Mother Jones - Comments for "The Problem with Sarah"

For a conservative, voting Republican was a real chore and it's no wonder about 3% stayed home.

McCain was no prize for conservatives and the choice of Palin certainly didn't help. She isn't stupid, but she was clearly untutored in the larger issues. Being ignorant on a subject isn't a showstopper for most politicians - they all rely on staffs to get them smart when the need arises on most things. But a sometimes erratic McCain as President would have needed someone to back him up and, if need be, act as a counterweight.

It was a mark of how badly run his campaign was that they picked Palin in the first place. And the post-election sniping at Palin by McCain staffers showed me they weren't ready for the big time, anyway. Imagine what damage those jerks could have done from a desk in the West Wing.

Palin could run for the Senate - in six years, she'd be as prepared as anyone to act on a national stage.

Fred T., there is no reading comprehension problem here, there is an understanding problem, on your part.

it doesn't matter when alaska introduced its unique brand of socialism by state: what matters is that palin is perfectly happy to live with it. she has made zero effort to change it. she likes it.

as an invasion of "individual rights," whatever that may mean, it is, in fact, a purely redistributionist philosophy: the shareholders lose their ownership of the profits so that the citizens of alaska can gain them.

exactly how is that not a "redistributionist" philosophy? one can hardly wait to find out.

as for "punishing:" what a strange vocabulary you right-wingers have. obama has called for a return at the high end to the tax rates that obtained during the clinton administration: you aren't going to tell me that no one created any wealth in the '90s, are you? (maybe you are, who knows?)

meanwhile, if you want to talk about "punishing" anyone, maybe you ought to consider the "punishment" that republican policies have brought to asset holders and the future punishment that republican policies will cause to every taxpaying citizen of the united states in the form of an enormous interest line item in the federal budget (and a corresponding surrender of a certain degree of sovereignty to those who own our debt).

btw, fred t, i'm always struck by people like you who appear to have no awareness of the constitution: there was a reason this country was founded, and that reason was outlined in the preamble. shall i quote it for you?

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

damn redistributionists!

Sorry about your reading comprehension problems- where did you ascertain that I "endorse" socialism. The Alaska Legislature decided to pass oil money around many years before Palin became Governor. Do I agree with it? No.

But as an invasion of individual rights and "redistributionis" philosophy it pales in comparison with the lefts ideology of taking from those who earn and giving to those who don't.

And Obama will punish all who actually contribute to our society by creating wealth.

Fred T., thank you for your endorsement of socialism (what else would you call taking money from oil corporations and giving it to the citizens?).

it is amazing how much right-wingers convince themselves of crap, as michele just noted.

Not sure how long we're going to bother with the Palin argument. It's a loser. Palinites, by constitution not deeply analytical or self-reflective, have made it clear that they don't care that she is uninformed, ethically-challenged, embarrassingly ill-spoken and downright mean. In fact, those are her most sterling qualities in their judgment. Palin haters will gobble up any tidbit of gossip that diminishes her as a person and a politician regardless of how implausible it is. This is an unbridgeable divide so all these attempts to persuade and cajole people to one side or another are simply exercises in futility.

The conservative movement failed precisely because it gave in to the "we have to appeal to a broader audience" weaklings within its own ranks. How else to explain the nomination of Dole, the two Bush's, and McCain. All left of center moderates who stand for nothing, which is a basic characteristic of a moderate.

Let's hope that the next time the Republicans will nominate a true conservative, one who will place America first, will use a Darwinian approach to failing businesses and social problems and who will support a strong military.

Palin was the only reason I held my nose and voted for McCain.

john hansen, i have no idea what you mean when you say "palin is not going away."

in the literal sense, of course, this is true: we'll know where she is, billing the citizens of alaska for her personal expenses and then not paying taxes appropriately.

but i digress: presumably you mean that she will remain a force in republican politics.

i got $100 which i'll donate to the RNC every national election that she is part of the ticket as long as you'll donate $100 to the DNC every national election she isn't.

i don't plan to start saving any time soon....

Art, please tell me that your 11:44 is a joke.

you're welcome to any take you want on obama's "qualifications," but anyone who admires palin's "honesty" doesn't have the slightest clue what he is talking about.

this is a women whose introdcution to the american people consisted of lying about the bridge to nowhere, a lie she repeated at least 34 additional times.

she also claimed that she had been cleared by a report that documented that she abused her official powers to pursue a private vendetta, she attacked obama for being "barack the redistributionist" even though she herself runs an administration that redistributes oil money to the citizenry, she claimed to read "everything," and on and on.

if there is one thing we can say with certainty about sarah palin, it is that honesty is not a quality she possesses.

as for connecting directly with the american people: sure she did. that's why her net favorability ratings collapsed faster than any public figure we've seen in a very long time. that's some connecting.

Her big problem [was] not that she ... didn't have the slightest interest in national or international policy issues of any sort.

Her problem is that she lacks the self-awareness to acknowledge the above, and instead tried to bullshit the nation.

As we've seen over the last eight years, having someone who runs on their ability to "separate the wheat from the chaff" is pointless if the same person surrounds themselves with a team unwilling or unable to feed them wheat with the chaff. And when you are unwilling to hear all points of view, no amount of gut instinct is going to pick the right option.

Palin (as Bush does) supports creationism. This alone shows an instinct for allowing ideology to remove certain options from the decision pool, regardless of their correctness. How she reached her decision to support creationism, given the great leadership ability you ascribe in her, raises a massive question as to whether she indeed has such an ability.

At the end of the day, denigrate all the intellectuals you want. But you still want that someone making decisions basing their decision on the advise of experts. And people who go out of their way to actively ignore experts, or downplay their advice, are not the sort of people who make good decisions, period. You don't want people like this running the country.

Kevin,

Thanks for affirming to me once again, that you are a smart and fair liberal. I am glad ( even though it is a quote of a quotation ) that you seem to admit on your site that the idea that "Palin is an airhead" is farfetched and irrational.

What I am curious about is how many of those who regularly comment on this site, initially believed, or still believe she did not know Africa was a continent? Shouldn't you get some kind of award for gullibility? ( The desire to believe something true is a strong inducement to believe, isn't it )

To those who do believe this I would say, the claim that "Sarah Palin( a sitting governor ) did not know that Africa is a continent" is an incredible claim.

As has been said "..incredible claims demand incredible evidence." So your incredible evidence that Palin did not know Africa was a continent is...

An anonymous report from a aide in a losing campaign.

No offense, but I think that sinks way low on the evidentiary grading scale. Certainly not the type of evidence I would base a belief on.

More to Kevin's point though is my thoughts on intellectuals in the first place. I think I could easily qualify as an intellectual. I graduated summa cum laude from UCLA ( GPA 3.95 ). Not only did I graduate Phi Beta Kappa, I received a Phi Beta Kappa award. I went on to receive my Ph.D from UCLA in physics in 1990.

But I would make a lousy president. I am well able to analyze a situation, but I am not a good decision maker. I tend to be able to see too many sides of an issue, and need to resort to extensive analysis before I can make up my mind. My seat of the pants estimates, tend to be wrong. As a president of a corporation, I know I would fail. By the time I am ready to make a decision, the market opportunity has moved on. I understand this is one of my weaknesses.

This was exactly the problem with someone like a Jimmy Carter or Woodrow Wilson as President. These types of people make good advisers, not good leaders.

So the truth of the matter is, in my opinion it simply does not take a very long to learn the material that is necessary to be a leader. Just plain life experience is probably the best preparation.

I think a good leader comes from someone who has the that special life quality, of being able to quickly integrate material and make an in time, adequately reasoned, seat of the pants decision. These instinctual decisions do not come from an extensive analysis of every piece of material, but an almost uncanny natural ability to separate the wheat from the chaff. This type of decision making will confound intellectuals who disagree with the leader, but will give the best decision.

For the sake of the country, I hope that Obama has this ability. I hope that he realizes that even if he is able to gather hundreds of advisers, he will have to know how to find the correct argument out of the many presented.

Based on her record, so far, I suspect that Palin has this ability. I do not think that right now she is qualified to be elected President, and is probably more than four years away from that. But I do predict that she will some day be on a winning presidential ticket either as the vice president or president. Liberals should just face the fact that she is not going away. She will remain a force in US politics no matter how hard they try to destroy her, and how many intellectuals refuse to recognize, that it is decision makers, not intellectuals, who usually make good leaders.

Here's another way to look at Palin's knowledgeability:

Maybe she is a very practical person who knows what she needs to know for the task at hand. She sounded perfectly comfortable and fluent giving her speech on energy shortly before the election. I think she ignored most other national issues because, in Alaska, they weren't very germane. If you've never been there, you should know it really is a very different place than the lower 48.

She should have been given a chance to get up-to-speed on issues before the Republican Convention. Instead McCain sat on his hands for months while the Democrats fought over who would be their nominee. That was precious time SP needed in order to learn about the issues she would have to discuss to be a credible candidate for VP.

I am a Dem, I voted Barack, but I like Palin because she reminds me of my mother. My very conservative mother who is ridiculously practical and has almost no imagination, but is very sweet and the most loyal and tough fighter for the people she loves. I believe these things to be true of Sarah Palin as well. She brings a much-needed level of diversity to the Republican Party and I applaud their progress.

It never changes. One blog is Repubs hating dems, the next is dems hating repubs. what a sad state of affairs we have in America today. While you continue to be the main part of the problem, some of us will try to be part of the solution. If we as a nation cannot find a way to stop the hating that is so prevalent in our society, then it won't matter what is going on in four or eight or twelve years. There will not be a recognizable America for you to spew your hate in. There will be a big hole in the ground where we used to be. We need to stop the hate. I know it is fun and you are all having a good time, but I would think you could realize that the name calling and butchering of each other is just not working. If we can't find a way to heal our land, then all the changes in the world won't amount to a hill of beans. Look at what you are saying to each other. If you were facing each other with guns you would be killing each other. Is that what you really want? Probably yes for some of you. Your hatred has blinded you to the reality that you are the problem. I'm not talking about red and blue, I am talking about me and you. I am as much American as before the election and I love this country. I do not want to see it destroyed. It does not matter who is at fault here. there is plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle. If we can't find common ground and work together we will never solve the problems that face us. If we can't stop hating, we will never find that ground and never work together. We will never fix anything and the rest of the world will watch with glee as we Americans destroy ourselves with our hatred for each other. WAKE UP PEOPLE. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. You can only change yourself but with that change you can have an effect on others to change. If you think I am crazy, I hope you are right. But I know that the hate is not working for anyone. We have better things to do. We are more alike than different. think about it. thanks

Posted by: TC on 11/10/08 at 3:08 AM Respond

Palin's lack of knowledge doesn't indicate a lack of intelligence, but rather a lack of empathy. She does not care enough about the country to invest time and effort in understanding it's problems and solutions. She does not care for the people in it, other than as tools for her advancement.

That someone so patently corrupt could get so close to leading an institution that has such historical esteem is what is making us so angry.

-----------------

I voted for Obama and have an open mind. So isn't your argument the same thing as when Obama went to Pennsylvania and told the people how much he liked them, then when to a private event in San Fransico, and told the people that the people in Pennsylvania are bitter and cling to guns and religion? That was complete lack of understanding and he didn't care enough to learn more about them and understand them, but instead he did it behind their backs. The only reason he cared, was because someone let that audio out. Again, I voted for Obama, and support him ,but unlike most Obama supporters, I have an open mind and even see the faults in the candidate I voted for and can make those comparisons to the candidate I didn't vote for.

How many states do we have?
Exactly what has OUR new President got on his resume,
A collective she 's an "Idiot"
if you say something loud and long enough then that's it so.
you guys sound just like my father-in-law