I love stories like this, about people from either party. I thought the serial behind the scenes of both campaigns stuff from Newsweek were the best reads of the year - likewise the 2004 editions. If you're interested at all in politics, and I'd guess most people posting here are, this is a pretty interesting read.
100% so. Probably a bit of a lazy student, but very intellegent. I know a whole lot about being a highly intelligent but average student.
I don't think he's dumb. Actually, I think he has in the past acted dumber than he is because it behooved him to do so. If you look at his debates with Ann Richards back in the day he comes off as way smarter than he ever did as president. So I don't think he's dumb. But I do think he was undeserving of both the educational opportunities he had and of the businesses he was handed to run. In each of those cases, it was not his relative intelligence that provided for those opportunities but his name and family connections. Same goes for his plum draft dodging stint in the Texas National Guard. Bush is a perfect example of how class and connections trump equal opportunity in this country.
When did I defend Bush getting 'help'? For the record, I believe that all admissions to college should be merit based. So you started with a faulty premise here, rendering your comment a failure.
