Think again. This is just astounding.
HT Yglesias, whose commenters have some excellent observations. Here’s one:
I find it incredible that she can’t answer these questions. These are the most obvious, predictable questions about things that are in the headlines right now.
She’s not being asked off-the-wall questions about the implications of the current crisis for Keynesian economics. Heck, she’s not even being asked a legit-but-less-top-of-the-headlines-question about the concerns that the Chinese and other foreign investors will stop bankrolling our debt.
This is basic. Why are we spending this money bailing out wall street banks instead of main street? But she can’t answer it because she doesn’t understand that credit markets actually are important, and can’t explain how they’re connected to the overall economy. She simply hasn’t asked or hasn’t understood what happens if we fail to fix this. Which, you know, is exactly the kind of thing you want your policymakers to know.
Yeah, pretty much. And on a lighter note,
I’m glad Matt asked this question about Governor Palin’s fitness for office, and in response I’d like to say that is clearly shows that, this is a very important office, Sarah Palin knows that John McCain is a Maverick and Americans want health care, because we need to increase oversight and reduce government, but taxes are too high despite the importance of the designated hitter rule, and I think it’s important that, in this regard, we remember both the Alamo and the Maine, and really I’m glad to be here on this terrific website. Also, gee whillakers.
I hope this answers your question.
UPDATE: HT to Laurel, who notes that Kathleen Parker over at National Review has called for Palin to step down. Money quotes:
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League….
If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself….
Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.
Do it for your country.
Fascinating. Let’s see if Parker sets off a snowball like the one that engulfed Harriet Miers’ ill-fated nomination to the Supreme Court.
Maybe she should claim that it was the medication she was on and go back underground.
Isn’t that what Gibson said? I think he was right about the barometer falling.
I’m reminded of what happens when one is faced with an essay question on a test to which one doesn’t know the answer. The goal becomes to lose as few points as possible. One writes a blizzard of words containing as many things that one knows are true that could possibly be relevant in the hope one thing will be relevant and thus keep some points from being deducted.
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p>Palin’s interview is like that. It’s a dump of everything that she knows that could be filed under “economy”. None of them is relevant though and so she doesn’t win any points.
Kathleen Parker has started ringing the recess bell.
Is there really anyone who fully understands the economic mess which we seem to be in? I read the NYT, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, etc., as well as many sites on the net, and these economic opinions are like noses: everyone has one and they are all different. To single Sarah out is more of the same bashing that is common on this site. Why haven’t you mentioned the slips of the tongue and foolish things that Biden has said lately?I also find it humorous that many lefties criticize Sarah’s lack of foreign policy experience. I am thinking specifically of the “brain trust” that got us into Vietnam and the Harvard economist J. Kenneth Galbreath whose theories, especially about agriculture, collective farms in socialist countries, etc. have been totally discredited. I am getting old, but I don’t seen any geniuses in either foreign policy or economics. Whoever wins the election, it will come down to quality of advisers who are chosen.
David, this lead in story is nothing but a cheap shot at Sarah Palin. I thought better of you.
First, I don’t insist that she fully understand every aspect of credit default swaps and whatever. I do, however, think it’s fair to expect that she demonstrate SOME clue as to the most basic aspects of what is going on. She utterly failed to do that, leaving me to assume that, in fact, she has no understanding of it. That is pretty scary. So no, my title is not a cheap shot. In fact, I’d say it’s perfectly accurate, until someone can point me to something that shows otherwise. I’m going on the available evidence — and it’s the McCain campaign’s decision to make that evidence extremely limited.
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p>On the lack of foreign policy experience, if you can stand it, here is Palin in the same interview desperately trying (and, of course, failing) to justify the “Alaska is close to Russia” theme that she’s been pushing.
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p>Watch CBS Videos Online
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p>I mean, damn. That’s some lame-ass shit, Edgar. I don’t need geniuses, but, again, I do want someone who has some clue what he or she is talking about. If the best you can do in response is to talk about folks who were in office 40 years ago, well, I guess I expected better of you.
The high expectations everyone has for everyone else around here.
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p>Translation: Sarah Palin and I seem to have a similar grasp on the issues. If we can’t figure it out, no one can.
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p>Sarah has singled herself out by accepting the nomination of her party.
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p>Because even in his worst moments, Joe Biden’s English is comphrensible and he possesses a body of knowledge Palin couldn’t hope to acquire if she lived to see the Rapture.
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p>You haven’t been keeping up with the news. The “righties” think she’s a train wreck, too. Your ignorance of what your party pundits are saying doesn’t mean it’s not being said.
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p>Were any of the individuals you listed above to possess an intellect as moribund as Sarah Palin’s, they would never have seen the light of day, either. Your anti-intellectual slip is showing. This is about Sarah Palin, not your disdain for Harvard academics.
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p>Translation: Because Sarah is getting trashed by the media, I’m going to claim that those who have actually worked in and studied both foreign policy and economics are as doltish as she is.
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p>Well, that has been our point all along. John McCain, in some fit of senile randiness, selected a dumb-as-a-brick hicktown mayor to be his “quality adviser.” Case closed.
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p>Internet Argument Tactic 237: Faux Shaming When faced with irrefutable proof that your talking points are rancid, try shaming your opponent by claiming your previously high opinion of him/her is now compromised.
lightiris provided a fine exegesis of your comment, which was ripe with logical fallacies and non sequiturs.
I was a young idealist once, too. I don’t take your remarks to heart because I once stood in your shoes. Experience is a wonderful teacher. Like Palin, your logical fallacies and non-sequiturs are in the eyes of the beholders.
I’m just young and naive. Obviously I’m incapable of my own critical thought and am just one of the brain-washed, bong-hitting John Stewart worshipers.
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p>Thank you for using your experience to pass along to me that patronization is the preferred rhetorical approach of the wise older generation.
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p>(Although, this passive-aggressive sarcasm of mine probably isn’t much better, lol.)
1) Who has really figured out this mess we are in? How about we attack Sarah because she hasn’t.
2) Joe Biden has been wrong about many things during his career, especially his ideas during the cold war. He also has the habit of inserting foot in mouth. Gee, nice that
FDR got on TV to calm the country back in “’29.”
3) I have studied Slavic at Harvard. It is a great university, the best, to my mind. There are stooges there, though, just as there are everywhere else. So don’t try to lay on the redneck crap just because Galbreath was a dolt.
4)Who were Jimmie Carter’s and Bill Clinton’s foreign policy advisors? They certainly didn’t know much about Russia.
5)David is very quick to get on his high horse–he needs some of his own medicine to keep some humility.
6)It’s not my party, because–surprise, surprise, I am and have been a registered Democrat for many years. I could care less what the right thinks.
7)I am still waiting for “irrefutable proof” of anything you had to say.
Palin was asked a question she didn’t know how to answer. She failed in using that moment as an opportunity to redirect the interview to make a cogent statement about something she has expertise on or wanted to make a firm statement about. In other words, she failed Political Manipulation of Rhetoric 101.
is so laughable that no response is required, since lightiris has already completely demolished it. I’ll just respond to the bit about my high horse: the air is just fine up here, but thanks for your concern. None of the “medicine” you flatter yourself to be thinking that you’re dishing out is doing anything to make me think I ought to dismount.
She was incoherent. She was asked about the bailout and then rambles on about health care reform and reducing taxes. It made no sense! No one expects her to be an expert on the economic bailout, but we should expect her to be able to at least understand what it is and to be able to form coherent sentences on the matter. This clearly demonstrates that she cannot. Now we see why McCain’s unprecedented lack of access to this VP pick.
She does’t get national security policy, foreign policy, the economy, etc.
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p>She was the accidental mayor, ash is the accidental governor, and now she is McCain’s accidental vice presidential candidate. What next? What mor?
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p>She is scary!
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p>Go on girl! But does this make any sense?
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p>Have the debate tonight!
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Typo.
but John McCain for putting her in this position, and the Republican strategists that have spent weeks filling her mind with talking points, but no understanding how to apply them. Now, when first exposed to public scrutiny, the garbled talking points come out, whether applicable to the question asked or not.
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p>The same thing happened to Jim Ogonowski when he was finally released to speak in last year’s Congressional race in the 5th District.
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p>The pity is he got 45% of the vote, and John McCain is sure to get at least that. We have met the enemy, and they are us.
Yes, McCain agreed to tap her, but she agreed to take him up on the offer. They both suffer from lack of judgment. Last I chekced, Ogonowski and Palin were both adults. They are to be held responsible for their own decisions like everyone else.
To 10,000?!
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p>This might be worse than we had thought.
it went something like this:
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p>COURIC: Gov. Palin, can you elaborate on what, in your opinion, comes after 9,999?
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p>PALIN: Well now Kaytee, um, Senator MaKeen has over 20 years experience mavericking over the calculator. Well, his wife helps him with that because as you know, Kaytee, he spent some portion of 9,999 years in a prison…
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p>COURIC: Not to put too fine a point on it, governor, but I’m asking for your personal thoughts on the figure.
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p>PALIN: The number of signatures needed to get on the ballot and the number of years old this old earth is. If that isn’t intelligent design, well then Kaytee I don’t know what intelligent is.
Joe Biden is an experienced debate professional. He tolerates no weakness and will crush an opponent quickly.
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p>I saw a situation in 1962. Two candidates were going into the Democratic primary for the US Senate. The favorite, Eddie McCormack, was one sharp guy. He came from the other Boston Irish political family that included the Speaker of the House (of the same name) at the time. Eddie’s opponent was Ted Kennedy, 30 years old and looked like a college boy.
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p>During the debate Ted looked shaken early on. Were it a boxing match, Ted would have been in standing in center ring, gloves down. Eddie pulled no punches and left the debate convinced he had won. He had.
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p>Ted lost the debate but won the nomination. Eddie wound up looking like the street bully. The papers pushed the notion of the bully beating the youngster and the public voted Ted.
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p>What would happen if Joe Biden were to humiliate Sarah Palin in a debate? What if she broke down? “Polished Politician shows no mercy! Extra! Extra!”
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p>hmmm.
answer questions with aplomb, as if she’s not in the room. He can’t be seen to attack her, but rather just the subject matter. If he can do that with warmth, he’s nailed it. She doesn’t need his help to fail. Let her lose the debate all on her own. I have faith in her ability to produce results…for us.
Biden can phone this one in. He doesn’t have to dazzle anybody. Just answer the questions, keep in short (there’s his challenge) and let her have all the extra time.
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p>Let her talk and talk and talk and talk…..
to not plug in stu sutcliffe’s amp.
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p>c’mon, mac . . you’ve seen how it’s done. sign ’em up. get ’em up on stage. let ’em look pretty. but god, don’t let them get near a mic!
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Read the comments in the Globe piece about Kathleen Parker. Palin has a nickname I hadn’t seen before: “Caribou Barbie.”
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p>Spectacular.
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p>If you want even more, google that and see more from the darker side. (I must recommend Julie Brown’s The Ex Beauty Queen Has Got a Gun.)
How much of this can the Republicans take? Cafferty let’s it fly:
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