Dakota

Sarah P Fakes It ; Faking Sarah P

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Charles Gibson, the interviewer, asked her if she didn’t hesitate and question whether she was experienced enough.

“I didn’t hesitate, no,” she said.

He asked if that didn’t that take some hubris.

“I answered him yes,” Ms. Palin said

John Cole is convinced that Mrs. Palin doesn't know what hubris means.

He goes on to say:

And Sarah Palin is the distilled essence of wingnut. She has it all. She is dishonest. She is a religious nut. She is incurious. She is anti-science. She is inexperienced. She abuses her authority. She hides behind executive privilege. She is a big spender. She works from the gut and places a greater value on instinct than knowledge.

And most dangerous of all, she is supremely self-confident to the point of not recognizing how ill-equipped she is to lead the country. This from last night stood out for me:

James Fallows was astonished by the obvious signs of a longstanding indifference to foreign policy on Sarah's part.

Each of us has areas we care about, and areas we don't. If we are interested in a topic, we follow its development over the years. And because we have followed its development, we're able to talk and think about it in a "rounded" way......

Here's the most obvious example in daily life: Sports Talk radio.

Mention a name or theme -- Brett Favre, the Patriots under Belichick, Lance Armstrong's comeback, Venus and Serena -- and anyone who cares about sports can have a very sophisticated discussion about the ins and outs and myth and realities and arguments and rebuttals.

People who don't like sports can't do that. It's not so much that they can't identify the names -- they've heard of Armstrong -- but they've never bothered to follow the flow of debate. I like sports -- and politics and tech and other topics -- so I like joining these debates. On a wide range of other topics -- fashion, antique furniture, the world of restaurants and fine dining, or (blush) opera -- I have not been interested enough to learn anything I can add to the discussion. So I embarrass myself if I have to express a view.

What Sarah Palin revealed is that she has not been interested enough in world affairs to become minimally conversant with the issues. Many people in our great land might have difficulty defining the "Bush Doctrine" exactly. But not to recognize the name, as obviously was the case for Palin, indicates not a failure of last-minute cramming but a lack of attention to any foreign-policy discussion whatsoever in the last seven years.

For those of you who would like to join all of us here at Dakota in a Bush Doctrine Study Club, (you know who you are) Dan Froomkin and Glenn Greenwald are eager to instruct.

Or perhaps you're enchanted and have already purchased red patent pumps and knock off glasses, made a prepublication deposit on The Wildlife Recipe Book and are ready to rename your children. Well here's the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator - get started!

Photo note: The ducks aren't in a row and the lights are out - a psychometaphorophoto

Addendum: reviews

Posted by Dakota at September 14, 2008 06:47 PM