Good news for Alaskans - Palin resigning

[Kelly the Dog]

So let me get this straight. Joe Biden can make untold gaffes, stupid statements, and boneheaded decisions and be smart but Palin can't. Did I get that right?

 

Of course. Some people are smart and say dumb things, and some people are dumb and say dumb things.

 

Just like you and LA can -- and Molson and Sarah Palin can't. You're smart and can make gaffes and stupid statements and boneheaded decisions and you could still be considered an intelligent person. She's just plain stupid.

 

Gaffes are not really an accurate factor in intelligence. They are not good for a politician, and they can keep you from going higher up the ladder, and people can get a lot of yuks at your expense, but it's not a real good sign of whether you are smart or not. (Then again, there are stupid people that make a lot of gaffes, too)

 

Boneheaded decisions are usually a matter of opinion, and one person make think it was very smart and another may think it was boneheaded. I personally don't think Biden has made an inordinate amount of boneheaded decisions (like, say, he did with the plagiarism issue) but I would imagine those on the other side like yourself do think he has made a lot of boneheaded decisions.

 

Similarly, I don't think Biden has made a huge amount of stupid statements THAT ARENT GAFFES or things he should have kept his mouth shut about. That's where he gets in trouble, not the accuracy or intelligence of the statement. He's made enough that probably keep him from higher office, like, for example, the remark about Obama is going to be tested. It was a dumb thing to say politically outloud with reporters around, but it wasn't a dumb statement, untrue, inaccurate, or unintelligent.

 

All of that, however, is open to argument, and I can easily see why someone on the right would think he has made a lot of stupid statements. But like I said before I guarantee you everyone in Congress thinks he's a very intelligent guy, even his bitter rivals. One of the most informed, without question.

[X. Benedict]

A large portion of Republicans hate her, too. It's difficult for a lot of them to admit it because they would take too much flack, but enough of them have said it, and especially the ones that it can't hurt them politically. She has tremendous appeal to a sizable chunk of people in the Republican party. But that chunk, IMO, is not nearly enough to even win the primaries. A couple states, maybe, but not the whole shebang.

 

Not all of her negatives are simple booksmart issues that if she read up on she could learn. That is possible (although doubtful). A lot of it is how she does business and reacts to things, which is much, much harder to reverse. Pretty much everything she has touched has imploded, I really find it hard to believe people aren't jumping ship quicker even though a lot have.

 

Campaigns are really a different animal though..... campaigning and raising funds is really about showing up and giving the same stump speech over and over and making personal contact, something she would be terrific at. You could script her answers for at least 100 questions, and a good campaign staff would have her prepped for the ones she was likely to encounter each day.

 

Heck, George W. Bush did pretty well with audience plants with scripted questions.

 

Unlikely, but depending on the national mood, she really could go far.

 

As for Biden - he was too stupid to make a fortune in the Senate....which means he can't be trusted.

 

Edit: "too stupid"

[Chef Jim]

Of course. Some people are smart and say dumb things, and some people are dumb and say dumb things.

 

Just like you and LA can -- and Molson and Sarah Palin can't. You're smart and can make gaffes and stupid statements and boneheaded decisions and you could still be considered an intelligent person. She's just plain stupid.

 

Gaffes are not really an accurate factor in intelligence. They are not good for a politician, and they can keep you from going higher up the ladder, and people can get a lot of yuks at your expense, but it's not a real good sign of whether you are smart or not. (Then again, there are stupid people that make a lot of gaffes, too)

 

Boneheaded decisions are usually a matter of opinion, and one person make think it was very smart and another may think it was boneheaded. I personally don't think Biden has made an inordinate amount of boneheaded decisions (like, say, he did with the plagiarism issue) but I would imagine those on the other side like yourself do think he has made a lot of boneheaded decisions.

 

Similarly, I don't think Biden has made a huge amount of stupid statements THAT ARENT GAFFES or things he should have kept his mouth shut about. That's where he gets in trouble, not the accuracy or intelligence of the statement. He's made enough that probably keep him from higher office, like, for example, the remark about Obama is going to be tested. It was a dumb thing to say politically outloud with reporters around, but it wasn't a dumb statement, untrue, inaccurate, or unintelligent.

 

All of that, however, is open to argument, and I can easily see why someone on the right would think he has made a lot of stupid statements. But like I said before I guarantee you everyone in Congress thinks he's a very intelligent guy, even his bitter rivals. One of the most informed, without question.

 

I think it's quite amusing to think that you know the both of them well enough to come to the conclusion that she stupid and he's not. I highly doubt that either of them could have gotten to where they are in their careers being stupid.

[Kelly the Dog]

Campaigns are really a different animal though..... campaigning and raising funds is really about showing up and giving the same stump speech over and over and making personal contact, something she would be terrific at. You could script her answers for at least 100 questions, and a good campaign staff would have her prepped for the ones she was likely to encounter each day.

 

Unlikely, but depending on the national mood, she really could go far.

 

As for Biden - he was to stupid to make a fortune in the Senate....which means he can't be trusted.

I could be wrong and you could be right. Part of the problem she has with her own party however came from that campaigning that she did, doing what you were just saying she was good at. Her negatives went way up during that time because she kept on splitting people up into real Americans (and apparently unreal Americans), didn't listen to any advice, went off and did her own thing, and then would lie about it and blame other people when she got caught, etc. The stuff the people on the campaign have said about her, and worked with her in Alaska, on her side, is just as damaging as the most liberal left blogs.

[Kelly the Dog]

I think it's quite amusing to think that you know the both of them well enough to come to the conclusion that she stupid and he's not. I highly doubt that either of them could have gotten to where they are in their careers being stupid.

I think it's fair to voice an opinion on someone's intelligence after seeing them talk dozens and dozens and dozens of times, in various places and contexts, both prepared and off the cuff, under favorable and hostile circumstances, plus spending a sizable amount of time reading about what they have done and said and experienced and accomplished from both their supporters and their detractors.

[IDBillzFan]

If, however, you actually think that Joe Biden is not an intelligent person, you really are stupid.

 

And there you have it again; the liberal blueprint for answering anyone who disagrees with you.

 

Bush. Stupid.

 

Cheney. Stupid.

 

Palin. Stupid.

 

Conservatives. Stupid.

 

Biden. Intelligent!

 

While you continue to praise the intelligence of Biden as though you guys spend weekends fishing and comparing your mensa scores, you also use stupidity as the opposite of intelligence. That said, I happen to think intelligence requires more than the ability to recite something from a book and having study habits that get you passing grades. While I'm sure you'll disagree, and thereby rendering me stupid once again, I happen to think intelligence also requires the successful ability to put your knowledge to work, as well as the ability to communicate your knowledge in an effective and understandable manner. Without the ability to effectively put your intellect to work, it's not intellect. It's just a really good memory.

 

I've said it before, and will continue to say it; when a conservative says something off the wall, it's "stupid." Michael Steele pulls some urban slang out of his ass, and he's a moron. But Biden talks out his ass and makes one gaffe after another to the extent that the entire world, except you -- his fishing mensa buddy -- knows he's a gaffe machine, and suddenly that's not stupidity. That's "rhetorical flourish."

 

Sorry, Dog, but "rhetorical flourish" is just your definition of stupidity with more syllables. I guess you intelligent guys figure using lots of syllables really makes you come across as the smart ones in the room.

 

Stupid people don't get elected governor. Stupid people don't stand to earn millions just to speak. So yes, you and Keith Olberman and Tingles and everyone else can call her stupid, and it'll stick. But that doesn't mean they're stupid. It means you're good at marketing.

 

And yet as I write this, and admit that I put no stock in what you consider intelligent, I realize I should put a lot of stock in what you consider stupid, because anyone who is admittedly happy that OJ got away with murdering a white guy just so whites can understand what blacks went through 200 years ago, you pretty much have stupid down cold.

 

Or maybe that's just rhetorical flourish. Hard to tell these days.

[Magox]

I think it's fair to voice an opinion on someone's intelligence after seeing them talk dozens and dozens and dozens of times, in various places and contexts, both prepared and off the cuff, under favorable and hostile circumstances, plus spending a sizable amount of time reading about what they have done and said and experienced and accomplished from both their supporters and their detractors.

I think what is closer to the reality is that she was "handled" incorrectly as opposed to being stupid. The McCain staff inundated her with plenty of information, and I'm sure they had restricted her from saying this and saying that, and at times it made her look unfavorable, specially with the media over blowing things. The reality is that she isn't a stupid lady, she more than held her own in the debate with Biden, she was able to deliver impressive speeches, but more than anything, she is a self-made woman.

 

She didn't come from a recognizable family, or money or anything that could be considered advantageous for a political career. She went from a local city official to mayor, to governor to becoming a very popular VP candidate.

 

To call her stupid is well....

 

just stupid

[X. Benedict]

I could be wrong and you could be right. Part of the problem she has with her own party however came from that campaigning that she did, doing what you were just saying she was good at. Her negatives went way up during that time because she kept on splitting people up into real Americans (and apparently unreal Americans), didn't listen to any advice, went off and did her own thing, and then would lie about it and blame other people when she got caught, etc. The stuff the people on the campaign have said about her, and worked with her in Alaska, on her side, is just as damaging as the most liberal left blogs.

 

No doubt a disaster. But what she didn't do was run for President, she joined the McCain campaign which was a mess by the end of last summer.

McCain had to replace most of his campaign staff just weeks before the convention.

 

Really he was a man looking for a manager going into the convention.......so Palin got whatever got thrown together.

 

In fairness to her....her staff didn't know what advice to give her, because there was little management giving advice to McCain.

[Kelly the Dog]

And there you have it again; the liberal blueprint for answering anyone who disagrees with you.

 

Bush. Stupid.

 

Cheney. Stupid.

 

Palin. Stupid.

 

Conservatives. Stupid.

 

Biden. Intelligent!

 

While you continue to praise the intelligence of Biden as though you guys spend weekends fishing and comparing your mensa scores, you also use stupidity as the opposite of intelligence. That said, I happen to think intelligence requires more than the ability to recite something from a book and having study habits that get you passing grades. While I'm sure you'll disagree, and thereby rendering me stupid once again, I happen to think intelligence also requires the successful ability to put your knowledge to work, as well as the ability to communicate your knowledge in an effective and understandable manner. Without the ability to effectively put your intellect to work, it's not intellect. It's just a really good memory.

 

I've said it before, and will continue to say it; when a conservative says something off the wall, it's "stupid." Michael Steele pulls some urban slang out of his ass, and he's a moron. But Biden talks out his ass and makes one gaffe after another to the extent that the entire world, except you -- his fishing mensa buddy -- knows he's a gaffe machine, and suddenly that's not stupidity. That's "rhetorical flourish."

 

Sorry, Dog, but "rhetorical flourish" is just your definition of stupidity with more syllables. I guess you intelligent guys figure using lots of syllables really makes you come across as the smart ones in the room.

 

Stupid people don't get elected governor. Stupid people don't stand to earn millions just to speak. So yes, you and Keith Olberman and Tingles and everyone else can call her stupid, and it'll stick. But that doesn't mean they're stupid. It means you're good at marketing.

 

And yet as I write this, and admit that I put no stock in what you consider intelligent, I realize I should put a lot of stock in what you consider stupid, because anyone who is admittedly happy that OJ got away with murdering a white guy just so whites can understand what blacks went through 200 years ago, you pretty much have stupid down cold.

 

Or maybe that's just rhetorical flourish. Hard to tell these days.

I personally like how I just got done saying I think every conservative in congress is an intelligent person and you conclude that I think conservatives are stupid. I think Cheney is a friggin genius. I think most every conservative (I see on TV I mean) is an intelligent person, even if I don't agree with a thing they say, mostly because if you ask them easy questions or kinda hard questions or extremely difficult questions they think and then they answer them (although they will sometimes avoid the direct answer like all politicians do). Sarah Palin cannot answer a LOT of very simple questions, sorry. She doesn't know things high schoolers should and do know. McCain's people didn't call her "The Little Shop of Horrors" for nothing.

[Bishop Hedd]

I thought the Jacko doo-hickey at the Staples Center went pretty smoothly but there was one conspicuous absence....Bubbles.

[GG]

And there you have it again; the liberal blueprint for answering anyone who disagrees with you.

 

Bush. Stupid.

 

Cheney. Stupid.

 

Palin. Stupid.

 

Conservatives. Stupid.

 

Biden. Intelligent!

 

Looks like a few people are keeping score on stupidity.

[Magox]

Looks like a few people are keeping score on stupidity.

I wonder what people would of called Palin if she had said this : "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened."

[IDBillzFan]

Looks like a few people are keeping score on stupidity.

Interesting. Especially this:

 

When Palin says it, it's stupid. When Biden says it, he gets graded on a curve: The problem is that other people are too stupid to understand the deep subtlety of Biden's thinking.

 

Yep. Biden is like a fine wine whose deep subtleties are lost on many who simply are incapable of understanding the depth of his bouquet.

 

Of course, that's from the WSJ, which is particularly conservative, and therefore should not be considered a decent source until its reports are corroborated by the likes of, oh, I don't know...Maxim, maybe.

[Kelly the Dog]

Yeah, because all they could find to use as examples to prove their point were two bloggers that I have never even heard of let alone read.

 

During that particular interview, I don't recall at all people using that statement by her as something stupid. She said a few other things that were stupid, and showed her ignorance on issues. And that was one of her shining moments.

 

For what it's worth, both of them were correct. We can't tell Israel they can or can't do something to protect themselves, we can only tell them what the consequences from us would be if they do.

[Chef Jim]

Yeah, because all they could find to use as examples to prove their point were two bloggers that I have never even heard of let alone read.

 

During that particular interview, I don't recall at all people using that statement by her as something stupid. She said a few other things that were stupid, and showed her ignorance on issues. And that was one of her shining moments.

 

For what it's worth, both of them were correct. We can't tell Israel they can or can't do something to protect themselves, we can only tell them what the consequences from us would be if they do.

 

So in your mind ignorance on issues equals stupidity. To me it is more laziness than stupidity.

[Kelly the Dog]

So in your mind ignorance on issues equals stupidity. To me it is more laziness than stupidity.

 

I agree with that. But to me, a stupid person who needs to know things, and should know they need to know certain things, like, say, knowing what is going on in the world, doesn't bother to do the necessary work. You could call that simple laziness. I call it laziness combined with stupidity and arrogance. Not to mention that her ignorance on issues is just one form of her stupidity, there are several others.

[Chef Jim]

I agree with that. But to me, a stupid person who needs to know things, and should know they need to know certain things, like, say, knowing what is going on in the world, doesn't bother to do the necessary work. You could call that simple laziness. I call it laziness combined with stupidity and arrogance. Not to mention that her ignorance on issues is just one form of her stupidity, there are several others.

 

She is/was the !@#$ing governor of Alaska. What she needs to know are issues that pertain to Alaska not world affairs. She got thrust into that position very quickly. I blame tha GOP more than anyone else on that !@#$ up.

 

Also I'm very good at what I do. I have risen up quickly in the ranks but I by no means know all the issues pertaining to what I do, nor do I need to. But I sure as hell have the support and connections to get the answers.

[Kelly the Dog]

She is/was the !@#$ing governor of Alaska. What she needs to know are issues that pertain to Alaska not world affairs. She got thrust into that position very quickly. I blame tha GOP more than anyone else on that !@#$ up.

 

Also I'm very good at what I do. I have risen up quickly in the ranks but I by no means know all the issues pertaining to what I do, nor do I need to. But I sure as hell have the support and connections to get the answers.

Sorry, but if you're the governor of a state in the union, I think it is imperative to know what is going on in the rest of the world. You should have read the constitution. She didn't know what the Vice President's job was. She didn't even know what "the surge" was when she was plucked to be the VP candidate. She said she thought she heard something about it on the TV and wished our troops well. If she didn't know what was going on in the world, or wasn't prepared, she should have said no.

[Chef Jim]

Sorry, but if you're the governor of a state in the union, I think it is imperative to know what is going on in the rest of the world. You should have read the constitution. She didn't know what the Vice President's job was. She didn't even know what "the surge" was when she was plucked to be the VP candidate. She said she thought she heard something about it on the TV and wished our troops well. If she didn't know what was going on in the world, or wasn't prepared, she should have said no.

 

And I disagree. What does what's going on in Iraq have to do with the state of Alaska. How would her knowledge of Iraq altered the way she governed the state of Alaska. I don't want my Gov spending any time worrying about that, it's not his job and there is nothing he can do about it. He needs to concern himself with the running of the state. The constitution? Should she be educated on it? Yes. Be a constitutional scholar? No. It has nothing to do with the individual state and everything to do with the states as a collective. Each state has their own constitution which the governor should know backwards and forwards. Now to run for the office of VP that's a different story. I really think that you should always look to someone who was running for Pres to be your VP, that person should be well prepared to handle the VP position. Not ready for prime time? Overwhelmed with the nomination? Yes. Stupid? No.

[Magox]

Sorry, but if you're the governor of a state in the union, I think it is imperative to know what is going on in the rest of the world. You should have read the constitution. She didn't know what the Vice President's job was. She didn't even know what "the surge" was when she was plucked to be the VP candidate. She said she thought she heard something about it on the TV and wished our troops well. If she didn't know what was going on in the world, or wasn't prepared, she should have said no.

Not one of the criticisms that you mentioned above, equate to stupidity. Ignorance, well, that is another story.