Before you start calling the Special Olympics to complain about lil’ ol’ me, take a moment to consider two facts:
1. I have excellent grammar and use proper English.
2. If you are outraged right now, you probably don’t. Unless, of course, you’re one of Palin’s creationist right-wing down-home supporters. In which case, go away now, please.
This video is yet another example of how out of her depth Palin is, even at an event designed around her, with pre-approved questions and coached answers. If she’s this hopeless now, how can she possibly lead effectively?
Sadly, millions of people think what she’s doing is all right, because she’s ‘just like them.’ Which she isn’t, by the way. But she does a real disservice to the nation by making them think stupidity, false humility and aw-shuckin’ is a valid alternative to intelligent discourse and an informed approach to the issues.
Writing answers on the palm of your hand doesn’t count.
Month after month, year after year, Sarah Palin continues to prove that she isn’t up to the job — any kind of job. Yet people love her, and that’s a disaster in the making. Her rise to prominence has set American politics back decades, and that will take a lot of time to repair.
Reports out of Tennessee indicate that U.S. President Barack Obama deliberately blocked many Americans from watching A Charlie Brown Christmas this week by interrupting their broadcast with some nonsense about the war in Afghanistan.
This comes from Russell Wiseman, the mayor of Arlington, Tennessee, who made the claim on Facebook yesterday. He told his Facebook friends that Obama chose the time and date of his announcement specifically to stop him, and others like him, from watching the popular Christmas special.
Why? Wiseman doesn’t say … but he does hint. Obama, he points out, is a Muslim, and anyone who supports him should move to a Muslim country.
Wiseman’s downplaying the whole thing today, but really, I have to ask: Why say it in the first place? You’re a public figure, man. You must know how stupid you sound when you say things like that. Sadly, he probably doesn’t. Too many people believe these stories about Obama being non-American, or a Muslim, or a communist, or just plain evil.
Even Sarah Palin has weighed in, saying she thinks the so-called “birthers” may have a point, and the issue of Obama’s allegedly false birth certificate — a stupid scam that was proven a hoax before the ink on it was dry — should become an election issue next time around.
These people say these things because there’s an audience for their nonsense. There are many, many Americans willing to believe that their president is a foreign-born communist Muslim who doesn’t want them to be exposed to Snoopy’s proselytizing. You probably remember all the preaching in that show, right? There was a bit, of course, but hey, it’s a Christmas show …
When people like Russell Wiseman sound off with this kind of idiocy, they do it because they know people will listen, and talk about it on the front porch between spits of tabacky. But while it stokes the fires of moronity in certain circles, in the end, it only proves why Obama was elected in the first place: as a smarter, more informed alternative.
UPDATE: I’ve just learned Obama is planning a major announcement on Iraq on the same night Frosty The Snowman airs. Afterward, Frosty is scheduled to appear on Glenn Beck’s show to discuss the matter.
UPDATE 2: Palin hints at Frosty as running mate in 2012. More after this commercial break.
Sarah’s on her book tour, hawking Going Rogue in bookstores across the U.S. She’s getting a lot of attention for her memoir, which was apparently written in an afternoon, by a 21-year-old ghostwriter who’d never met her, while drinking Corona and watching SpongeBob out of the corner of his eye. Well, that’s what I heard.
Among the highlights of the reaction to her book was the Associated Press’s decision to dedicate a team of 11 reporters to the book, picking apart its “facts” and finding mistakes, alterations or historical revisions that prove to opponents that Sarah Palin has no business in politics, no business being a public figure, and no business sticking her nose into Canadian issues.
Wait, let me back up: Sarah was signing books the other day in Columbus, Ohio, when she encountered a Canadian TV journalist. Marg Delahunty had travelled south to quiz Palin — who has hinted at running for president in 2012, possibly with Glenn Beck — but was manhandled away from the signing table and ushered outside by beefy security guards. It turns out Sarah doesn’t answer questions.
The question, as Delahunty reported later: “We told her we’re from Canada, and we’re just looking for a few words of encouragement for the Canadian conservatives who have worked so tirelessly to destroy the socialized medicare that we have.”
Delahunty stuck around, and when she and her crew spotted Palin outside, they went after her.
“Hey, remember us, we’re the Canadians! We came all the way here from Canada!” Delahunty calls in the footage, which aired Tuesday night. “When we asked you that question, we didn’t hear your answer.”
Palin stopped and shared this nugget with Canadian TV watchers: “Canada needs to dismantle its public health-care system and allow private enterprise to get involved and turn a profit.”
Okay, so Sarah favours privatized health care. That’s no surprise. And I am one of those Canadians who treasures our public system, but I also see its flaws, so I would not be averse to exploring change. I’m not going to get into a health-care debate here. I just would rather Sarah Palin kept her nose out of Canadian affairs. We have enough uninformed, stupid conservative politicians of our own to deal with; we don’t need her.
Even if she can see Canada from her house.
When her interview aired Tuesday night on CBC Television’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Delahunty mused aloud, wondering why Palin doesn’t answer questions at her book signings. Here’s why: She isn’t very bright. If you need an example, just consider that she allowed herself to be interviewed by Marg Delahunty, who looks like this:
She’s a comedian, Canada’s Mary Walsh, a bit of a national treasure to some. She’s been playing the super-conservative pundit Delahunty character for a long, long time, dressing up in a version of the Xena, Warrior Princess costume to ambush our public figures with ridiculous questions. Everyone in Canada is in on the joke, and it’s always funny to watch Marg corner the prime minister at some gala and spar with him, the silly questions generating equally silly answers.
I can’t show you the Palin footage, but here’s Marg congratulating our Prime Minister Stephen Harper on winning an election:
Anybody who thinks Steve is a bit of a stiff should watch that clip.
While Marg wore a slightly less ridiculous version of her armour to talk to Sarah Palin, it should have been obvious to everyone around her that this is some sort of comedy … but Sarah didn’t clue in. This isn’t the first time a Canadian has tricked Palin, and I’ll bet you it won’t be the last.
Now you know why they keep her away from reporters.
Columnist Peggy Noonan has a new piece in the Wall Street Journal in which she explores the last year in the life of Sarah Palin. One paragraph, in particular, sums up exactly what has always bothered me about Palin.
In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn’t say what she read because she didn’t read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn’t thoughtful enough to know she wasn’t thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. “I’m not wired that way,” “I’m not a quitter,” “I’m standing up for our values.” I’m, I’m, I’m.
My problem with Palin has never been one of politics. It’s personal. She’s the kind of person I’ve bumped into over and over again in my life, particularly in parts of rural Canada. Now, don’t think I’m biased against country folk. Far from it. I just can’t understand people who take this strange pride in being uninformed.
I can remember trying to buy a newspaper in a small Northern Ontario town. Not only did the town’s only store not sell newspapers, the proprietor was offended that I would even ask. Same with books. It’s a strange suspicion of information, something that may work when people are voting for the mayor of a town of 500, but certainly cannot when we’re talking about the vice-presidency. Or even the governance of a U.S. state.
Sarah Palin is a smart woman. I have no doubt about that. But she’s stupid, too, because she equates “smart” with “savvy” and ignores the need to fuel intelligence with information. As Noonan says, Palin couldn’t answer basic questions, and she was okay with that — she’s “just plain folks.”
Just plain folks are great. I love them. Sometimes I wish I could be just plain folks. But I sure don’t want them running things. People who aspire to positions of power have an obligation to equip themselves with the skills to administer government. It’s their duty.
I suspect Sarah Palin will end up on TV, another talking head in the wasteland of televised media (Noonan calls it “a shallow pool,” and she’s right). And that’s okay with me. Because if Sarah Palin deserves anything, it’s to sit on a stage and be fed things to say. I just hope she doesn’t do that wink again.
FROM: Sarah Palin, Alaska
TO: Department of Law, White House
RE: Ethics Complaints
July 4, 2009
Hey, lawyers. I just wanted to give you a heads up and let you know that I’m considering running for president in 2012. I just wanted to schedule a sit-down with you before that so we can talk about ways you can help me get these silly ethics complaints thrown out before I have to fill out forms for the government to pay my legal bills. I hate filling out forms!
Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated!
Sarah
FROM: Department of Law, White House, Washington DC
TO: Sarah Palin, Alaska
RE: Ethics complaints
July 7, 2009
So, after I wrote the previous post about Michael Jackson’s image appearing in a California tree, I was outside doing some yard work (I love the weed whacker!) when I noticed something odd in my chestnut tree.
I should backtrack: I have a chestnut tree. It’s one of the last in Ontario, as they were decimated a long time ago. The one in my yard is old, twisted and broken; it has a big hole right through the middle of its trunk, and a lot of its limbs no longer bear leaves. But it yields a solid crop of chesnuts every year. Sometimes I don’t find them all, and when they get all spiky they end up in the bottom of a foot, and someone cries.
Anyway, I was out there today, and I saw something strange: the face of Sarah Palin in the bark.
This makes sense to me. After all, she is the biggest news story in the world right now. And when you think about it, she deserves to be memorialized in the living flesh of my rare tree. She was a young prophet who sprang out of nowhere, was persecuted for her beliefs and made the ultimate sacrifice for the good of mankind. In other words, the GOP picked her out of a hat to run for VP, she got caught lying and being uninformed, and quit her job as governor because people kept pointing those things out.
“… Sarah Palin was an icon to us,” one of Palin’s neighbours told reporters. He didn’t give his name, but said he lived one pillow over.
“To Alaska, Sarah Palin meant more to us than Michael Jackson, to some people. I think they’re both about even,” said someone else, who wanted me to make sure you know he definitely is not Sarah Palin’s dad.
I tried to take a photo of the Palin tree, but my camera kept bursting into flames.
So, after I wrote the 
