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Originally Posted by smooth
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.
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Then say what W said. It worked for him. "I don't read newspapers because I want to get my news straight, not filtered by the biased media." It will still make her look like a half-witted moron, but at least it'll be the kind of moron that her base likes.
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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.
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Why? Wall Street is in New York, not DC. And that doesn't even touch on my inherent objection to glorifying and encouraging ignorance. "I don't want my leader to know what influential publications have to say (whether she agrees with them or not is another issue entirely - a president may not agree with bin Laden but I damn sure want him to know what the terrorist is saying). I want my leader to read nothing at all and hold to her own narrow world view no matter what the external evidence," is what you seem to think the republican base believes. You may actually be right about that - especially if you believe that the current republican base is in fact the neo-con party.
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Either she reads all media or no media?
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No, either she can recall the name of one media publication that she reads, or she cannot. If she can't she's either senile quite early, or lying.
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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.
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So she's already hiding her activities, and she hasn't even gotten to Wasington yet? That's less than stellar.
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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.
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I completely disagree. You do not have to be a back woods "redneck" who only likes huntin' and fishin' an' hockey mommin' in order to be a non-politician. This carefully crafted image (and that's just what it is, she can't even reliably hold up the folksy accent) is just that. An image. I.e, she's just another politician trying to make us think she's somethin' she's not donchaknow.
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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.
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"I read newspapers." "I don't know which newspapers those are."
Those two statements mean either:
I really don't read newspapers
I read newspapers but am too stupid to recall even the name of the newspaper that I read.
I read newspapers and know exactly what they are but in order to protect my carefully crafted political image as a non-politician I'm going to lie and claim I don't know what they are. I realize this ignores the fact that I will look like an absolute moron when I can't remember the name of something I supposedly read routinely, but I feel it's better to appear to be an idiot than to appear to be the politician that I am.
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Because she answered the Russia comment with total lunacy from our standpoint she must not have been overprepped?
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No, she was probably overprepped, for her ability level. One does not attempt to teach a caribou how to do quadratic equations, and one should not attempt to teach Palin how to appear intelligent when discussing matters of state.
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When I use that term, I'm thinking in my head that they took a pretty sharp woman
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No, sorry, a reasonably sharp woman would not feel she was qualified for foreign relations duty because she can see russia from her home.
A reasonably sharp woman who did not feel she was qualified for those reasons, would also not believe that the American public would possibly think her qualified if she made those claims. The woman is dumb as a brick. Now, whether that's IQ dumb, or willfully stupid, can be argued. Personally I think she's willfully stupid - - that is, she has the mental capacity to learn and comprehend basic concepts such as "it takes more than looking at the shore of an entire nation to understand how that nation works" but has willfully chose to remain gloriously ignorant on such concepts.
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But it's probably true that she doesn't have heaps of critical thinking skills, but that's not what intelligence is always about.
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We are talking about a potential president of the united states here, not the manager of the Wasilla Walmart. Critical thinking skills are an absolute requirement for the job. We have seen what the lack thereof gets us. Just look at W's record - -the other politician who doesn't read.
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The SNL crew said she did her segments in one shot, and it was perfect.
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Wow. She can read cue cards. Big. Deal. I can do that too, but that doesn't qualify me for higher office.
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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.
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She dazzled the mouth-breathing subpopulace that looked for pizazz and flare, but didn't give a crap about substance. She said /nothing/ substantive in that speech. Nothing.
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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.
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MA: I want to be sure, I don't quite understand the phenomenon "Joe the plumber" - that's not your husband, right?
Palin: That's not my husband, but he's a normal American who just works hard and doesn't want government to take his money.
MA: Yes, yes, I understand, we have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France, it's called Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit
Palin: Right, that's what it's all about. It's the middle class, and government needing to work with them. You're a very good example for us here.
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Assuming I didn't catch the Steph Carse (the singer who's magically become PM of Canada, you know, the other country Palin can see from her state and must therefore know all about) or the part where he said Richard Sirois, the Canadian comedian, was Prime Minister of Quebec (which must be a surprise to jean Charest), I think once he started talking about guys with bread under their armpits I'd have figured out something was fishy.
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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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No, we don't. We're mature and intelligent people, and when the boss wishes to communicate something with us, we want to be sure we understand what it is that the boss wants, and so we get clarification if we do not understand it the first time.