Innnnnnteresting ....

[veronica_rich]

Supposedly, according to McCain campaign staffers, Sarah Palin didn't know Africa was a continent, not a country, and she was guilty of other asorted dumbnesses. Let's break this down:

In defense of the woman - and I cannot believe the text is coming from my fingertips - I know more than one smart person who has made this initial mistake. Including me. Not in the lasting, insistent sense - "Uh huh! Yes it is! South Africa's part of one country!" - but in the initial, unthinking sense when the topic first comes up. Because I've known since I was in at least the fourth grade that there are various and assorted countries in Africa. All I'm saying is, if you've ever heard anyone toss off "the country of Africa" before thinking, or someone reminding them "it's not a country, dummy" and then they go "what'd I say? oh shit, I wasn't thinking" - yeah. So, is this what the staffers are exaggerating? Or is it a case of her insisting it IS a country even after someone says "um ... it's not one country?"

Because I have to say - George Bush went to Yale and Harvard, and frankly, I think he's about as dumb as an actual president can get. (Not knowing the philosophical differences between Sunnis and Shi'ites before going to war is WAY worse than a slip of the tongue on Africa, IMO.) And while his lack of intelligence has been lampooned, spread out over eight years, the fact is that it took a lot longer than three months for people to start pointing and laughing at it. So why with Palin?

Is it - again, I have to wonder at this coming from ME - because she's a woman? Because it very well could be. (Bit of a lesson to the casual fandom pheminists out there: THIS is the sort of shit feminism was REALLY invented to combat. Not your crocodile tears over a fictional character not getting the right man.) Make no mistake about Palin - I don't want her anywhere NEAR my White House, now or in the future - but there are plenty of things to legitimately criticize about her besides lack of geographical knowledge IF it's just being exaggerated as I reference above. (And I suspect this may well be the case. I don't think the woman's the sharpest tack in the corkboard, but I really question if she's THAT ignorant.)

And if she is that ignorant? Well, it's not the fact she's being criticized for it, because certainly basic geographical knowledge is important. It's HOW she's being criticized. (See previous paragraph.) Certainly the electorate has the right to know, just as they should be cautious when listening to her tell a third-grader about the duties of a vice president and getting it out of whack. All I'm saying is, let's watch how we do it, and maintain a healthy skepticism about the extremity of her reported "ignorance." (If she were truly that dumb, wouldn't we be hearing about something far more egregious than the Africa thing? That's what makes me suspicious.)

Comments

[yoiebear.livejournal.com]

Well, she's cute and very stupid.

[crevette.livejournal.com]

Actually, Lieberman might have swung it. Moderate Repubs have no problem with him--He's square center on the major issues.

[crevette.livejournal.com]

Ahhh. I love Olympa Snowe but she is one of the party's "most hated" right up there with Ahhhh-nald because of her socially moderate vies. I get stuff from the far right wing about them and other "RINO"s all the time. She's never going to be pushed to the front of the party unless they figure out that the reason they lost is because they've let the religious fundies run the show.

[crevette.livejournal.com]

They just can't fathom why we want to keep killing babies, lovin' the gays, and why we just don't love Jesus the way they do.

As a Republican, I *wish* I was kidding about that, BTW.

[gryphons-lair.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was (barely, technically) legal because it didn't come from campaign donations to McCain. It came from RNC funds, which aren't controlled by the same rules McCain's war chest was.

But it was still a stunningly bad PR move.

[a-silver-rose.livejournal.com]

Let's not forget that she didn't/doesn't know what the VP job entails.

[yoiebear.livejournal.com]

That's the biggest problem of all.

[gobsmacked.livejournal.com]

Just a little perspective from outside the US?
To Canadians, the Africa thing was a bit of a cliche, as was the Middle East gaffe. Canadian comedians tend to get a lot of mileage out of the stereotypical American lack of geographical knowledge, so the thing that people focus on is her lack of knowledge about the job of Vice-President.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't think you or I actually believe that George Bush was anything but a puppet. Cheney and Rove have been running the country. Rove (not Cheney) believe in lofty. They believe in doing whatever it takes. Torture, suspending habeous corpus, wire-tapping. I imagine it's too much to hope that this might be a wake-up call. It took a brain tumor for Lee Atwater to realize that he'd been acting like a total asshole on steroids.

McCain really did let things go berserk, and given his gracious speech when he conceded the election, I'm wondering if he had his own bout of soul-searching.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

sorry that's (NOR Cheney)