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

[finding-neo.livejournal.com]

Forget the Africa thing. She cannot even speak about Supreme Court decisions with any degree of intelligence. And like Bush not knowing the difference between Sunni & Shi'ite, that is far more telling than the Africa thing.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96735163

"Queen of Nascar" ROTFLMAO

[captsparrow4evr.livejournal.com]

IMHO, the McCain camp wants a scapegoat and Palin is it. Now, that's not saying she isn't "dumb as a box of rocks" but she is going to be reviled for quite a while because McCain lost "because of her." Now, we know that's not the truth. He lost because the majority of voters saw him as Bush v. 3.0 and said "Enough is enough" but that isn't going down well with the right wing. Furthermore, the Republican Party can now use this in the future when someone suggests another female candidate for VP or President.

[joyful-molly.livejournal.com]

And there I was thinking that Yale and Harvard had some sort of standards - well, beyond the financial ones, I mean.

From an European point of view, I can assure you that we mocked and pointed Bush very early on - four months on into his presidency, maybe. And I can tell you that my disgust for Palin has nothing whatsoever to do with her gender. (If you're interested, here are my thoughts on the matter). I'd hate anybody who seems to be the impersonation of every single negative stereotype about Americans that exists. The "Former Beauty Queen" is just the cherry on the top, just like "Former Quarterback" would have been in a man.

I don't think that "African thing" is more stupid than anything else she's said during the last months. An ignorant is an ignorant is an ignorant, and even if only half of her statements were made up, it was bad enough.

[mamazano.livejournal.com]

This isn't surprising, actually. (The geography bit). I once walked around the building I worked in, where 99% of the people were college students, grad students, with most have at least a Masters of Science degree, asking randomly which continent Egypt was in. Surprising, most people did NOT say Africa. Many said the Middle East, which when last I checked, is in Asia.

I am sure that Palin is getting critcized more because she is a woman, but the fact remains, she is definitely not the most astute woman in politics. I cringe to think the Republican party actually saw her fit to be running this country.

I am also sure that whatever Obama does will be under the microscope as well, mostly do to the color of his skin. That is the way this country operates it seems.

[ellie-pierson.livejournal.com]

The thing I found most annoying, was surprisingly not Mrs. Palin, but how the press latched onto the fact that the Republican party had spent $150,000 on her clothing. Why is that important? Would they have ever considered making a comment about how much they spent on a male canidates wardrobe?? Was it to push home the fact that she is just an average mom?

[gloromeien.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was definitely thinking the same thing when I read that article. It does smack of 'Pin the Election Loss on the Pitbull With Lipstick'. And the ways they chose to defame her were classic sexism. She went on a spending spree! She appeared in a towel! She's an out of control, unedumecated floosy! She bedazzled us with her feminine wiles! Please.

Palin served their purposes when they needed her, but now she's suddenly the reason for their defeat. God forbid they should blame the actual candidate! Because honestly if he had been a stellar choice for Prez, her intellectual competency would not be or have been an issue.

Also, doesn't that inevitably reflect badly upon them? She may be dumb - and, whoa, is she ever! - but they were the ones willing to give her the keys to the kingdom. IMO, it says more about their priorities and infantile attitudes than it does about Palin's capabilities.

[crevette.livejournal.com]

I think that This says it best.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

You know, you weren't running for Vice President with a 72-year old running mate. I think it's inexcusable and these gaffs should be balloyhooed from theh rooftops for the pure and simple reason that it shows she's completely unqualified for the job she was applying for. Combine this with the leaks magnifying her shopping sprees and we have someone who is not only dumb but is venal and self-serving.

Do I wish that all the words spent on Hillary Clinton's appearance were excercized from my brain? Yes. Do I htink that the public spends an inordinate amount of time obsessing over women politicians and their apperance. Obviously. Just as much as people do over Obama being black. The trailblazers are storymakers.

But if you take away that "need" for a story, the bottomline is that her ignorance is so profound that it should be tattooed on her forehead. Because we all know she's running in 2012, thereby potentially eliminating a possible DECENT candidate. I used to admire the Republicans on one level in that I thought they were smart and focused. The radical wing of the GOP are idiots if they think they can parlay this woman into a national candidate. She is made of fail. And four years getting tutored night and day is not going to change her essential nature. Someone who can gas with a microphone and nothing more.

[a-silver-rose.livejournal.com]

From what I've been seeing since Tuesday, this bringing up the Africa gaffe is part of an ongoing tension (to put it mildly) between the Palin and McCain camps. Frankly, I'd forgotten about it until now. Maybe the McCain people are looking to scapegoat Palin, and using this as one of their many excuses?

[justawench.livejournal.com]

My personal problem with her is not her lack of knowledge on this particular subject or that one, it's that she is intellectually incurious and that she doesn't see a problem with not having all the information at hand.

She's all about appearances and self-promotion. I don't think she has been unfairly picked on for being a woman. She's worse than Dan Quayle, IMO, and he was mocked pretty relentlessly. I find her *completely* unqualified for VP or President.

The only experience that could possibly qualify her for a higher political office is less than two years as governor of a small (population-wise) state. From what I've read, she achieved this by letting people mentor her, then stabbing them in the back; plus running against an incumbent who was perceived to be corrupt.

I just found this article, which gives some interesting insight: http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=8c130fe3-adab-4cb3-8443-c363f085cf13

[porridgebird.livejournal.com]

An entirely different story would have been: "When we first met Sarah, she didn't even know Africa was a continent. But we've never seen anyone so eager to learn! She wore us out! You couldn't keep her face out of a book. We had to remind her to sleep!"

But that's not what happened. She resisted and refused coaching and instruction. Then when she got bad press over her ignorance, she cried and threw temper tantrums and blamed the very people who had tried to help her. THEN she spent a king's ransom on clothes. She's not being picked on because she's a woman, she's being picked on because she's bimbo. She lived down to just about every negative female stereotype out there.

[yoiebear.livejournal.com]

The Africa continent/country thing doesn't bother me as much as the story that she didn't know where the countries of the Middle East were located and when they showed her on a map, she was surprised they were so close to Africa and Europe. She also had no idea what countries made up the Middle East. *rolls eyes*

[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.