There's No Stupidity Like Palin Stupidity

ndm

-- Revealing really - is that when asked a softball question of this sort Palin decided that rather than answer it in any positive way, pointing out that Truman and Reagan and others hardly attended "elite" colleges and how that says something admirable about the American way of politics, she chose to view and answer the question in terms of the Culture Wars. (my emphasis)

I don't know about that given that two of the last five British Prime Ministers didn't go to university at all - although to be fair they were vastly more experienced in politics that is Sarah Palin. I think one of the failings of American politics is that far too many politicians went to law school - which is not to say that I think Sarah Palin remotely qualified.

David Williamson

Clearly, Mrs Palin is not as smart as Mr Massie or Mr Obama - but I think she will make a far better President than both of you.

Rhoda Klapp

How come what seem like reasoned arguments in your head come out as elitist snobbish rants on the page?

DavidDP

What's snobbish and elitist about this?

ed hall

Obama really has wonderful work experience - race-hustling in Chicago with his marxist friends, sorry community-organising.

Yam Yam

As the Somali warlord says to his American counterpart in the movie "Black Hawk Down", "Don't assume I'm stupid, General, that just because I come from a village with no running water".

Rhoda Klapp

What's elitist and snobbish is that Alex doesn't like Palin for her populist appeal. She is from nowhere. She is, still, a political outsider. Outside the beltway. Suspicious of the whole political class. Alex is an ex-member of the beltway political culture. He's possibly more at home there than in the flyover states, or in the case of Alaska, the don't even flyover state. It looks like snobbery and elitism. And calling the woman stupid because of the way she answers a gotcha question (the one they ask all candidates, what makes you think you're good enough?) just backs that impression up.

As for the other thing, you can't get by being against something, is that not a red herring? You can be against fascism, or communism, or tyranny, can't you? The thing you are for is freedom and democracy. If and when Palin runs, she will be for something. What it is will depend on Obama and the dems, for they still have it to lose. Chances are that if they fix the economy, they leave themselves open to tax or inflation issues. If they don't fix it, well...

Marbury

RK's answer to the above question is entirely ad hominem, because she doesn't have an answer. And s/he actually reminds us of Palin's vacuousness by admitting that Palin doesn't stand for anything - except opposing the Democrats. (And by the way, a question that's asked of all presidential candidates is, by definition, not a "gotcha" question!)

Rhoda Klapp

Well, calling Palin stupid is ad hom. Or as fem, perhaps. Calling out Alex for it is not, to my mind, ad hom. Alex seems to have a thing about her, and he posts about her more than about other prospective candidates who are better qualified, and more than about the performance of the incumbent, which will have far more effect on 2012 than anything the GOP does.

Yes, yes, I know Alex may post what he likes. I just find his pre-occupation with Palin a little worthy of remark, especially as the rest of this place has a lot less interest in US issues than it used to, witness the disappeance of the Americano blog. Surely more is happening in the US than Palin.

DavidDP

It's elitist because it's elitist? Uhuh.

Palin's cult of personality is the reason for the focus on her. She's seen, with her encouragement, as the great hope for the GOP. I think pointing out her inconsistencies and short comings is rather necessary for the survival of the GOP, which she will otherwise take down in flames. You'd have thought they'd have learnt their lesson with Bush Jr.

Rebel Saint

I like Sarah Palin and would vote for her. I have no idea what qualifications any of the people I have ever voted for are, and I don't care. As the old adage goes, "I don't care how much you know unless I know how much you care".

Palin seems to care about things I care about. She an outsider. She's good looking. She seems to irritate political commentators. Four very good reasons to vote for her as far as I'm concerned

Patricia Shaw

The Neocons gave us Bush with few problems. Now Fox and all their other pals are grooming Palin.

You'll know when to worry as soon as Melanie Phillips starts to laud her like she did pre the last Election. Look for visits to Israel, the Wailing Wall and co ordinated, automatic, ultra right wing Zionist blog support.

Chris

Good to see incisive ad feminam argument from someone whose understanding of US history is so deep that he thinks there were 'No-Nothings.' It's 'Know-Nothings,' Alex,and you're a know-sweet f.a.

Cuffleyburgers

Rhoda Klapp - on this one I say that Alex is right. Having seen bits of Palin interviews it is clear that the woman totally lacks gravitas.

The fact that McCain selected her as running mate shows what a wise decision the American people made when they said no-thanks (up to that point I was a firm McCain fan)

Like here in the UK there is much in the US that needs sorting. Obama looks increasingly unlikely to achieve much. Palin would achieve nothing.

A palin presidency would make the US a laughing stock.

The very idea is absurd.

I am all for outsiders, especially attractive women, in politics, but they have to be able to talk well, to convince to charm, to threaten. This must be allied to decency, honesty and courage.

Palin doesn't cut it.

Rhoda Klapp

Don't peg me as a Palin supporter, I'm firmly in the wait and see camp. If Palin becomes, in some possible future, nominatable, then she will be electable. Whether she could be worthy of it, I know not.

But then, how many of them are?

Oh, and the dems still have it to lose. They currently seem to be acting in not-too-clever a manner, fiscally. I'd rather see Alex write about that.

Alex Massie

Rhoda: Palin wasn't being asked a "gotcha" questions. It was an interview with Bill O'Reilly, for crying out loud. And her response is interesting not because of what she says but because of what it reveals about the way she thinks.

And as for writing about Palin: well, she's in the news rather more than Mike Huckabee at the moment. And, mercifully, Mitt Romney is keeping quiet too. At present, though this may change, the GOP 2012 field looks even worse than the 2008 version. Which is saying something.

Oh: and as for my Beltway mindset? Well, I'm not so sure about that. I don't think there's too much evidence of that from what I've written, not least because I'm a pretty, I think, consistent advocate of federalism and a critic of Washington. But I may be wrong and perhaps am corrupted by the all-powerful Beltway Virus.

Sir Graphus

There was me trying to believe her previous utterance that she wasn’t running for president. This statement reads very clearly that she is. Obviously, she hasn’t been intelligent enough to spot the trap in the question.

Being able to communicate with the average voter in Hicksville is a gift, one which Palin plays on a great deal; she achieves this by being only as intelligent as the average voter in Hicksville; but the average voter in Hicksville is, for that reason, completely incapable of running the free world. We’ve tried it with Bush and it was a complete disaster from which the world may never recover.

The top political jobs are difficult, and require clever people. It’s why Bush was a disaster, and on a lesser level, why Prescott was completely out of his depth and achieved nothing bar the misuse of his office. I remain, as ever, absolutely terrified that someone as stupid as Palin might become President, and convinced of its inevitability.

Conservative Cabbie

Alex

Wow did you misread Palin's response. You said:

"Ivy League* education must be a necessary qualification to be President of the United States but you have to be even dumber to consider it a disqualification."

And then you list Presidents going back to the founding. Now I haven't seen the whole interview, and I'm basing this jusy on the quoted passage. Please tell me where Sarah Palin says that an Ivy league education has always been a disqualification? Palin is talking in the present tense. In an America where the elite classes have failed the public; bailouts, recession, dubious claims of climate change, massive foreign debt and unpopular health reform, it's a very reasonable point to suggest that people are fed up with failing elite classes and want a country run on the principles that dominate in the home and in business where cost-effectiveness and efficiency are the order of the day rather than wasteful and pandering public spending.

You said:

"She has no idea what she's for, just what she's against."

Funny how you missed it Alex, but that comment says exactly what she's for. Common-sense, American values and free enterprise principles.

You said:

"She chose to view and answer the question in terms of the Culture Wars."

Unlike the President who spoke of people clinging to guns and religion, or his campaign staff that dismissed her as Mayor of a small town. That's not "culture war"?

One question, if you and your friend at The Atlantic are so dismissive of her, why are you both so obsessed by her?

One final point. You earlier praised Bob McDonnell's conservative pragmatism as the way forward for the GOP. You obviously haven't looked at Palin's gubernatorial career. She did pragmatism before McDonnell even planned to run for governor. How else do you explain her high eighties approval ratings. Moderates liked her, even Democrats because she governed as a pragmatist, not as a conservative ideologue.

Hysteria

Give Rhoda a blog....

Rhoda Klapp

Alex, I appreciate the spirit in which you reply to my comments.

It's still somewhat of a gotcha question. Are you smart enough to be president? No, well you shouldn't be president. Yes, you are an arrogant SOB. I admit it's a question a candidate should be prepared for. And the correct answer for Palin was probably something along the lines of 'I'll hire all the smart people I need'.
Which is what any POTUS ought to do. I don't think anybody can make a case that one kind of president, ivy league, bush league, smart, dumb, whatever, is the right kind. Leadership doesn't work like that. Lucky is probably the best quality.

tom

It's not a gotcha question. If you're defining any question that isn't moronically easy-to-answer as 'gotcha' then that phrase has definitely lost its meaning (if it had any in the first place).

On an unrelated note: Alex, if you're reading this, any chance you could have a word with one of the head honchos at the Speccie website and ask them to stop truncating your RSS feed after the first 250 words or whatever it is? Most annoying to have to keep clicking through to here finish reading your wise words.

conservative cabbie

Give Rhoda a blog....

Here here!

Jeremy

Sarah Palin is provincial, suburban, dull (in both mind and manner) and lacking in style. There are millions of people just like her, everywhere. And no doubt she is very popular with them. People tend to vote for what most resembles themselves. And in a democracy that means the lowest common denominator votes for the lowest common denominator. You need only look around you to see the quality of politician - and of political culture - that results from this.

Gil

I hold no brief for Sarah Palin; she was woefully unsuitable for the Vice Presidency in 2008-9. I also don't think she is very bright. But -

She was Governor of a State and had more executive experience than Obama.

And during the election campaign she actually invoked Reagan many times re: her speeches about the 'shining city on the hill'.

Snowman

if she is such a non-entity why every scribbler in town and beyond keeps kicking her? I'd rather be ruled by her than you or any of the clever dicks around, and I reckon we would be in less shite than we are.

Snowman

and another thing: I support a blog for Rhoda, too.

Snowman

William F. Buckley: ‘I would rather be ruled by 100 people taken at random from the Boston telephone directory than by the faculty of Harvard University.’ Bloody right, pity he ain’t around anymore.

Rhoda Klapp

"People tend to vote for what most resembles themselves. And in a democracy that means the lowest common denominator votes for the lowest common denominator"

So Obama was voted in by Harvard's numerous Black alumni?

redpens

Ivy League education is a joke when you have a far left nutcase like Cass Sunstein who is an alum. He has no business being in any administration. When you believe that animals should be represented in court, it loses its' luster.

Patricia Shaw

Give PALIN a blog!

Neil can buy it with his chuckle chums at Fox

Phillips can write it

Nelson can breathe on it (euw)

Massie can argue with it.

Snowman

Patricia Shaw at 10.45:

are all pseudo-liberal brains as witty and funny as yours? What a joy it must be to attend your gettogethers.

The Welsh Jacobite

"ad hom. Or a[d] fem"

No! No! No!

You ignoramus!!

"Homo" is "man" in the general sense (a human being regardless of sex or age) not the specific sense (an adult male).

"Ad feminam" would only be necessary if the conventional phrase were "ad virum".

A. MacAulay

Well, Snowman to be ruled by a random 100 from the Boston Directory would certainly get Ireland unified in a hurry.

Dan Davies

Alex, the Know-Nothings weren't so called because they were ignorant - they were an anti-Catholic movement that (rather like the Militant Tendency) denied being a political party by instructing their members to say that they "know nothing" of the party in public.