Palin Couldn’t Pass A Literacy Test
When I was in high school and faced with an essay question I couldn’t begin to answer my standard response was to fill up the paper with enough nonsense in the hope that I’d accidentally hit upon some point that would save me. It rarely worked. That said, take a look at this exchange between Palin and Wallace and tell me what she is saying. Extra points for attempting to diagram these sentences – and I use that word loosely.
WALLACE: What do you think of Barack Obama’s presidency so far?
PALIN: He has some misguided decisions that he is making that he is expecting us to just kind of sit down and shut up and accept, and many of us are not going to sit down and shut up. We’re going to say no, we do not like this…
WALLACE: Wait, wait, where’s he saying sit down and shut up?
PALIN: In a general just kind of general persona I think that he has when he’s up there at, I’ll call it a lectern. When he is up there and he is telling us basically, I know best, my people here in the White House know best, and we are going to tell you that yes, you do want this essentially nationalized health care system and we’re saying, no, we don’t. And the messages are not being received by Barack Obama. So I think instead of lecturing, he needs to stop and he needs to listen on health care issues. On national security, this perceived lackadaisical approach that he has to dealing with the terrorists. We’re saying that concerns us and we’re going to speak up about it and please don’t allow this persona to continue where you do try to make us feel like we need to just sit down, shut up and accept what you’re doing to us.
In a general just kind of general persona I think that he has when he’s up there at, I’ll call it a lectern. WTF is that?
The woman has diarrhea of the mouth. She just throws sh*t at the wall and hopes it sticks. She is a joke – a dangerous joke – who has been elevated by a lazy media to heights she doesn’t deserve. Personally, I’m sick to death of her, but ignoring her isn’t an option. Her appeal, imo, is that she makes people comfortable with their own ignorance. Dangerous stuff, indeed.
Tags: Sarah Palin
“On national security, this perceived lackadaisical approach that he has to dealing with the terrorists.”
She majored in journalism and can’t put a noun and verb together. As a journalist and a fan of the English language properly used, this pains me.
When she speaks she amazes me sometimes. All the words are in English and I understand the meaning of them all, but putting them together makes nonsense. Remember that famous video of Palin babbling while the turkey slaughter was going on behind her? I kept turning my attention back to her when I was watching it because she just said so much nonsense it was unbelievable.
Anyway, in the education biz there’s a saying for what you described:
“If you can’t dazzle them with knowledge, baffle them with bullshit.” I used to see it all the time when I was a T.A. In fact, on chem tests we would put small blanks on purpose. It was supposed to be a hint that the answer was short, usually a word or a sentence. Sometimes we’d get these long, nonsensical essays (that they would write on the back of the page) basically using every chemistry term they could think of.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve really come to appreciate brevity. It takes someone with a deep understanding to sum up a complex topic with a short explanation that makes the subject clear.
It is crystal clear to me she is calling Obama uppity. She is using the dog whistle and calling Republicans home.
What she’s saying is, “He makes me feel inferior.” It’s the one accurate thing she feels.
One of the radio shows I listen to calls the way she talks “word salad”.
What she’s saying is, “He makes me feel inferior.” It’s the one accurate thing she feels.
Bingo. And the thing that she shares with much of her teabagger (and other GOP) brethren are their massive sets of resentments which they’ve been allowed to substitute for real political argument.