From the Times:
Sarah Palin is facing fresh doubts about her readiness for high office after being caught reading crib notes scrawled on her hand to prompt her on the core principles of conservatism.Hillbilly Palm Pilot... ㅋㅋㅋ I wish I'd thought of that.
Video footage showed Mrs Palin glancing down at the palm of her left hand — on which the words “energy”, “budget cuts”, “tax” and “lift American spirits” had been written in ink — during a question-and-answer session at the grassroots Tea Party convention last week. The word “budget” had been crossed out.
Mrs Palin’s detractors have ridiculed the crib notes — already being called the “Hillbilly Palm Pilot” — noting that basic conservative principles are something she should surely be able to remember without help. Minutes before she used the notes she had castigated President Obama in a prepared speech as a “charismatic guy with a teleprompter”.
Surely, though, you must recognize some difference between a speaker who uses a few notes to speak extemporaneously to a group of people, and someone who is tied to a script (and helpless without it).
ReplyDeleteI frequently speak before groups at lawyers' conferences and the like, and I do not use a script. That doesn't mean there are no notes. When I have a number of points that I want to make sure are addressed, I've usually got them jotted down on a few 3x5" note cards, or small pieces of memo paper. Sometimes the outline is extensive (four or five small sheets of paper). Sarah Palin's notes were just a few general outline topics, and she was not noted as having had trouble speaking off the cuff otherwise.
In the same week, this guy Obama got up on his teleprompter and read to a military audience a speech he'd apparently not seen before. The resulting gaffe -- pronouncing the word "corpsman" (as in hospital corpsman, an enlisted Navy medical assistant) as corpse-man with a hard "ps" -- was repeated three times in the course of delivering the speech he'd apparently not previously practiced before anyone who would have noticed the ridiculous mispronunciation. The week before, the White House set up a full teleprompter kit for an address to a room full of sixth-graders.
The double standard and condescension is appalling. She's not a fool; her public pronouncements and policy statements issued through, of all places, her Facebook page present a compelling possibility that Sarah Palin has some rather penetrating insights. Meanwhile, there is a mounting quantity of evidence, from his dependence on technological aids to be able to string together words to his actual policy prescriptions, that our President may just be a moron passing as "smart". I think you're on the wrong side of this one.
What I rather enjoy, however, is the fact that the moron Sarah Palin has the White House mesmerized. If she's so irrelevant, they should ignore her. The fact that she's enemy number one of the White House wrecking crew speaks to her increasing prominence, influence, and ability to persuade.
At any rate, your premise -- that Barack Obama's mounting unpopularity presages a crushing defeat for him in the 2012 Presidential election -- is accepted. Whether or not Sarah Palin will be the Republican candidate is still up in the air. (But if not her, who? The Republican charisma well is fairly empty.)
ReplyDeleteThe current most-impressive Republican figures are both Congressmen -- Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan -- and as such both lack executive experience. I think both of them ought to seek seasoning as Governors before stepping up to run for President. The Barack Obama debacle is teaching Americans to be leery of the young, charismatic Congress critter. It will be a long time before we elect another Senator, I'd bet.
Jeb Bush? He sure seems like the smarter Bush brother and by all accounts was an effective Governor of Florida.
Tim Pawlenty? He's smart and also has a favorable track record, but good grief, he's bland.
Rick Perry? Unfortunately there seems to be a gay sex scandal there. I'm of the opinion Republicans can swallow it (har har har) but the Democrats have a capacity to play rather nasty. The only ones who get a pass on gay sex from them are Congressmen running gay brothels from their homes, it seems.
And I think Bobby Jindal is sunk.
That really does leave Sarah Palin in a good spot.
If she takes the Republican nomination, I'll be the next one running across the border into North Korea.
ReplyDeleteBrendon wrote:
ReplyDeletepronouncing the word "corpsman" (as in hospital corpsman, an enlisted Navy medical assistant) as corpse-man with a hard "ps"
I'll try to respond to your comments more fully tomorrow after I finish a particular task that has to be done, but for now I'll just mention that I've noted Obama's pronunciation issues in the past.
Before I go, though, two quick observations. First, as one can see from the very first link, I'm not exactly writing Sarah Palin off as a candidate (and if I had the chance to work with her to bring her up to speed on Korea and East Asia, I'd take the job in a heartbeat).
ReplyDeleteSecond, Obama being a bad president doesn't make Sarah Palin a good one. At any rate, I voted for neither of them in 2008.
And also, Matt, that was pretty funny.
I think what she did shows that she's a real person. Who hasn't at one time or another written down something important on their hands (or body) to remind themselves later?
ReplyDeleteHowever, this would have been much more impressive: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLYD_-A_X5E (Daft Bodies) Using pretty much your whole body as opposed to a hand as a crib sheet, and I'd be much more inclined to accept the message if it were her instead of coming from Obama or any other male.
the world will end in 2012 because of sarah palin's election, called it
ReplyDeleteChrist this comment thread is pathetic.
ReplyDeleteBesides the fact that Brendon is regurgitating headlines from Drudge, he tries to cover it up with typically empty wingnut drivel.
Palin has proven time and time again that she can not speak substantively with or without preparation or crib notes. Aside from her failed interviews, whenever she makes a big policy speech, she always uses a teleprompter or has a script in front of her.
Mounting evidence that Obama can't string words together? Did you not see the recent pounding the GOP took at the Q&A? Have you not seen his town halls and interviews? Give me a break. It's one thing if you don't like him, but spewing nonsense doesn't work.
John From Daejeon is guilty of the same thing as Brendon, only his source is different. Rather than quoting Drudge, he went for Fox and Friends...
Once the blinders come off and you start to OBJECTIVELY look at how much Obama has done to rescue the economy, reform the tax system and restructure health care from its former GOP handlers, this blind hate will wane.
On another note, a 2010 GOP win will be perfect for the Dems. We'll be able to paint the GOP as they are: do nothing.
A Palin run would seal the deal.
Expat, I don’t know what you are blathering on about, but I don’t get my news from FOX. Sometimes, I do watch “The Simpsons,” “House,” and NFC games on that network, though.
ReplyDeleteI also voted for neither of the two blowhards who ran in the last presidential election as I knew that neither of these two corporate shills have my best interests at heart, so I threw my vote away on a candidate I could at least stomach. And, if I hate anything, it’s the system that allows this crap to go on and on and on without respite.
The “real person” remark was that I never thought a beauty queen like Palin would ever get her hands actually dirty or mar her body for any reason, while a common laborer, like myself, has been known to write all over my body whenever I needed to (especially growing up on a family farm as paper wasn’t readily available out in the middle of a field or anywhere for that matter on our old, barebones tractors).
As for the word “crib sheet,” I got it from myself as well. I saw that Kushibo used “crib notes,” but those from down in my neck of the woods all seem to use the term “crib sheet” for reminders to one's self and the term “coke” for all types of soft drinks/colas/soda pops/carbonated beverages.
Plus, the half-assed link to “Daft Bodies” from Youtube.com was a shot at Palin for not getting it as write, or right, as the two beauties in their tribute to “Daft Punk”—the French electronic musical duo. If Palin had the courage to write out her “crib sheet” on her body like those two did, she’d be elected hands down no matter her platform or political party.
Basically, politics in the U.S. is nothing more than a popularity contest between rich oldsters who’ve never gotten their hands dirty doing actual physical labor, and to them, a dirty hand has a whole other meaning.
Dammit, I forgot, Expat. The term "male" was used as a personal preference as I don't really dig dudes as anything other than friends. Obama just happens to be in the half of the population that I'd rather not see unclothed, myself included.
ReplyDelete"Beauty queen" who doesn't get her hands dirty??
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin hunts and works with her husband and children in a small commercial-fishery operation. I'm fairly sure both activities get you elbow-deep in guts.
I would like to remind everyone this morning to keep things civil. I certainly don't mind a spirited and constructive discussion on the merits of a Sarah Palin's candidacy (or Obama's, or anyone else's), but let's not dispense with personal attacks (this isn't directed at anyone in particular).
ReplyDeleteI rarely ever pull the plug on a comments section, but if things ever get to the level they occasionally do at The Marmot's Hole, I will. Especially if Mizar5 pics are involved.