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That is what I'm saying, but let's not start to throw all of my comments into the same bag.
Of course she's strapping the issue of the "elite media" to appeal to their largest constituency. It also accounts for her flubs by placing the responsibility of the gotcha questions on them rather than her inability to answer them. I'm sure she believes that there are media elements that have it in for her and republicans. I'm also sure that she doesn't see Sean Hannity as one of those people.
Simply because you think that certain media elements have it out for you or your political ideals, doesn't mean there aren't business articles in there your aids will place on your desk each morning. I doubt that most politicians would classify the Wall Street Journal as one of those media elite sources, but I doubt that a bunch of working class fokes who have been chanting "media elite, media elite,, media elite" would appreciate a washington outsider saying that she closely follows what happens on in the business world by reading the WSJ every morning. That's my point, I'm not sure why you construct what I see as false dilemmas. Either she reads all media or no media? No, she reads media that could be construed by her constituents as not making much sense given what they were told to believe about the media in general. She is a governor of a huge energy state with deep, convoluted business interconnections. It's just silly to think she doesn't tune in to the business news and is instead zipping around shooting moose.
When the argument is that you're just a regular person who enjoys the wilderness because the people you want voting for you want anything but a politician, then it's not a good idea to admit that you read anything at all other than Guns and Ammo. Of course, if you say you read Guns and Ammo, then the professional politicians and media pundits WILL castigate you for being a bumpkin that doesn't know jack shit. It makes perfect sense to me that two vying sides would use little snippets like this as if they meant something, but it doesn't make sense when intelligent people like yourself operating on a slower messaging board and have the ability to sift info and play with shades of gray would do the same thing.
I know Palin likes to hunt, I know Cheney likes to hunt, I suspect Kennedies love to hunt, I know oregon separatists who like to hunt deer, I know people from montana who like to hunt deer, I know lifelong democrats who's entire family have voted straight ticket for generations but they run hunting expeditions. So basically what I can conclude from this is that hunting deer tells me exactly shitall about someone's politics.
I'm not sure I follow your logic on the overprepped point.
Because she answered the Russia comment with total lunacy from our standpoint she must not have been overprepped?
When I use that term, I'm thinking in my head that they took a pretty sharp woman and told her a few key phrases. But they also restrained her from talking about certain things and didn't trust her to use her reasoning abilities. When she used her own reasoning skills, she gave the "wrong" answer on the Pakistan situation. But my point was that she gave the logically coherent answer, just not the one the McCain campaign was advocating. But it's probably true that she doesn't have heaps of critical thinking skills, but that's not what intelligence is always about.
The SNL crew said she did her segments in one shot, and it was perfect. She evidently took a week's prep and gave the RNC speech to millions of viewers and tens of thousands of live crowd. She dazzles people when they let her off the leash. That's fact regardless of what people think of her qualifications. Her qualifications are in question, not her abilities. If people start arguing that she never will be qualified for Presidency then they are underestimating her abilities, imo.
So she's obviously got a sharpness to her that many or possibly most don't have. I was top in my class in sociology but I don't dare go out and stand with my wife when she sings a classical piece in German in front of a full music hall. I don't do it myself, but I've watched friends field dress hunts and I was impressed.
I guess the point is that whereas you take her ignorance at face value, I interpret these politicians' portrayals of ignorance to say more about what they think of the people watching them rather than what it says about them personally.
As for the original topic, I don't think many people in her situation responding here would have done much differently once you assume your aid would have vetted the caller. The really funny part was when he asked her about Nalin Palin. But it was only funny because I read my Goffman. It's funny to my friends on the floor because they think she's a dumbfuck. But of course, when someone says something you have no idea what they're saying, but they are a) foreign with an accent and b) a high level official, and c) you don't want to make them feel uncomfortable and, d) there's very little chance Palin follows Hustler releases, then it's really got nothing to do with her intelligence when she just goes along with what the speaker is saying.
When your boss says some weird shit to you, I hope you guys hold your tongues and laugh behind his back at the water cooler rather than saying, gee Tom are you losing your mind? or I can't understand your accent...or anything other than nodding politely and moving on which is what she did.
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"The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann
"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman
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