Thursday, September 25, 2008

Another Conservative Calls Out Palin on Couric "Debacle"

More and more are noticing:
Couric's questions are straightforward and responsible. Palin is mediocre, again, regurgitating talking points mechanically, not thinking. Palin's just babbling. She makes George W. Bush sound like Cicero.

...

I remember the morning I woke up in my college dorm room and went in to take my final exam in my Formal Logic class. I knew I was unready. Massively unready. And now I was going to be put to the ultimate test. I sat down in Dr. Sarkar's class and resolved to wing it. Of course I failed the exam and failed the class, because I had no idea what I was talking about. I wasn't a bad kid, or even a stupid kid. I was just badly unprepared, and in way over my head. Seeing the Palin interview on CBS, I thought of myself in Dr. Sarkar's exam. But see, I was a college undergraduate who had the chance to take the class again, which I did, and passed (barely). I wasn't running for vice president of the United States.

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New Palin excerpt up, in which she discusses why having Russia next to Alaska gives her relevant foreign policy experience. I am well and truly embarrassed for her. I think she's a good woman who might well be a great governor of Alaska. But good grief, just watch this train wreck: (video)

Too bad 40% of Americans are still asleep at the wheel.

4 comments:

weav said...

I don't think they're asleep. They're hypnotized. She could say 1+1 = 3 and they would be writing to the local school complaining that the book is wrong...

Dylan said...

"I think she's a good woman..." - Charles

I'm afraid that I'd have to disagree with you here, Charles. Sarah Palin is a conniving, duplicitous, deceitful, conscience challenged bitch. On another blog someone described her as suffering from a "personality disorder." It was suggested that she probably has a narcissistic personality; I have a brother who displays all of the qualities noted in the DSM-IV, for a narcissistic personality. Here's the list:

DSM Criteria

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:[1]

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance

2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

3. believes that he or she is "special" and unique

4. requires excessive admiration

5. has a sense of entitlement

6. is interpersonally exploitative

7. lacks empathy

8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her

9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

I don't believe that Palin fails to meet any of these criteria; in fact, I think that she excels, with regard to most of them (not that there aren't many other politicians who would also make a clean sweep, here, too). To top everything off, her personality disorder deprives her of even the minimal insight necessary to have even the slightest awareness of her very profound personal limitations. I don't believe that Sarah is a true sociopath, by any means, as I think is probably true of GWB; on the other hand, given the circumstances that surround her, I'm inclined to view Sarah, potentially, as a very dangerous creature.

soozzie said...

I don't think they're asleep, either. I think they are ignorant -- just as ignorant as she is. So her "word salads" (fabulous term, Charles, I'm adopting it as my own)sound perfectly normal and even eriudite to them.

I think SP had risen to slightly exceed her competence in Alaska, and given a little mroe time she would have been caught out. She may be good at not blinking but she has no interest in the issues facing the rest of the country. (Sound familiar?)Even a moderately curious person would have absorbed something from her crash VP course about McCain, his positions and the likely questions from someone like Katie Couric. But she is convinced that it is the power of her personality alone that will captivate, AND IT DOES! -- for about half the country, so she isn't even embarrassed.

I keep remembering that in education/beliefs about evolution, the US ranks even with Turkey. To me, that says it all about Palin -- she is right in line with about 40-45% of the country. Scary.

Oh, yeah, she can see Russia from Alaska. But she can't actually see any other part of the US. So she must know more about them, than she knows about us. Also scary.

Dylan said...

My apologies, Charles. I inadvertently attributed to you a remark made by Rod Dreher. Sorry.