Sarah Palin's cheat sheet (Page 2 of 3)

I'm not a "fan" of Palin, really, but the ridiculous things she is harangued for, from both the left and the right, force me to defend her more than I'd otherwise care to.

I'm bothered by the fact that she's supporting McCain over a more conservative candidate in AZ, and I think there was a similar situation in one other place.  That makes me want to keep an eye on her.  But every time I hear someone (from left or right) insult her intelligence or education because they watched a few minutes of the incredibly edited interviews with Gibson or Couric - seriously, when Gibson asked Palin about Russia, they edited out her first three complete paragraphs and made her fourth paragraph her entire response -  it invariably makes me want to *severely* beat the shit out of someone, and it ain't Palin.

Qwinn

Qwinn, I agree 100%. Most of the things she is derided for are utterly ridiculous and I feel obligated to defend her as well. The things that do cause me a bit of concern is that she doesn't seemed to be heavily vetted on sensitive matters and "speaks off the cuff" on complex issues a tad much. While her comments are typically to rile up her base with harmless quips and oft-retaliatory soundbites, the Iran comment was a bit dicey. Whether we think about it much or not, she was the nominee for VP of the US and her words carry worldwide weight (and thus potential ramifications). She can still say those same things but be a little more sly about it. "Diplomacy" or "PC" is what they call it I believe.

Holy shit. Disregard. I've been duped by the context police. I went to look for it and found the entire exchange. Here's the text:

Sounds reasonable to me.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/? … RkMzMxMDE=

Last edited by sidekick_tonto (2010-02-09 02:14:15)

Many on the left and the "establishment" right insinuated that she was being diplomatically insensitive, politically naive, and even hawking Iran. I swear, I just need to stop watching the news and read transcripts.

Edit - therefore, the only thing I stand by in my initial post is "she doesn't seemed to be heavily vetted on sensitive matters and "speaks off the cuff" on complex issues a tad much". But I will certainly give her more latitude from here on out.

Last edited by sidekick_tonto (2010-02-09 02:29:58)

The fargo accented "Ya! You betcha!"hokeyness wears thin.  Unfortunately, it appears genuine.

The resignation speech was horrible.  It was as if she had written it herself, or had no prepared remarks at all.

Perhaps she was not trying to conceal anything.

Sexist.  BHO is also an awful speaker off-the-cuff, but you don't read about him being compared to Miss SC.

That's very unfair.  GWB, his father, WJC, BHO, Gore -- none of the top tier politically are comparable to those you mention.  Steve Forbes is probably closest to that sort.

Oh ya.  She's just a hard workin' maverick, doncha know!

Watching President Obama off teleprompter is akin to a kid giving his first speech in grade school who lost his note cards.  In fact at that level I had a teacher who had us do exercises to remove "um" and "Uhh" from our speaking.  (this included the entire class shouting "UMM!" or "UHHH" or "like" or "Y'know" back at the speaker if they inserted them as crutches.)  Such a "gifted" speaker as Obama should not pepper his remarks so heavily with space-filler words.  Yet among the faithful he is still considered a brilliant orator.  I bet he reads the fuck out of a bedtime story too, but that doesn't make him a great storyteller.

I consider it wise to have notes keeping you on message when giving a speech.  I am not by any means defending Palin as a speaker - I cringe regularly when I hear her speak.  I am critical of the over the top reaction to any small thing she does or says - in this case making and referring to notes when the hero of most leveling the charges couldn't recite Jack and Jill without his teleprompter. 

Well, he has a map - one with all 57 states on it.

Last edited by Raoul Duke (2010-02-09 15:15:42)

GWB.  Miss him now?

He wasn't such a bad speaker, was he?

It's called "cerebral" man. When he stutters, he's really in such deep thought that his prefrontal cortex can't fire the 'greatness' synapses in time to synch them with his vocal cords.

So that's why he holds his head so high?  To let all the brilliance fall through his synapses.

I think GWB had outstanding speech writers. Much of the wordsmithing and distillation of ideas in his addresses was first rate. GWB did a serviceable job delivering prepared texts. In interviews and press conferences he was impressively awful.

Last edited by Bill Thompson (2010-02-09 15:48:58)

This thread is full of win-agratude