Sarah Palin: Dumb as a stump?

Short answer to the question posed in your headline: Yes.

Well, this is good Rod. We'll blame Palin. Nope, it was not the neo-cons and and possibly the worst president in US history. It was Palin. It was not that McCain was never a conservative. It was Palin's fault, she bought clothes.

I would take Palin over any of them. And if the Republican party does not see that this election loss was because of its own failed policy, it will cease to exist. Almost there now.

W., McCain,Biden know what NAFTA is they screwed us with it. But they are smart and she is stupid.

I just want to know what charity she is going to be donating her $150,000 worth of clothing to. =)

The McCain "braintrust" now shows it's not only incompetent, but also classless. When they finally let Palin off her leash and avoided MSM outlets, she did very well. Why they put her on with Couric and Gibson boggles the mind. And spare one interview with O'Reilly, the Dem ticket didn't go and speak to many non-MSM outlets.

Mccain and Palin turned down a half hour free on "O'Reilly" oposite Obama's infomercial.

McCain never appeared on Rush, Savage or Dennis Miller. Yet he readily appeared on numerous MSM outlets, and Leno, Letterman and SNL. How'd that work out? We had the GOP nominee doing standup on SNL the weekend before an election. Add in his erratic "bailout" performance, you have arguably the least serious presidential campaign in memory.

McCain is a genuine American hero.But his campaign was abysmal and stupidly run.The people in charge of McCain's campaign need to find a new line of work.

Hear hear to all of the above who rightly pointed out that the LAST people we should trust are those responsible for/working for a campaign that got trounced - and was incompetently run in the first place.

And while no big Palin fan, c'mon. Move on already.

I don't think Rod was trying to say it was Palin's fault for loosing. All of those things you have all mentioned above (GWB, NeoCon policy) are all the more likely contributers to the end of the Republican era .All of the things Rod mentioned, all sound (Well maybe not the clothes thing) like things George W Bush would've done.I think what Rod is saying was maybe our country was lucky that McCain/Palin didn't win or we could've been stuck with another GWB or Dan Quayle somewhere down the line.

What I found surprising was Cameron's comment that this sort of dish was off the record until after the election.

If this stuff is even remotely true, is FOX now taking journalism lessons from the LA Times, to protect its candidate?

Why is the standard for measuring Sarah Palin apparently applicable only to her? Where is the commentary about the human gaffe machine known as Joe Biden? Sure he has experience - 30 some years of being WRONG on every major issue! The same guy who claimed we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanaon! That master of facts? Why is nobody claiming he's 'dumb as a stump' when we can provide example after example of lies, exaggerations, and downright boneheadedness without even going beyond this fall's campaign?

Sheesh - you people are cattier than Joan Rivers.

Rod - where were you when Joe Biden was telling us how
he watched FDR on TV during the Wall Street crash in
1929?

WTF?

This is predictable. The GOP insiders and the cretins who ran the McCain campaign need a scapegoat, not wanting to accept any blame themselves. Very soon you will see the elitists in the party expand the criticism of Palin to the religious/cultural conservative base.

If this doesn't prove that the GOP leadership couldn't care less about social conservatives other than as voting booth fodder I don't know what does. Time to 'bandon the plantation, y'all.

Greg, I think it's pretty standard practice for folks on the campaign to dish certain gossip to reporters on the condition that it be embargoed until the day after the campaign. The increased access gives Americans deeper insight into the campaign progress, access that no campaign would be willing to give if they knew that it was likely to come out in the days leading up to a hotly contested election. And it's not just Fox - Newsweek has placed independent reporting teams with the two campaign under precisely such conditions for the last two or three decades now. In fact, I don't remember everything said on this clip - I watched it last night - but it's entirely possible that the gossip Fox is reporting is based on the reporting of this Newsweek team. Do either of the journos in that clip say that Fox had access to this information before yesterday? Seriously, I don't remember and don't have time to rewatch it.

Girls are so dumb, aren't they? They should just stay home and play with dolls.

I was amazed how quickly fellow republicans were defending the Pallin pick as "the best possible candidate." This type of self delusion is why modern conservatism has been rejected by the electorate.

McCain admitted in his acceptance speech at the GOP convention that the party was doing things to keep themselves in power at the expense of good governance. This was just an extension of that.

I have never been more relieved that my party lost an election. The thought of President Palin was unnerving to me. The only national stage we will see her on is a variety show.

What I found surprising was Cameron's comment that this sort of dish was off the record until after the election. If this stuff is even remotely true, is FOX now taking journalism lessons from the LA Times, to protect its candidate?

Journalists are often given information "off the record," which means if they're ethical, they cannot report it, period, until granted permission by the person who gave them the information. Carl Cameron was not protecting anybody; he was just being an ethical professional. Journalists have gone to jail rather than betray sources to whom they've promised off the record confidentiality. You may think it's a bad ethics policy, but Cameron is doing nothing that any other ethical professional journalist would do.

I'm still shaking my head over McCain's pick of Sarah Palin. What was he thinking?

As a Democrat, I liked the pick because of the way it energized our side, pulling the wavering Hillary supporters to Obama with a vengeance.

As soon as he picked Sarah Palin, women I know who thought McCain was okay were screaming, "How stupid does he think we are?" Then, they signed up to block walk for Obama.

As a Democrat, I breathed a sigh of relief when he picked Palin, and figured we had it in the bag; I had heard a rumor that he might pick a woman, and was afraid he might pick Susan Collins or Kay Bailey Hutchison, either one of whom would pull votes from the pro-Hillary side.

But as an American, an actual "country first" person, I'm kinda mad at the GOP operatives who didn't let McCain pick his friend Joe Lieberman, or a moderate Republican woman like Susan Collins. McCain would have been more relaxed, more "himself," and--though he still might have lost the race--he would have retained some semblance of credibility and people wouldn't have questioned his judgment, as they did over the Palin pick. He lost his "maverick" status the minute he let advisers push him around.

As I said in another post, I hope McCain unleashes his infamous temper on whoever's responsible! He's been looking like he's ready to boil over for a couple of months now, and I hope he takes it out on his staff really soon, if he hasn't already!

"If this stuff is even remotely true, is FOX now taking journalism lessons from the LA Times, to protect its candidate?"

More than likely FOX is looking at their declining share of the news market share (getting their hindquarters kicked by the likes of CNN and MSNBC) and actually deciding to report ALL of the news for once.

I was a strong critic of Palin when she was picked, and this scapegoating is exactly what I knew would happen. She's going to be used as a human shield for McCain his neocon backers.

In defense of Palin, I'd say I wouldn't trust these leaks at all. The only thing I believe is that she was something of a ballbuster. Shocking, I know, but there you have it: an egotistical, pushy politician. This can be pretty much said of a lot of pols. The Hilary stories are legend, and Bill was always a pressure boiler waiting to blow.

As far as her lack of knowledge, it isn't because she's "dumb", it's because she's provincial. That's not a sin in itself, but it should have put her out of the running for VP.

McCain's folks are trying to destroy her because they feel she wasn't loyal to McCain. This is such BS. The fact that NeoCon FAUX News is playing along doesn't surprise me. Why not go on the record. Nameless source. Gimme a break.

. McCain would have been more relaxed, more "himself," and--though he still might have lost the race...

He would have definitely lost the race, because his base would have stayed, but you're right: it would have been more honest on his part. The base should have reacted to Palin the same way they did to Harriet Miers.

Stupid Palin Rumors

think it tells much more about the people spreading them and very much the stupidity of anyone that would believe them

Palin in a Robe- WHo Cares I got a picture of the almost First Lady in a Bathrobe with a US Senator and Campaign aides

Palin Thought Africa was a Country-
Ok to believe this
(1) Palin has never seen a Globe
(2) Palin was not paying attention for 16 years in School
(3) Palin never helped her kids with their homework or did one of those silly posters for them that showed the continents
(4) Palin hardly watched TV
(5) Palin never read a newspaper
(6) Palin never watched a movies tht talked about Africa
(7) Palin never reads books
(8) When all those Africans Refugess got resettled in ALaska during her term she was on a one year vacation
(9) Palin went to the only Evangelical Church that didnt talk about Missions to Africa
(10) Palin has never had conversation about AFRICA with anyone

In effect Gov Palin has lived the life of a Hermit

NAFTA-
Needless to say she knows about NAFTA. SHe is a Governor of a State that borders a Nafta member. Nafta is a big deal in Alaska. THey have Nafta Abritration stuff all the time

It would also mean in state that has a abundance of polticial eccentrics that when she ran for Governor she did not have about 1000 people ask if she was concerned about the NAFTA HIghway, how Bush was in a conspiracy to make Canada, Mexico, and US one country and all those crazy rumors that were running rampant for years.

So to believe she did not know about NAFTA and who was in it would mean she would be the only poltician on the face in the United States that was not assaulted by the grand conspirarcy rumors that countless polticians had to listen too and nod poltely

It would also mean that they would be the only UNION household in existance!!!! not to talk about Nafta and further!!! that the UNions in Alaska never talked to her about it

Ok I hope I cleared this up.

JH

Oh

abnd

Geaux Tigers Beat Bama

Sarah Palin: Dumb as a stump?
---------------------------
More arrogant than anything else

William R.: Almost as bad as this blast from the past.

Yeah, I was wrong, wrong, wrong. If you've been reading my stuff even sporadically since 2005, you'll know that I've admitted that over and over again.

Would Obama be president-elect today if he wasn't black?

Obviously not, but identity politics is what we expect from the Democrats, and their identity politician was clearly an exceptional candidate.

The Republicans are supposed to be against that sort of thing.

Palin dumb?... of course, but what relevance is this? She was meant to represent and reflect the Republican base, and she did it well.

In the Newsweek article, it mentions the fact that when Schmidt and Davis came to her hotel room, Palin answered the door in nothing but a towel, having just come out of the shower. The article says that she let the two men in, then left them talking to Todd (First Dude), as she went into the bedroom to get dressed. The article mentions that Schmidt and Davis thought it very odd.

One question: Why didn't Todd answer the damn door so his wife didn't have to open the door in just a towel while still wet from her shower?

Okay, here is my opinion as a conservative, Sarah Palin has talent and potential,but she is green and most definitely was not ready for national office yet. She is no moron, if she was she would not a popular govenor of the state of Alaska. She needs to go back to Alaska and get on with being the govenor.

This trashing of her by the McCain hacks is vile and unfair, and think this bunch of vile losers can go to hell. Sarah Palin is not why the Republicans lost, they lost because they are corrupt and stupid and ran a pathetic campaign, againest a vastly superior opponent. Sarah Palin has short comings, but I do not believe she is dumb enough to think Africa is a country.If all the Republicans can do is blame Sarah Palin for their losses instead of looking at and rethinking stuff like the Iraq war, they deserve to be out of power for a very long time. The Neo-cons have gotta go, the greedy,cynical nihilistic degenerates at the heart of the current Republican party have got to go. Americans voted for Obama,because they are sick of seeing our soldiers lives wasted on b.s. and the social compact being smashed to bits by greedy predators who loot America and work to turn the rest of the world in some vast,globalist plantation, while cynially using Jesus and Evangelical Christianity to buy moral cover for their evil. Obama rightly in my opinion painted Mc Cain into a corner,that he would in many ways would continue many of the worst policies of Bush, and that is why the Republicans lost, not because of Sarah Palin.

"Dumb as a stump?" Please, don't insult stumps.

One question: Why didn't Todd answer the damn door so his wife didn't have to open the door in just a towel while still wet from her shower?

Because it's a pile of BS?

I find it very difficult to believe that Sarah Palin did not know Africa was a continent. That smacks of overreach by angry McCain staffers. Color me skeptical.

To answer briefly - no. No, I do not believe for second she is dumb as a stump. I would find it incredible that a college educated woman, governor of a state, mother of 5 kids (she has had to help them with homework for crying out loud!) could be that ignorant.

McCain's staffers are just incredible and I don't mean that in a good way! It's one thing for campaign workers to dish a little. It's a completely different matter when they slander and run someone through the mud in every way - even before the campaign was formally over. It's improper to say the least and unprofessional to say the worst. The whining, sniping, backbiting reveals one thing clearly: they never served McCain (and they served and helped Palin even less) they only looked out for number one - themselves. They should have been fired 3 months ago for this garbage - political malpractice!

if this stuff proves true, it'll be the end of Palin's national political career.

I'm inclined to think it's the end regardless of the truth. Dan Quail never recovered, did he?

I'm sorry, but I am not sure I trust anything Andrew Sullivan says about Sarah Palin. Isn't he still maintaining that Trig was her daughter's alien love child or some such nonsense?

This sounds to me like malicious gossip; people casting about for someone to blame and finding her a convenient option. It may well be there is a kernel of truth -- clearly, Ms. Palin is not a towering intellect; she had little time to get up to speed on the issues, and it is not like she and McCain had a working relationship in the past and were able to hit the ground running -- he selected her based upon a fifteen minute meeting several months before. So it is entirely understandable that there was friction. She also may well have overspent her clothing budget; though I had heard that the shopping was done by staffers, not her personally, so there may be more to that story and it may involve more than just Ms. Palin.

That being said, she was *so* not ready to be in the national spotlight. My initial reaction to her selection was schoolgirl giddiness, because I had heard of her and liked what little I knew of her, but shortly after the giddy feeling subsided I started wondering if her *acceptance* of the VP nomination showed good judgment, first because she had recently given birth to a special-needs child, and secondly because she had to realize what a firestorm would ensue regarding Bristol's pregnancy and her redneck fiancee who enjoyed shooting sh*t; vvnjh .and thirdly because she had to on some level realize that VPOTUS is a bit more involved that a state governor, and that she would probably get considerable scrutiny from the press.

Mind you, I still rather like Palin, but I wish she had been left in Alaska for a few more years. If she puts her mind to it, and does a good job governing Alaska for the next four years, plus spends some time educating herself about the Lower 48 and the world beyond, she could conceivably make a comeback in 2012. People do have short memories, after all.

Sounds like a bunch of sour grapes to me. McCain lost because he doesn't represent AMERICA. His election day gathering says it all. A small crowd of white middle ages men and women. President Obama's acceptance speech was attended by a cross section of America. He is an inspirational orater, a knowlegable staesman and a far better human being that McCain, and he represents the beliefs of the nation. If McCain had campaigned on the issues instead of trying to scare people out of voting for him he'd have had far fewer votes than he got. The nonsense that Barak won because of race is ridiculous. At least right now black america still represents a much smaller percentage of the population than white america. The racism in the south was at least as opposed as the black voter tunout was for. Barak won not because he inspired people of his own race to vote for him, but because he inspired many of the rest of us with his real understanding of the issues and a real plan to deal with them. You can minimize the win in your mind, but the rest of us know you're wrong!

I swear, the straight talk express now sets in the front yard of some hillbilly's shack held up by cinder blocks.

We as Americans have to stop embracing stupid candidates. The world is laughing at us for even considering someone like her. Do you think any other industrialized nation would vote for someone who knows so little?

Republicans need to get back to basics and fight for less government and fiscal control. Stop stumping on unimportant issues that appeal to the lowest common denominator of society.

As Rod advised us yesterday, ignore Mr. (head-firmly-up-his) Bottom(s). He is a troll.

It wouldn't be all that noteworthy if Governor Palin had been unaware of some of the details of political divisions in the South Caucasus - to which country do South Ossetia and Abkhazia really belong? - or of the causes of the current financial crisis, but not being able to name the members of NAFTA and thinking South Africa is a region in a country called Africa demonstrate a level of ignorance and incuriosity that can't be remedied by cramming to "get up to speed."

It takes a lot of hubris to want to become President and to think that one is capable of dealing with all of the challenges the position entails. But it goes way beyond hubris into some sort of mental derangement for a person to think that she can be an effective President when she knows so little about the country she wants to govern and the world she intends to lead.

Donald Rumsfeld was widely ridiculed for his comments about "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns" though that was one instance where he was absolutely right. John McCain demonstrated this when he admitted, perhaps too candidly, to having a poor grasp of economics. At least he knew what he didn't know. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, doesn't know or doesn't care that there are important things out there that she doesn't know but needs to learn. That is one of the main reasons that I, a lifelong Republican, voted for Barack Obama.

Yes, I can believe it and you should also. If not, check this out: Last week I was at an upscale Dallas restaurant and a woman came by my table. I introduced her to my guest, a woman from Cali, Colombia. Having learned a long time ago that Colombians are so weary of the unfair and unkind cocaine jokes/association regarding their country, I said Maria was visiting here from South America. To which the college educated woman replied, 'The Keys?'. Not understanding her comment, my friend said that she has learned MANY people in the USA think South America is 1) The name for Key West, etc. Florida 2) That South America is a country not a continent. Honest.

If Palin wants to run again, she'll need to ask Pauly Shore to be her running mate, lest she feel that old elitist complex attacking her decidedly un-complex mental skill sets.

I don't think these things are true, but they could be. We're getting rumours put forth by severely interested parties filtered through the media, and so discerning the facts of the matters is difficult to say the least. I think McCain's people are coming across to me like assholes, and they need someone to throw under the bus.

Darcy: I would find it incredible that a college educated woman, governor of a state, mother of 5 kids (she has had to help them with homework for crying out loud!) could be that ignorant.

You'd be amazed at the stupidity, ignorance, lack of curiosity, and just plain moronic beliefs of college educated people, governors (and other politicians), and parents (whether or not they help their kids with homework!). Especially in these days of dumbed-down curricula, having a degree is no guarantor of intelligence. My wife always says that her stint in grad school disabused her of any notions that having a "PhD" after your name, in and of itself, said anything about what you had upstairs. My sister, who actually has a PhD, and is a bright woman, agrees with this based on her experiences. I might also point out that I regularly correct the spelling in notes from my daughter's teacher, and that another pastime I have is catching spelling errors in newspapers, which are presumably written by college-educated people.

Having said all this, and pointing out that I never supported or liked Palin, did not vote for her, and do not view her as the sharpest tool in the GOP shed, I do suspect, in fairness to her, that the McCain campaign handlers are being catty and snarky and a lot of what they're saying sounds fishy. I also agree that it is the typical style of putting down a woman in ways that would not be done to a man--especially ironic in light of the complaints from the Right that criticisms of Palin were sexist.

Frankly, I never intended to vote for McCain even before Palin, but I think for those who did vote for them (holding their nose or otherwise), this should show the character of the campaign, and to some extend McCain himself. Say what you will about Obama, I don't see his people shredding each other like this had they lost.

And, unlike Obama, she did not campaign in all 57 states...

Anglican said it all. I'm not sure what's trollish about Richard Bottoms' first post, though; it seems to me to be a fair statement of the alternatives in this story. My guess, FWIW, is that most of this stuff is nonsense deliberately floated to divert attention from the horrendous performance of the McCain campaign. Scapegoating Sarah Palin is a fool's gambit, though. The people in the Republican base who admire her (and who are not necessarily hillbillies living in single-wides atop cinder blocks; talk about stereotyping!) will, correctly, see this as an attempt by the Republican Establishment to derail the populist/evangelical wing of the party from ever aspiring to run it. Today they slime Palin, tomorrow they'll slime Huckabee. And they don't have any use for Crunchy Cons, either. Fortunately, they are sliding into irrelevance. Obama put the stake through their hearts, just as he did to the horrific prospect of a Clinton II regime, and for that he merits the gratitude of us all. Let these fools self-destruct, and out of the ruins there may emerge a political movement where Crunchies and populists of a conservative bent and traditonal believers can find a home. It won't likely win many national elections, whatever it's called, but at least it won't be a continual exercise in holding one's nose and voting anyway.

There are people like you Rod who are convinced Palin is dumb. You of course believe it.

NRO has the details, wherein all the occured was during a verbal back and forth conversation, someone talking about the country of South Africa was being confused with the idea of "southern Africa."

Again, this shows more about your own bias and the bias of her handlers than it does about her. When someone who fits your profile makes a mistake you immediately assume it was just a mistake. When Palin makes a mistake you assume "my God, you don't know that?!"

If the Republicans succeed in trashing this woman, I will never vote for them again, maybe never vote again period.

These lies are no different than the old "black players don't have the skills to be quarterback" garbage. It's a kind of knee-jerk bias that ignores the facts that is just like racism in every way, except directed at person because of their upbringing rather than skin color.

Very very sad.

"But no, it's the MSM that caused all this. One guy above blames the loss on the good weather in Ohio and Pa. I guess that means that even God is against you. Republicans ran a poor campaign after they ran the government poorly. Accept that responsibility and then you can fix your party."

My comment about the weather was tongue-in-cheek. No one here is saying that the MSM caused ALL of this. It was a combination of things, including that and the bad running of the campaign. Frankly, I don't much care if the GOP is "fixed." My conservatism isn't linked in any way to the success or failure of the party.

There are people like you Rod who are convinced Palin is dumb. You of course believe it.

I don't think she's dumb; as someone said in the comments above, I think she's just provincial. She can fix that by studying -- but I don't believe she was remotely qualified to be vice president.

Nor, by the way, do I think Palin lost McCain the election. McCain lost McCain the election.

Nothing here but this hissings and spittings of palace eunuchs.
Their infinite cleverness lost them an election and now the whole damn base.
Maybe Obama will lend them some of his. That way we can go through the formality of an holding election in 4 years.

"Incidentally, I am still waiting for the 21st Century's Walter Winchell (aka Andrew Sullivan) to apologize for his hyping of the "troopergate" story now that Palin has been entirely cleared in the matter."

Now, if only she'd be entirely cleared.

"do you seriously believe she didn't know Africa was a continent"

The explanation above makes sense, that the conversation was about 'South Africa' the country vs. south Africa (i.e., southern Africa), part of a continent.

Sarah Palin is a classy lady and without her McCain would have lost by a much bigger margin, as people either skipped voting for Prez or picked a third party. And many people I know were sitting on their wallets until she came aboard. She may not have all the insider knowledge that Senators do after years in Washington, but she has more execultive experience than the other three put together, and she is a fast learner. And she's teachable, which Biden clearly is not.

We saw Carl Cameron do his gossip column on Sarah Palin last night and were thoroughly disgusted. I don't believe any of this garbage and soon most of it will be debunked and the perpetrators outed. Meanwhile it is making millions of people mad and will backfire.

Fox News....well, it was the only place where you could go to get both sides of a question debated even though lately they have been just as trashy as the networks and other cable networks. Where do you go now that they are exposed as being just as venal as the rest of the media? Rent movies, I guess. (Have you seen Redford's "The Candidate"?)

She might not be the brightest bulb on the tree, but to blame her entirely for McCain losing is low. Somehow she got a college degree..so there is something upstairs. I think she is being used as an excuse as to why Mac didn't win. Personally, wasn't going to vote for Mac anyhow, but when he chose Palin, I KNEW I wouldn't vote for him. Just because he chose a woman didn't automaticaly mean all women were going to vote for him. With his age, she was closer than a heartbeat away from being the leader of this country. We've already had 8 years of a useless body in the White House. Palin would have been another, if she had had to take over. Also didn't (don't) agree with Mac's politics.

The Republicans have a lot to work on...guess they are starting by blaming Palin? How about their choice of candidates and the way the campaign was run?

Her future in the country? Who knows? She may go the way of Dan Quail. What's he done lately? If indeed she gets to be a US Senator from Alaska? Well, they did vote her into the office of governor. Right now she has to get that pregnant daughter married off to the "fiance" and take care of Trig...and recover from the campaigning.

Allen, I'm truly sorry that you see it that way, and in the hope that you may come back at some point to read this: the muck here is our muck, and we are proud of it. No one is forcing you to pick up a rake.

;-D

Candidates for POTUS are damn-right going to be judged, by me as a registered voter, by their intellects. They don't need to match any standard set by my intellectual achievement, but if they can't talk to points about which I know something, and about which the POTUS is obligated to know more than I know, then I do not hesitate in calling them dumb.

As for qualitative analysis, I've met some stumps (being a treehugger and all) who had some rather profound things to say (if albeit about topics that humans would not find all that relevant). I've also encountered stumps that were so dumb, they couldn't have been called at all smart when they were full trees. I submit that stumps are a poor metaphor for dumbness in humans.

Okay, I got it out of my system. In all seriousness Gov. Palin is not by any measure dumb. That she can be tripped by questions in some topic areas should be judged by the relevence of those areas to the office of POTUS. She certainly failed that standard, as far as I'm concerned. On the flip side, and being a non-Alaskan this must include a large grain of salt, judging by her political career up to thie point she may certainly be labeled "savvy". It connotes knowledge sufficient to a task, and competence in performing said task. I've known elected officials who were piss poor at both.

Savvy governor? You betcha. Savvy potential POTUS? Not even close.

It is a shame that she is so idiotic with no class, but she calls herself the Governor. She was very disrespectful to Sen. Biden at the debate and to Barack Obama during the campaign train. In addition, she indicated to Alaskan African Americans when asked why she had no African Americans on her team, that she did not have to hire any African Americans and she had no intentions of doing so. However she lost the election to an African American. GOD works in misterious ways huh? Also, I wonder why she did not intend to hire any African Americans on her team but she certainly got angry when OPRAH an African American for not inviting her to her Black show.

All this stuff about Palin may or may not be true, but the real point of the thing is that the GOP leadership and the McCain campaign directors are attempting to make her the scapegoat for their less-than-stellar efforts. The question as to her readiness for the position of POTUS is a different one than that of the reason(s) for McCain's loss. It is the GOP elites who are attempting to equate the two. This is not to say, of course, that people's dissatisfaction with her played no part; that may very well be true. But to attempt to pin all, or almost all, of the blame on Palin smacks of some serious CYA activity.

How very sad that Rod gives any sort of credence to the ravings of this cretin.

Innuendo and rumors, nothing more. That people jump on this and accept it as truth speaks more about YOU than it does about Gov. Palin.

How very sad indeed.

If Republicans wanna run Sarah Palin in four years, I say RUN BABY RUN. I don't know that she's a diva; but with this wardrobe and temper-tantrums, I'd say she's a cross between Tammy Fay Baker and Rosanne Barr. (My apologies to Rosanne)
I also think Sarah Palin is a female clone of George W. Bush. She's somebody that really doesn't know anything; somebody with whom the gas and oil industries know they'll get their way (REMEMBER DRILL BABY DRILL); and somebody that tries to pose as the everyday rural bumpkin, even though she shops at Sack's Fifth Avenue.
Talk about Republican BORROW and SPEND tendencies: Palin got low level McCain staffers to charge clothing on their own credit cards.

If she does run, maybe she can get Joe the pseudo-plumber to be her VP. I've gotta confess, I really am hoping this is the way Republicans wanna go, because it'll keep 'em out of power for a long long long time.

BTW, did Christian country bumpkin Sarah ever say that convicted felon Ted Stevens should step down?

Sarah Palin was dumb enough to let herself be used - and pretty much made a fool of - by McCain and his election committee. She was dumb enough to slander Obama and to try to divide "the real America" from the rest of us. Most interestingly, she was dumb enough to return to Alaska and tell the people welcoming her that "We are Alaskans". Is that not bizarre? Is Alaska a different country?

I don't believe for a minute that the report about Sarah Palin not knowing that Africa is a continent or about her lack of knowledge of NAFTA is true. It's a bunch of gossipy bitchiness and I think it says a lot aboutthe objedtivity of people who swallowed it without questioning it.

I didn't think she was the best candidate, but I think she has a future in national politics. I'd like to see her finish her term, go to the Senate, and later run for president. Not in 2012, but after she has had time to develop more experiene.

Remember, Sarah Palin wasn't dragged into this. She actively promoted herself from Alaska for two months prior to getting selected by the McCain folks. She's not some sweet innocent who got coerced onto the national stage. Once she stood behind the podium at the convention and threw down the gauntlet like a seasoned warrior then she deserved everything she got. I wish people would quit defending Sarah Palin. She's a self-promoting opportunist and an artist, of sorts. I'm an Alaskan and her selection as the Republican VP candidate severely reduced my respect for John McCain.

This is the best headline I've ever read. Way better than than the one for the same story on the Unfair Park Blog.

Come to think of it, this report is coming from FOX news: Fair & Balanced. I guess the Republican party is doing house cleaning.
If FOX is smart, they'll get rid of Karl Rove too. He's as much to blame as Sarah Palin for the overwhelming Democratic victory in the Congress and the Executive Branch. So much for Karl's permanent Republican majority.

Curious: How do you say 'Dumb as a stump' in Alaskan?

Betty Carter, you made a good point: Love her or hate her it's obvious that Sarah Palin got on the bad side of somebody. But I suspect there were actually several incidents throughout the campaign that worked against her.

Interestly, most Alaskan didn't know very much about Sarah Palin until the presidential campaign. You might get a chuckle out of the short blog I wrote on my Myspace page. (see above URL) It's true.

I posted about this earlier, but used a trope that I will euphemize here as the "madonna/Bad Woman dichotomy," and I suspect the wh-word caused me to be spammified. So I'll repeat myself. I'm cashing in one of my numerous I Told You So tickets. Back when these boards were all ga-ga over the possibility of Palin as a triumphant new voice for the right wing, I dourly predicted that she'd disappear rapidly from view, thrown under the bus as soon as her immediate usefulness ended. QED.

So, is she still a heroic mother of the republic, with her five children on display like Cordelia's jewels? Or is she now a brainless golddigger, selling out to the rich older man in return for some clothes and accessories? As I said when I got moderated--oh, the perennial madonna/Bad Woman decision! Always so difficult! Please make up your minds. We don't have all day. And it's clearly impossible that Palin could be judged according to her position on the issues, without reference to uterus or fashion.

Once again, where is the vaunted chivalry of the right-wing man? So far McCain--and his henchmen--have lived up to every inch of his reputation for misogyny. I trust this will serve as a lesson for any women who may have fallen for the notion that the Republicans lurved them some wimmins because they chose a female VP.

Sig- Are you implying they cynically used her just because she is a woman? Let's see. Cooking, childcare, sex and now gaining votes. I think you should look at this as a broader recognition of women's abilities by the far right. Soon, you will be equal.

Steve

Oops -- Make that "who's really the MOTHER of Trig Palin..."

"Would Obama be president-elect today if he wasn't black?"

Yes.

Andrew Sullivan is more than a "gossipmonger". He does not "cast a foul odor". Sullivan is an excellent journalist who, like the rest of us, makes mistakes. A few of them are on the spectacular side, but I think that's just because he's fearless and obsessive. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't find him reckless.

The Dish is one of the most widely read political blogs in the world. He has made the case relentlessly against the Bush administration's despicable torture and detainment policies.

Because he is very influential, he deserves a great deal of credit for making the case against McCain and Palin. That makes him a hero in my book.

McCain got a fair shake from Sullivan. Sullivan was at one time a huge fan and booster of John McCain. McCain sold out to the Right to win the nomination, and Sullivan called him on it.

Palin also got a fair shake from Sullivan. She was a joke and Sullivan made the case obsessively and fairly. That's my opinion anyway.

He is not perfect. He admits his mistakes. He knows history and philosophy. I don't always agree with him. He can be nasty - especially when it comes to Mrs. Clinton. But he is often poetic, and he is a patriot and passionate defender of The Enlightenment.

He is a conservative, and I am not. He is a Christian and I am not. He has voted for Republicans and I would rather have a dozen root canals.

But he is always interesting and he had Palin pegged right from the get-go.

I also think Andrew Sullivan is one of the best writers now working. His exposure of Palin was excellent. It's a sign of an insecure movement that its people want him 'disappeared' from this and other blogs. Right, if we don't agree with him, then let's pretend he doesn't exist.

CNN now reports many of these were PATENTLY FALSE. These LIARS are sad sick depraved human waste and they need to be exposed like the KKK and George Wallace and all the other trash that ever tried to run on a platform of superiority. Operation Leper is only the beginning.

There is all out ideological war brewing over this. What we have now is a new group of class-ists. Just like the racists and bigots before them, these "aristocrats" see themselves as inherently superior to anyone who doesn't fit their world view, and they want to exclude an entire swath of our society from any voice in government. We're not going to let this go without confrontation. And to the their enablers like Sullivan, we're watching you too. Like all the other exclusionists, you will be exposed.

I truly wish Obama all the best at uniting this country. Meanwhile, what we can do on the right is to confront and expose the kind of human filth that has penetrated our ranks. There is no room for contemptuous aristocratic worms undermining our democracy.

Folks,
I am a Brit and I came across this blog by chance. It is interesting from a non-US perspective to read the diverse views on Palin. Whether the rumours are true or not is immaterial. Palin was seen in Europe as a disaster, an uneducated hick with outdated views. Her documented (not rumours)incidents of abuse of power, her ignorance of her own parties economic policies, her lack of international knowledge (I can see Russia) made her a scary figure for the rest of the world. British commentators regularly reffered to her being a heartbeat away from the most powerful political role in the world. Can any non-biased person really believe that she was qualified for that role? I don't think so.
By the way I have met two Americans on separate occassions who didn't know London was in England, but hey they weren't running for high office>

Vern said:

"And to the their enablers like Sullivan, we're watching you too. Like all the other exclusionists, you will be exposed."

No doubt Andrew is shaking in his boots.

Palin was seen in Europe as a disaster, an uneducated hick with outdated views. Her documented (not rumours)incidents of abuse of power, her ignorance of her own parties economic policies, her lack of international knowledge (I can see Russia) made her a scary figure for the rest of the world.

Yes, clearly McCain's attempt to appeal to the European vote backfired.

Something I thought was interesting:

In one of her interviews, Palin was asked to say what she meant by "elites", and she said, "oh, you know, people who think they're better than everyone else."

And I found that pretty odd, since she had been saying, quite explicitly, that people from small towns were better than people from big cities.

You don't have to listen to Sarah Palin very long to know she's a common rink-rat mom, soaked in conservative religious beliefs, who thinks taxation is socialism (it spreads the wealth around, but just try running a government without it), doesn't get the concept or benefit of universal healthcare, believes the "Average American" reveres those who win snowmobile races and shoot moose (move past the neolithic era, girl) and drinks a six-pack of beer at night (well, the ones with fat guts do, but I sincerely doubt she does), and stated that because Alaska is sandwiched between Canada and Russia she has some concept of foreign relations. People in the U.S. with education must have had no trouble recognizing her lame yet smug arguments for voting for the good ole' boy Republican Party ticket. When she's finished dragging her knuckles on the ground when she walks, she may wish to dispense with her theocratic views of politics, do some reading and understand what she's supposed to know as a Vice President or President. It's obvious Americans didn't want another dunce like W.

Why do so many commenters in this blog find it difficult to believe Sarah Palin doesn't know anything about Africa? You give her too much credit. Check out her biography. You're incorrectly assuming a VP candidate has more than an sixth grader's knowledge about world geography. The McCain folks obviously made the same assumption. They were so impressed with the optics that they forgot to ask her who was buried in Grant's tomb. She probably doesn't know. This is what we were given to vote for.

This country has been duped by Sarah Palin in her quest for stardom. Mentally, she's still a beauty contestant. She is so unqualified to hold national office that it's laughable. I've lived in Alaska most of my life and I lived in Wasilla, Alaska while she was mayor so I've been able to observe. It's amazing to watch.

I think it's quite revealing to read these comments -- especially by the Palin defenders. There's a lot of talk now about the "cocoon" of the right wing, and the rot of its intellect, and about the echo-chamber effect. One thing that is so obvious to everyone outside the hard right wing -- "middle American values" are not necessarily Christian, and are certainly not conservative. This election showed that, in spite of the spin to the contrary, we live in a center-left country.

Rush Limbaugh and his ilk have been successful at demonizing the term "liberal," but middle American values actually trend more liberal than conservative. I saw an interesting survey a couple of years ago -- when responders were asked if they were "liberal," a majority said that they were not. But their responses to specific views and policy positions showed that a majority was in fact liberal -- they just didn't want to identify themselves with what has become a bad word.

This election has shown that middle American values have left conservatives behind. Call them liberal, or the more neutral term "progressive," but a solid majority of Americans have proven that the hard right wing is little more than a radical fringe -- a very vocal minority with their own biased news organs like talk radio and Fox News, but a fringe nonetheless, and one that is losing adherents by the score, and is quite out of step with mainstream America.

Sarah Palin is an idiot. I COMPLETELY believe all the accusations about her are true. We saw for ourselves on national television during the Katie Couric interview. She's stupid. Plain and simple. And yes, Bush's record and the war and the economy played a part in McCain losing. But honestly, for those of us who didn't vote for McCain, the thought of that woman being a heartbeat away from the Presidency TERRIFIED us.

For the record: It turns out the "Africa is a continent?" story is not only fake - the alleged McCain staffer is also a made-up person:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/arts/television/13hoax.html

"For the record: It turns out the "Africa is a continent?" story is not only fake - the alleged McCain staffer is also a made-up person"

Luke, if you read the story that you linked to, you would see that they never claimed that the story was fake, just that a fictional person claimed credit for it. They only way that the story is false, is if FOX New's Carl Cameron lied on the air. He claimed the allegation came from someone he knew to be a top aide to McCain. Carl knows who is a top advisor and who isn't, so if he's telling the truth, then a McCain aide did indeed say it.