What do you think of Sarah Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska today?

Here’s the AP article; dated 7:57 PM, EST. http://apnews.excite.com/article/20090703/D9979LTO0.html

I try not to think of her. She’s scary.

from the uk: she’s republican, but she’s gotta be better than dubya…apologies this is not strictly relevant more a comment on her….

It seems like political suicide.

Someone quitting before the term is up? How could they be trusted to another office?

Strange, to say the least. Hopefully all of the CNN panelists were correct when they said this is career suicide.

Ugh….she is going national, full time….wtf

May god help the world if she ever becomes President of the US.
I think she gets tossed from the first round of Presidential election in the 2012 eliminations because she is a nut job.

The speculation is interesting. After the recent Vanity Fair Article, some are saying she us leaving public life all-together (tired of the back-biting).

Others say she will be gearing up for a run at the presidency. Seems odd to resign if that’s her plan though.

Her running 2012 could be the best thing to happen to Obama – maybe.

She doesn’t want something to be found. She has already had enough scandals.

But that pretty much ends her political career. 20 bucks says she writes a book and goes to work for Fox News.

she’s going to become a pornstar

My fear is that she did so in order to start working on a presidential campaign. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that seems to be her forte.

Her spotlight was beginning to dim, and she wants/needs the publicity.

She has something more to hide. Has she been to South Carolina lately?

@Jeruba : Appalachian Trail unfortunately runs N and S and not W and E.

@Jeruba Funny!

I do wonder what is really going on behind closed doors.

Maybe she is getting a late night show opposite Letterman.

Wow, I hadn’t heard about this. I agree with @johnpowell
I’m glad this knocks her out of the running for 2012, since it’s career suicide.

She can’t ever be elected for public office ever again. Nobody is going to vote/support someone that just walked off.

edit :: and this is on a Friday night. And this is after a nasty Vanity Fair article just came out. I wonder what else they dug up.

Just wow… Really dumb political move. By a really dumb politician.

So maybe she’s going to have another baby? Or maybe she wants time off to teach her children how to strafe moose from a helicopter…

Here’s the Vanity Fair article, by Todd Purdum.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/sarah-palin200908

This doesn’t necessarily knock her outta the running, guys. In fact, I’m pretty sure she’s thinking the opposite.

You see, Alaska is extremely far away from the mainland. Because of this, it’s very difficult for an Alaskan Governor to make trips to nearby states, shaking hands with fellow officials, have press conferences and the like. I’m nearly certain that Palin dropped her title so she can go on tour, helping solidify her in the running for 2012.

Already, Palin has a devoted following and a large string of conferences and rallies will help her out tremendously. In fact, it’s quite smart – hiding under the veil and playing victim whilst planning a massive publicity push.

Either that, or she’s involved with some scandal and is playing the victim to soften the blow. We shall see.

EDIT: Took out “of idiots.” Kinda uncalled for.

This is what Lt. Gov. Parnell had to say about Mrs. Palin.

@Grisaille Thank you for taking out “idiots”. I’m not a devoted follower of hers but I do respect her as a woman and mother.

I don’t understand, don’t most politicians keep doing what they were doing such as governor or senator, even while compaigning? I’m pretty sure Obama did, because didn’t that Governor get in trouble for trying to sell the seat?

can’t she just get another job somewhere else and go….wherever she wants to go….from there….

@casheroo :: Obama got shit for stepping down after he was elected president. The election is still 3.5 years away.

Something else is going on.

@casheroo B-lego -jevich? Yep. It’s what is supposed to be done. I’m just trying to offer my personal opinion and theory – besides, if I recall correctly, Illinois wasn’t dealing with a massive deficit. Alaska is, last time I checked. Don’t quote me on that

@jonsblond Yeah, sometimes I’m a bit quick on the draw. A pre-mie, if you will.

Again, this is nothing more than pulling shit outta my ass, and we all have no clue what’s going on. All I’m saying is that she’s either softening the blow for something that happened, realizes that she isn’t doing such a great job, or preparing for a massive PR push.

Or, she just wants to spend time with her daughters. I have no idea.

@Grisaille You’re not the only one. I’ve been known to do the same.

One thing is that Alaska was swimming in money for years from all the oil money. Most residents didn’t pay much in taxes. And damn near everyone got a check for a few thousand every year. That money has dried up.

Now she actually has to balance the budget.

@johnpowell True as well.

Deleted what I had written here – was heading off into pre-mie town again.

Now, if you’ll excuse me from the conversation, I’m off to go play some Guitar Hero.

Does everyone sound stupid on twitter.

At my house we’re kind of wondering if she’s actually just flat out crazy.

My theory, after watching her rambling-assed speech, is that she wants to be a culture war celebrity like Anita Bryant… as opposed to being stuck in Alaska for the next four years.

Or she might be crazy. Probably both.

@Qingu: Oh sure, make it sound like you have a mature theory beyond “crazy”.

I keep hoping she’ll be eaten by a pack of wolves.

another vote for crazy

I don’t know…I guess she’s trying to get herself out there for more public recognition. Really, she needs to overcome some serious stupid to look like a viable candidate, in my opinion.

I know some people think she walks on water, I think she’s nuts.

Actually, I want to bet on this. If Palin is not working for Fox News by the 4th of July 2010 I will donate 20$ to a charity of your choice. If she is you donate 20$ to Doctors Without Borders.

@johnpowell hey, that’s a good bet, either way….benefits a great program!

Hey, you just might be onto something.

@johnpowell It’s a bet. $20 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

I don’t know why she resigned, but certainly with several investigations pending, making herself look certifiable over a poor joke, having a daughter who is admitting that parenthood is really tough, and having a 14 month old baby with special needs at home are all possibilities.

Quite frankly, I doubt she would make much headway in a presidential bid. She still is feuding with McCain’s people and jokes about her are still going around.

@jonsblond :: It is a bet {shakes hands}

That woman is just weird. She always had a hard time expressing herself. Who knows what she’s planning now. She just doesn’t look like someone you can trust. I’m glad she’s resigning and I hope that’s the last I have to hear about her.

My fascination with Sarah Palin doesn’t stem from any type of admiration or political ties.

It lies in the fact that folks who don’t share her flavor are absolutely venomous toward her.

Does this person, that you don’t actually know deserve to be eaten by wolves, deemed crazy, called a cunt, or be degraded in any other way?

You all can tell me that it’s because she’s in the public eye, but I don’t ever recall any speeches she gave where she said anything near the hateful things I see said about her on here.

I think for me one of the puzzles that is Sarah Palin is how angry she seems to have made members of John McCain’s staff and fellow Republicans. They chose her to run with him, but somehow they misread who she was entirely. Either they neglected to prepare her properly or she refused to go along with the role in which the Republican Party cast her or she simply was unable to understand what was really going on with her nomination.

I think also that folks see her as a hypocrite in that she represents a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint yet has a daughter who is an unwed mother, and seems willing to leave the care of her newborn to her husband, neither of which are typically acceptable to fundamentalists.

It isn’t so much her speeches, but rather her “square cog in a round hole” index being so high.

@Darwin . . .Fair enough, but still, why the hatred? I don’t mean you, I mean in general.

Christ, Dan Quayle was a fucking retard as well and did spend four years as VP. He never endured the bile Palin gets and she only ran as second banana.

What about her gets everyone’s goat when she should have already faded into the Geraldine Ferraro twilight?

@Blondesjon I don’t hate her. I just think it was a mistake to nominate her for such an important position. She clearly is not qualified or prepared. I agree that some people over reacted and still act inapropriately toward her. I just think a lot of people were scared that this woman could be the next president especially with McCain being so old and all. It was just a scary thought.

@kheredia . . .can you actually name one vice president that wasn’t an idiot?

@Blondesjon, I think the main reason is that she’s the most public face of a certain branch of Republicanism that encapsulates a lot of things that we liberals find appalling. She’s incredibly ignorant, stupidly religious, stupidly hawkish about foreign policy, disgustingly hypocritical—basically, before her, we had Bush, and before that, Gingrich maybe.

@Blondesjon – Partly it is Palin herself. Every time she disappears from the front page, she does something else to get back on it. It could also be partly that she is much better looking than the average politician (having been a beauty queen) but seems to insert foot in mouth more frequently than average. And it is partly backlash against the Republicans, who have gotten us into several difficult situations yet couldn’t even choose a VP candidate who doesn’t put her foot in her mouth

I do think many Americans are honestly puzzled why the Republicans picked her when they could have picked one of many other Republican women who have a proven track-record of being able to toe the party line, including:

“Senators: Lisa Murkowski, Alaska(?!?); Olympia Snowe, Maine; Susan Collins, Maine; Elizabeth Dole North Carolina; Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas

Governors: Oline Walker, Utah; Linda Lingle, Hawaii, M. Jodi Rell, Connecticut

Members of the House: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Florida; Deborah Pryce, Ohio; Barbara Cubin, Wyoming; Sue Myrick North Carolina; Jo Ann Emerson, Missouri; Kay Granger, Texas; Mary Bono, California; Heather Wilson , New Mexico; Judith Borg Biggert , Illinois; Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia; Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee; Ginny Brown-Waite, Florida; Candice Miller, Michigan; Marilyn Musgrave, Colorado; Thelma Drake, Virginia; Virginia Foxx, North Carolina; Cathy McMorris Rodgers, West Virginia; Jean Schmidt, Ohio

Cabinet: Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State; Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor; Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education; Mary Peters, Secretary of Transportation; Susan Schwab, US Special Trade Representative ”

@Blondesjon :: Al Gore.

@Qingu . . .Agreed. But does that mean she should be the subject of such hate when her name is brought up?

@johnpowell . . .Whether you think the 2000 election was rigged or not (I think they all are), it was close for a reason. Al Gore is eloquent and topical but still not the brightest crayon in the box.

@Darwin. . .I agree 100% but my question remains the same. Is she deserving of the hate that she recieves?

Crap, what I miss?

@Darwin. . .The democrats did a great job of picking a vp that never puts his foot in his mouth. ~

It was hard to choose which gaffe to link you to.

@Blondesjon – No, probably not. However, I can see why people could work up a hate for her. She represents so many viewpoints that so many of us find old fashioned, restrictive, or to a degree immoral, plus she seems somehow to do things in a way that translates as both greedy and uninterested in the welfare of the people she is governing.

Should people hate George Bush as much as they do? Probably not, but then he did seem to drag us into yet another foreign war and supported legislation that has damaged our economy. Palin is an extension of those eight years but she doesn’t even seem to understand what her party needs from her.

In other words, by being nominated Palin is in essence a slap in the face for voters. The Republican Party seems to have said that since we seem to want to vote for a woman (ie Clinton), well here is an old fashioned, God fearing, pioneer woman to vote for, one who understands that fashion is more important than substance.

On the surface at least, it seems as though Palin didn’t deserve the nomination and that she didn’t even care enough about it to do her homework. “Our neighboring country of Afghanistan”? Really? What happened to Canada? And Mexico?

In any case, I must to bed. Perhaps there will be more of this anon.

There’s also this story. This one could be pretty big and would certainly explain a lot.

@Blondesjon Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize and a number of other awards. He was involved in politics for 24 years. He should have been president. I don’t know how you can say that he is not the brightest. I bet he wouldn’t have screwed things up as badly as they are right now thanks to you know who.

@Jeruba . . .I bet it was something way shadier than that.

How dare she set such a shitty precedent of misconduct among politicians.

@kheredia. . .“you know who”? You mean Voldemort?

and they gave a nobel prize to the guy responsible for inventing tnt and the fellas responsible for the emergence of nuclear weapons

@Darwin Well said.

Though I will agree – for all her faults, the one admirable quality that I can give Palin is her endurance. As @Blondesjon pointed out, she has fallen under some pretty harsh and relatively unfair criticism; I’ve seen plenty of ad homenim attacks against her by the mainstream media (which can be debated is fair – she’s a politician that was running for the second most important seat in the country. Character is secondary to legislature and record, in my opinion).

However, her ignorance of a ton of topics, old-fashioned ideology and self-important religious fundamentalism is not forgiven because she has the gift of the gab.

I mean, can you imagine Palin speaking to a world leader?

I’m just saying, i’m almost positive things would be different now if people would have made the right decision in 2000.

Back to Guitaaaaaaaaaar Heeeeeeeero

@Jeruba May god help Sarah Palin if she messed with the sacred sport of Hockey.

…Then again, I don’t want Biden speaking to a world leader, either.

@Grisaille Shudders at the thought

@Blondesjon, I don’t know; “hate” might be a little strong, but are you saying the negative feelings towards her are undeserved? She’s basically a horrible excuse for a human being.

I haven’t stopped laughing. If she has larger ambitions, she’s shit-canned them.

I’ll also interject a couple of things about why people talk so much shit about her. First off, one of the reasons she’s not comparable to other second bananas like Quayle is that she statistically speaking had a far greater chance of becoming President due to the death of President under which she would have been serving. McCain was what 71, 72? Something like that. He was also a 4 time cancer survivor. He also often came off as a hothead. Not a good combo, VERY likely he won’t survive until 2016, maybe not even till 2012. So, whereas Obama picked a 32 year veteran of the Senate, and a long standing member of the foreign services committee, McCain picked someone who had been the governor of our least populous state for only 20 months. Then they tried to sell the message that because her job was an “executive” job, she was more qualified to be President than anyone else running for either President or Vice President. Then looking at her record, she stood for EVERYTHING liberals despise. Essentially, liberals have been pushed for 30 years now by people who think they have a mandate from GOD to tell us how to live our lives, and we have finally broken free of the stranglehold of evangelicalism in our government, and this woman still wanted to bring us back to the stone ages. Then she went on national television for her first big speech, and with her you betchas and don’tcha knows…basically the kind of folksy ignorance that people with an education DESPISE, came out and mocked of all things community organizers. She was all form and no substance…her ideas had been refuted roundly, and she was basically another GW Bush in prettier packaging. So yes, that resentment lingered, and yes, she is a bit different than other would be second bananas who left the public eye.

What was appalling the most to us however was her hubris. She, just like Bush, would never say maybe she was wrong, maybe we could come to common ground somewhere in teh middle. For her it continued to be a holy war, and she continued to open her mouth even when her 15 minutes were up. It’s not the evil media and Palin haters who keep dragging her into the spotlight, it’s her refusing to give it up, refusing to accept that she needs to moderate her rhetoric to be taken seriously by enough people to matter. She has steadfastly spoken to her base and her base along, and she’s offered no way to reconcile her views with the powers in charge today, she looks for ways to point her finger and tell everyone who doesn’t agree with her that THEY are wrong.

I don’t want to get into a big back and forth about it, I believe Palin has ever right to believe what she believes, she IS the duly elected governor of Alaska for now, and she has some appeal to a particular group of Americans. She is a parent who has raised/is raising 5 children, and I can respect that. But her politics are of the same variety that in my opinion have fucked up this country to the point where at times I barely recognize it, and I think politically speaking she is a destructive force. I personally wish nothing more than for her to have gone away completely by this time, hell, by several months ago…but she didn’t. I want her to go away, and I think that even if it’s not her intention to do so, this cements the deal.

So, I’ll keep on laughing, and I’ll leave those of you who defend Palin (as you have every right to to do so), this article, which very well articulates why she’s been such a target…I hope it helps aid in your understanding.

@dalepetrie She can’t be underestimated. The midwest loves her and they vote in large numbers.

@Blondesjon: They didn’t give a Nobel to Nobel. He invented them after inventing dynamite and provided for them in his will. Also, there are serious differences among the different Nobel prizes.

Well said, @dalepetrie.

@dalepetrie: I’m glad I took the time to read your post (sorry, they’re a bit lengthy). That was a great answer.

That being said, I have to agree with @TCH. Living in the NorthEast, I am regularly shocked by how different the mid-west and the South views things.

@cprevite I grew up in the mid-west, and I’m still routinely shocked by how things are viewed in that part of the country.

@EmpressPixie…You are right about Nobel. I was hoping to slip one by there.

I also agree with you all that Palin is a horrible idea for this country.

What I don’t understand us how a group of folks, that call themselves liberal, instantly turn into an angry mob of Bill O’ Reilys and Sean Hannitys at the very mention of this woman’s name. She’s an idiot. What are you all so afraid of?

She’ll probably have a very successful career as a Fox News analyst.

Gail Collins column in today’s NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/opinion/04collins.html?th&emc=th

NYT news article; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/us/politics/04palin.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Two quotes: “In her tone and some of her words in an often-rambling announcement, she sounded like someone who was making a permanent exit from politics after what her friends have called a rough and dispiriting year.”

“But at another point she invoked a military quotation, misattributing it to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in what seemed to be an effort to wave aside any suggestion that she was abandoning the fight. “He said, ‘We’re not retreating; we are advancing in another direction,’ ” she said. (The remark was actually said by Maj. Gen. Oliver Prince Smith.)

@Blondesjon: Some Veeps who were not dim bulbs.

John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
Andrew Johnson
Teddy Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Al Gore

I will add to that list

George HW Bush
Walter Mondale
Lyndon Johnson
Richard Nixon

I don’t care for any of them, but they were all quite intelligent.

I recall Letterman telling Dan Quayle that, compared to W, he was like Churchill.

Palin is flat out stupid. Her quitting might be the Republican Heath Plan, because of the healing power of laughter.

I think the GOP has become a parody of itself, and not even Gingrich (a pretty smart man) can save it as long as they let people like Rush Limbaugh continue to speak for them. I suppose the last great Republican might have also been the first, A. Lincoln.

@gailcalled . . .I still have to disagree with Al Gore. He is a great politician and knows how to push his agenda but I think he’s ridden a lot of coattails to get to where he is.

And before anyone starts posting Gore’s educational credits, remember, George W. Bush, a major dim bulb, holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated from Yale.

This is why diplomas do not impress me.

a non us perspective: you guys really could have done with Gore re the whole green issue…i know that individual states are now really starting to make head way with these problems…this is right, yes?...but Bush for 8 years was a complete disaster….at least that is how the rest of the world seems to think about it….he doesn’t seem to have had any interest in this whatsoever….and that’s putting it in a neutral way….truth seems to be he was well in with all his rich oil friends…..

Someone on the intarnets pointed out that Sarah Palin claimed to have asked her five children if she should resign and they all said “yes,” with one saying “hell yes!”

Fun fact: one of those kids is a 15-month-old infant with Down’s Syndrome. I wonder if “HELL YES” were Baby Trig’s first words?

Ah! That little tyke is a chip off the old maverick!

Yeah. Infants with Down’s Syndrome are hilarious.

fail

@Blondesjon, No they aren’t! I can’t believe you said that!

@filmfann pssst… sarcasm…

sar·chasm (‘sär-“ka-z&m) : The giant gulf (chasm) between what is said and the person who doesn’t get it.

@Blondesjon, I’m going to attempt to answer this:

She’s an idiot. What are you all so afraid of?

1. She may be an idiot, but she’s an attractive idiot.
People like her, some of them in spite of themselves. And they’ve forgotten the difference between likability and fitness for office.

2. She may be an idiot, but she’s unaware she’s an idiot.
This is a classic case of incompetence not knowing its own incompetence. Such people are dangerous. Trying to imagine her handling any of what crowds and darkens the agendas of the Oval Office these days causes explosions in my brain.

3. She may be an idiot, but she’s a self-aggrandizing idiot.
She is a savvy self-promoter who knows how to exert a brutish sort of charm and recognizes no limits to the power God may see fit to bestow on her. (If the nomination was a message from God, what was the defeat?)

4. She may be an idiot, but she’s a vote-getting idiot.
This tells us a story that we do not want to believe about our fellow citizens. It is deeply disheartening, like the hollow rot at the core of a bad potato.

She’s all the cheerleaders and sorority girls and homecoming queens who ever made the lads suffer and the smart girls seethe in school, and we comforted ourselves with the notion that we, at least, had brains and drive and could make something more of ourselves than models and two-bit starlets. To see her approach the pinnacle of achievement in our country riding on not much more than what it takes to turn over letters on a game show is like a betrayal of everything we’re still trying to believe in, about ourselves, the system, and the wisdom of democracy—the sheer faith in the soundness of majority rule.

The notion that maybe that faith is misplaced after all: that’s what I’m so afraid of.

@Jeruba . . .You’ve just described half of the people working in Washington D.C.

It’s always been that way.

This whole Palin thing seems to go beyond all of that. From making jokes about her infant son with Down’s Syndrome to personal attacks dripping with a hate that I once thought was reserved for only racist use, I simply cannot understand why any human being should be held in such contempt by a group of strangers.

@jonsblond, I don’t hate her, not at all. She’s not worth the energy it would take to hate her. I do hate the sheer presumption of her thinking that she’s fit to be president of the United States, but there are a lot of loonies who think that. I answered your question about fear, not hate. And I was speaking only for myself.

If half of Washington fits that description, that is a blight to our collective souls. But it does not make my answer any less applicable to her.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic – I live in the Midwest, and honestly, I don’t see a ton of love for her.

Here’s an insightful comment.

@kevbo . . .Now there is some truth without the bitter aftertaste.

Wow, @kevbo, I had never heard the term “snowbilly” before….love it.

They’ve been using it on wonkette almost since the beginning. Funny, huh?

@Blondsjon, thanks.

@dalepetrie . . .Didn’t you just post a thread about name calling and labeling? I guess it’s okay if your child refers to others as “snowbilly kids” just so long as he doesn’t point out what color they are.I bet it’s hilarious if they are poor or their parents are divorced too.

@kevbo very funny and inciteful!

@filmfann, do you mean ‘insightful’? Inciting has to do with stirring things up, like incitring a riot. Can’t tell for sure if you are making a pun.

@Jeruba Yes, I am sure kevbo’s link will incite some of the flutherers here. Yes, sometimes my comments are misunderstood.

As a Canadian, I perhaps am not qualified to comment. but Palin, like most politicians today, are in a quandary. Nobody is as bad or as good as the media portrays. She surely is not stupid having been elected as a Governor of Alaska, but certainly is very right wing. If you are a Democrat you will find every reason to cast her in a bad light, if a Republican will probably find some good in her. If you cast your biases aside you must at least agree that her thrusting into the spotlight was the brightest part of McCain’s tough campaign. Given Bush’s record, it was a difficult position for the Republican ticket and they probably did the best considering what they had due to his record. All of the fuss about her personal life is B.S. Scrutinize Clinton with his lifestyle, or JFK and in comparison she is a saint. This ridiculous attribution of her failings are why only fairly inferior candidates run for office. She lost, but is not the devil. Obama won, but he is not God. Look at people for what they are, not prismed by your bias. I know many very upstanding people who have thought of running for office, but after all of this unscientific judgement, say the hell with it. No evidence or direct knowledge of the actual facts, just hearsay, inuendo, and attribution. Predictable pablum for the masses. Makes me shake my head that otherwise intelligent people make these judgments without anything but anecdotes. I could care less about Palin, just see what criticism she has gone under and think, why would anyone want the trouble. Would you?

@Blondesjon – I just find the term “snowbilly” to be funny, just in general, no need to call me out, I didn’t actually coin the term, refer to anyone as one, or say it wasn’t kind, and certainly didn’t involve my child in the discussion. I just think it’s a funny word. Chill, dude, take out your hostility on Wonkette, not me.

To me, this is just further proof that the country made a wise decision in 2008. I mean, in addition to her naivety with respect to economics, foreign affairs, domestic affairs, news, and geography, we now learn that she is a quitter. Interestingly, she either quit because she couldn’t handle the heat (oh, those nasty liberal elitists) or because she wants to pursue her own national ambitions. If it is the former, then it is former proof that she can never hold national office. If a few jokes throw her off so badly that she cannot lead, then what would happen in response to a real crisis?

Well said, @dannyc

@dannyc Note my answer. I could care less about her personal life. She’s a dolt, plain and simple. I want a thoughtful, knowledgeable President, not one who doesn’t read books or newspapers, or doesn’t have a grasp of complex issues.

Here’s another great article which articulates really well Palin’s status in popular culture, politics, and the minds of her supporters and detractors. It really helps (I think) put into perspective why maybe we’re still talking about a has been second banana after all these months without simply dismissing it as sexism.

@shilolo . I noted your answer, just don“t agree with it. When you use words like “dolt”, I lose interest in your effective analysis as she is hardly that. You may not agree with her, but throwing out invectives is really such a bore. If you specifically disagree with her statements, can cite them, parse their intolerant or flawed logic, and recommend alternative answers, then I would have more use for the analysis you postulate. I also disagreed with many of her platform messages, but cannot disrespect her just because I may not share her opinions. And I too, could not care less about her personal life.

@dannyc I use the word dolt because it accurately represents her intelligence level. I guarantee you that I have effectively analyzed her “positions” (or lack thereof), as well as her random misstatements and complete flubs. Being an intelligent, educated person myself, I shouldn’t have to apologize for seeking someone similar to be the President of the USA (ooh, sounds like an awesome Craigslist ad). Everything that I have seen about her proves that she is neither intelligent nor educated, and most damningly, she appears disinterested in educating herself and preparing for a national position. All she is able to muster is class rhetoric, and that is dispiriting and disappointing.

@shilolo . Please provide a specific example.

@shilolo “All she is able to muster”. According to MSNBC? Where do you get this information from? Do you know her personally?

@dannyc That is quite a challenge, to pick a single example. I would simply say that her persistent anti-intellectualism and downright stupidity is what bothers me the worst. Not knowing American history as evidenced by her failure to name even a single Supreme court case, having a simplistic view of foreign affairs (Putin flies over Alaska, therefore, I know about Russia), a lack of insight into current events (“I read every newspaper” despite evidence to the contrary) and so on. Her performances during staged interviews with Couric and Gibson were an embarrassment and her debate performance was equally atrocious (I won’t answer the question you asked me, because I can’t, I will answer whatever I damn well please.)

@jonsblond Why do I have to know her personally to form an opinion on her? Do I need to be her husband to understand her fully? That is a false argument. I watched her closely (with bemusement), and noticed that she pandered mainly to the “joe six-packs” of the world. Frankly, she attracted the gun-toting, flag-waving person who also happens to the dislike the Harvard-educated, left-wing, New York Times reading, latte drinking Democrat. Thus, my statement about class rhetoric.

@shilolo I know many “joe six-packs”. Many that are very intelligent men that dirty their hands during the day to support their families.She attracted me, a non gun-toting, non flag-waving person who also happens to like the Harvard-educated, left-wing, *New York Times reading, latte (f#* the latte, I like my coffee black) drinking Democrat.

@jonsblond I’m sure you do. But I think the (potential) leader of the free world should be worldly, well-read, intelligent, educated, and able to construct a cogent argument. Sarah Palin failed all of those criteria, badly. And this isn’t me being sexist. I voted for Hillary in the Democratic primaries, mainly because even though I thought both she and Obama were smart and capable, she was more experienced, which I preferred. I’m sorry to say, but Sarah Palin might be a congenial “soccer mom”, but we don’t choose a President based on congeniality (at least I hope not).

@shilolo So you’re saying you’ll buy my Hillary Clinton 2008 coffeee mug from me?

I’m asking top dollar you know! ;)

@shilolo…Ronal Reagan?

Has Sarah Palin ever been quoted (and made sense)explaining some part of foreign policy or economics in the Wall Street Journal? She made a pretty good speech to a republican convention a few weeks ago, but then it turned out she plagiarized the whole thing from Newt.

@Blondesjon Ronald Reagan had significantly more experience than Sarah Palin ever had. I’m not a Reagan fan. I think his trickle down economics were a miserable failure and Iran-Contra dealings were an abomination. However, being governor of California, with an economy the size of the 6th largest country on the planet is significantly more weighty than being Mayor of Wassilla.

As I said above, I thought both Hillary and Obama had the intellect and gravitas to handle the job, and favored Hillary by virtue of her experience. In fact, I could have tolerated McCain (the maverick, not the panderer). But, when he oh-so-cynically picked Palin as his running mate, I became diametrically opposed to his ticket. A man in his 70s with a history of multiple cancers should not have a lightweight with limited experience for a VP (even Sarah Palin herself was quoted as saying Mitt Romney would have been a better choice). Now, I’m sad she quit her governorship, because that makes her a much less viable eventual candidate, and means the Republicans may field someone with an outside chance of winning.

Funny line last night on television: Sarah Palin said “Thanks, but no thanks” to completing her term as governor.

http://www.fluther.com/disc/49001/what-do-you-think-of-sarah-palins-resignation-as-governor-of/#quip671784

I win, pay up.

@johnpowell . . . Done.

@johnpowell Hah. Great.

@Grisaille Yeah. Giving money to a worthy cause is such a terrible thing~. try a little harder