It’s apparently been suggested by some former aides to the McCain/Palin campaign that Sarah Palin posed no intellectual challenge to campaign bus she rode in (and out) on. I have to admit, I got on the stone-throwing band-wagon, there… You see yesterday’s post pointing to the Daily Show videos?
This story on CNN..com shows Palin’s self-pitying side. She’s so sweeeeeet! I mean, since she joined the McCain camp… what? 2 months ago?… she’s been the faltering mouthpiece of the campaign’s attack machine, delivering the “slash” part of the combined McCain/Palin “slash and compliment” depiction of Barack Obama. Palin would call him a marxist and a terrorist, while in the next room (or the next swing state) McCain was gently defending Obama’s character and dignity as a human being. Palin was making all the noise, and not with what one would call “tact” or concern for “context”… but now that the campaign is over, and she’s on the losing side, well, it just isn’t fair.
There’s a word for that… uh… gosh… What is it?!… uuuuhhhh… Hypocrisy! Well, she’s a politician… what could one expect, after all? Dignity? Honesty? Introspection? Objectivity? Obviously not. No, instead, she called the people who revealed the campaign’s cards after the game was over “jerks”. Elementary school tantrums really work well in international diplomacy, from what I’ve heard.
What’s more, her spin doctors (with degrees in spin medicine from Harvard, no doubt) have cleverly jedi-hand-waved (from the CNN story):
“This is so unfortunate and, quite honestly, sickening,” Palin aide Meghan Stapleton said Thursday in a written statement.
“The accusations we are hearing and reading are not true, and since we deny all these anonymous allegations, there is nothing specific to which we will respond.”
Did you get that? Paraphrasing: All of what we’ve heard is untrue, and we deny it all, and therefore won’t comment on individual parts of it. Uh… what? If you accused me of something… let’s say… a hit and run accident… You’re accusing me of a specific action, at a specific place and time… and you’re accusing me as an eye witness to the event. If I’m approached by the police, and they say, “We have a complaint from an eye witness who states that you struck another vehicle with your vehicle, and left the scene.” well… It seems to me, the sensible thing to do would be to say, “The accusation I’m hearing is untrue, and since I deny all anonymous accusations, there is nothing specific to which I will respond.” I would then be promptly Mirandized, having already plead the Fifth Amendment, cuffed and stuffed. If I persisted in my stupid obstinance at trial, I’d then be in prison. Don’t you think?
Obviously, this is not a court of law, and we’re not talking about a hit and run traffic accident… but, come on! Such a fallacious rhetorical flourish could only come from a failed politician’s PR machine. It’s not just stupid… it’s BOLDLY stupid. It’s the adult version of “Nuh-UH!” It’s heroically moronic. It’s an Herculean feat of small-minded playground defensiveness. What’s she going to do next? Demand to be met at the flagpole right after school?
The story also mentions Randy Scheunemann, a Palin aide, who called her “brilliant” and in possession of a “photographic memory”. Perhaps, Randy… but a President has to be able to form complete sentences… not to appeal to the religious-right rural voters, but to engage in diplomacy. Speaking in complete sentences indicates an ability to consider one’s thoughts and distill them into something substantive, coherent and intelligible for someone else to understand. A photographic memory helps when playing Concentration on a rainy Saturday, but it won’t do dick for you when you’re faced with a new and serious policy question, or an international situation that demands deliberation, tact and originality.
OK, maybe Sarah Palin really DID know what countries are in North America. Good for her. Knowing which countries are in North America, alone, doesn’t make one fit for office; not knowing, I would say, does make one unfit. I saw the Vice Presidential debate. On that performance alone, I think she’s wholly unqualified to be Vice President, let alone President. The rest is window dressing.
The thing that worries me is that in 4 years, she might have boned up on her talking points (using her stellar “photographic memory”) enough to make a serious bid for the Presidency.
