highthief

Palin tricked by Quebec prank callers:



TheStar.com | World | Quebec comics reach Palin with prank call

Another example of her not being very bright, or was she just suckered by experts? You'd think a VP Candidate would at least know who the Prime Minster of their closest neighbour and huge trading partner is.

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Daniel_

If nothing else it shows that she's inward rather than ouward looking.

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Lucifer

Rick Mercer did the same thing during the last election and ambushed Bush for a quickie interview and referred to Prime Minister Jean Poutine as one of Bush's biggest supporters:

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Willravel

Ambition does not require great intellect.

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dc_dux

It is pretty funny to listen to her gush over "Sarkozy" especially when he mentioned her becoming president one day and that he could see Belgium from his house.

-----Added 1/11/2008 at 05 : 58 : 20-----
Statement from the Palin campaign:

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Charlatan

Damn... she is so on message. I think she was trying to get Sarkozy's vote...

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Milnoc

It's not the first time that Quebec radio prank callers managed to snare a political figure. We've been doing these type of calls for years. One show host was even calling local merchants for information, using only a handful of prerecorded sound bites for the entire conversation! It was very weird.

Of course, considering Palin's current position, this won't help the campaign all that much.

monkeysugar

Honestly now, how many of you who aren't Canadians would really know this stuff off the top of your head?

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highthief

Perhaps standards are lower in the US, but I'd expect anyone running for a top office in Canada to know the name of the leader of our closest neighbour and enormous trading partner. That was really the big giveaway.

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shakran

to answer the OP question. . . Dumb as a brick, but by choice.

Her IQ probably isn't at the below-average stage, but, like our current president, she chooses to remain gloriously ignorant of the world around her. This is why she thought she was qualified to handle matters of foreign policy because she can see Russia from her state. By that logic, I can see the stars from my house, and am therefore an astronaut.

She can't even be bothered to read a newspaper, as evidenced when she could not come up with a single magazine or newspaper she reads when asked by Katie Couric. Even if I didn't read it, I could at least come up with "New York Times," "Washington Post," or perhaps, considering the source, "Highlights."

If you're genuinely not overly smart, I can have sympathy for you. If you're a moron by choice because you don't feel like informing yourself, then I have nothing but contempt for you - especially if you then have the gall to run for higher office.

flstf

In many ways I think Palin operates as if she is in another pageant. In her defense modern politics seems to be a series of photo ops and soundbites. Give her time and she will learn the standard answers and dodges to the usual questions. Also I doubt she will answer the phone again without vetting the caller. It remains to be seen if this stunt, her initial TV interviews and her support for the bridge to nowhere will dog her in the future.

smooth

shakran, I'm really surprised at your take on Palin's newspaper response given your knowledge about political maneuvering. No one really believes she doesn't ready *anything* do they? But if her campaign is rallying troops with the "elite media" bugle then it's damn hard to then say, well I read the New York Time and Washington Post every morning while eating my eggs and toast and a heap of trade articles for a few hours in the office each day.

I think what we saw was political inexperience. The lack of knowledge of the "correct" answer at the national level. It's much easier to appease a fairly homogeneous population. But when you know that there are unknown constituents out there, and that whatever your answer is going to be is going to be rebroadcasted to people you don't know what angers or appeases them, and the so-called knowledge pool running the campaign are telling you to keep unvetted answers to yourself, then you get someone who is unable to muster a rational response regardless of intelligence.

She was overprepped in her debates and interviews. The few times she "gaffed" (vs. not coming up with a suitable answer) were because on follow-ups she started to use her reasoning abilities and came up with answers that were internally consistent but inconsistent with her campaign's position. The campaign was the inconsistent entity, however, probably because he had to try and differentiate himself from both Bush and Obama as difficult as it is to do both at the same time consistently. What we saw is that when the two of them dropped the charade, they started to be appreciated for what they were. McCain's brand and Palin's accessability are huge political assets. They might lose millions of the more divisive identity politics subscribers, which would likely cost them votes necessary to win until they can carve into the moderate issues, but the votes they kept would be Obama-ish voters...ones that are excited and willing to stand at the polls and rallies for hours upon hours. In that sense, I think they would have deeper and stronger support, but they'd need to broaden it to win a national election in the future (in theory; in reality, I can't see McCain running for president again).

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guyy

It's pretty easy to see Canada from many parts of Alaska. Harper is a western conservative, kind of like Palin herself. She should know that he's the PM.

I don't think she's that intelligent, but how smart do you have to be to know a few things about the outside world. What's most disconcerting is that she seems to lack even the slightest curiosity about the world outside of her conservative bubble.

On the other hand, i think people get taken in by these things just by being polite. What if it were Sarko? Do you point out all his errors? Do you say "Hey, that's crazy talk!"

shakran

So. . .What you seem to be saying is "Sarah Palin does indeed read newspapers, but doesn't want to admit which ones they are."

This brings two possibilities - - that she is as you say reading the "elite media" news sources, which means she's lying when she talks about her disdain for the media elite, or that she is reading some sort of newspaper (the Enquirer, perhaps?) that she is embarrassed to admit to.

I personally find it more likely that she doesn't read newspapers. Given her glorious ignorance on . . well. . just about everything except moose hunting and beer, I can't imagine that she's taking in much data from anywhere.

BTW I don't buy the "overprepped" argument. No preparation team worth anything would tell her to try to convince people that seeing a country from a vast distance means you're ready to conduct high-level negotiations with it.

smooth

That is what I'm saying, but let's not start to throw all of my comments into the same bag.
Of course she's strapping the issue of the "elite media" to appeal to their largest constituency. It also accounts for her flubs by placing the responsibility of the gotcha questions on them rather than her inability to answer them. I'm sure she believes that there are media elements that have it in for her and republicans. I'm also sure that she doesn't see Sean Hannity as one of those people.

Simply because you think that certain media elements have it out for you or your political ideals, doesn't mean there aren't business articles in there your aids will place on your desk each morning. I doubt that most politicians would classify the Wall Street Journal as one of those media elite sources, but I doubt that a bunch of working class fokes who have been chanting "media elite, media elite,, media elite" would appreciate a washington outsider saying that she closely follows what happens on in the business world by reading the WSJ every morning. That's my point, I'm not sure why you construct what I see as false dilemmas. Either she reads all media or no media? No, she reads media that could be construed by her constituents as not making much sense given what they were told to believe about the media in general. She is a governor of a huge energy state with deep, convoluted business interconnections. It's just silly to think she doesn't tune in to the business news and is instead zipping around shooting moose.

When the argument is that you're just a regular person who enjoys the wilderness because the people you want voting for you want anything but a politician, then it's not a good idea to admit that you read anything at all other than Guns and Ammo. Of course, if you say you read Guns and Ammo, then the professional politicians and media pundits WILL castigate you for being a bumpkin that doesn't know jack shit. It makes perfect sense to me that two vying sides would use little snippets like this as if they meant something, but it doesn't make sense when intelligent people like yourself operating on a slower messaging board and have the ability to sift info and play with shades of gray would do the same thing.

I know Palin likes to hunt, I know Cheney likes to hunt, I suspect Kennedies love to hunt, I know oregon separatists who like to hunt deer, I know people from montana who like to hunt deer, I know lifelong democrats who's entire family have voted straight ticket for generations but they run hunting expeditions. So basically what I can conclude from this is that hunting deer tells me exactly shitall about someone's politics.

I'm not sure I follow your logic on the overprepped point.
Because she answered the Russia comment with total lunacy from our standpoint she must not have been overprepped?
When I use that term, I'm thinking in my head that they took a pretty sharp woman and told her a few key phrases. But they also restrained her from talking about certain things and didn't trust her to use her reasoning abilities. When she used her own reasoning skills, she gave the "wrong" answer on the Pakistan situation. But my point was that she gave the logically coherent answer, just not the one the McCain campaign was advocating. But it's probably true that she doesn't have heaps of critical thinking skills, but that's not what intelligence is always about.

The SNL crew said she did her segments in one shot, and it was perfect. She evidently took a week's prep and gave the RNC speech to millions of viewers and tens of thousands of live crowd. She dazzles people when they let her off the leash. That's fact regardless of what people think of her qualifications. Her qualifications are in question, not her abilities. If people start arguing that she never will be qualified for Presidency then they are underestimating her abilities, imo.

So she's obviously got a sharpness to her that many or possibly most don't have. I was top in my class in sociology but I don't dare go out and stand with my wife when she sings a classical piece in German in front of a full music hall. I don't do it myself, but I've watched friends field dress hunts and I was impressed.

I guess the point is that whereas you take her ignorance at face value, I interpret these politicians' portrayals of ignorance to say more about what they think of the people watching them rather than what it says about them personally.

As for the original topic, I don't think many people in her situation responding here would have done much differently once you assume your aid would have vetted the caller. The really funny part was when he asked her about Nalin Palin. But it was only funny because I read my Goffman. It's funny to my friends on the floor because they think she's a dumbfuck. But of course, when someone says something you have no idea what they're saying, but they are a) foreign with an accent and b) a high level official, and c) you don't want to make them feel uncomfortable and, d) there's very little chance Palin follows Hustler releases, then it's really got nothing to do with her intelligence when she just goes along with what the speaker is saying.

When your boss says some weird shit to you, I hope you guys hold your tongues and laugh behind his back at the water cooler rather than saying, gee Tom are you losing your mind? or I can't understand your accent...or anything other than nodding politely and moving on which is what she did.

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"The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman

shakran

Then say what W said. It worked for him. "I don't read newspapers because I want to get my news straight, not filtered by the biased media." It will still make her look like a half-witted moron, but at least it'll be the kind of moron that her base likes.

Why? Wall Street is in New York, not DC. And that doesn't even touch on my inherent objection to glorifying and encouraging ignorance. "I don't want my leader to know what influential publications have to say (whether she agrees with them or not is another issue entirely - a president may not agree with bin Laden but I damn sure want him to know what the terrorist is saying). I want my leader to read nothing at all and hold to her own narrow world view no matter what the external evidence," is what you seem to think the republican base believes. You may actually be right about that - especially if you believe that the current republican base is in fact the neo-con party.



No, either she can recall the name of one media publication that she reads, or she cannot. If she can't she's either senile quite early, or lying.

So she's already hiding her activities, and she hasn't even gotten to Wasington yet? That's less than stellar.


I completely disagree. You do not have to be a back woods "redneck" who only likes huntin' and fishin' an' hockey mommin' in order to be a non-politician. This carefully crafted image (and that's just what it is, she can't even reliably hold up the folksy accent) is just that. An image. I.e, she's just another politician trying to make us think she's somethin' she's not donchaknow.

"I read newspapers." "I don't know which newspapers those are."

Those two statements mean either:

I really don't read newspapers

I read newspapers but am too stupid to recall even the name of the newspaper that I read.

I read newspapers and know exactly what they are but in order to protect my carefully crafted political image as a non-politician I'm going to lie and claim I don't know what they are. I realize this ignores the fact that I will look like an absolute moron when I can't remember the name of something I supposedly read routinely, but I feel it's better to appear to be an idiot than to appear to be the politician that I am.


No, she was probably overprepped, for her ability level. One does not attempt to teach a caribou how to do quadratic equations, and one should not attempt to teach Palin how to appear intelligent when discussing matters of state.

No, sorry, a reasonably sharp woman would not feel she was qualified for foreign relations duty because she can see russia from her home.

A reasonably sharp woman who did not feel she was qualified for those reasons, would also not believe that the American public would possibly think her qualified if she made those claims. The woman is dumb as a brick. Now, whether that's IQ dumb, or willfully stupid, can be argued. Personally I think she's willfully stupid - - that is, she has the mental capacity to learn and comprehend basic concepts such as "it takes more than looking at the shore of an entire nation to understand how that nation works" but has willfully chose to remain gloriously ignorant on such concepts.

We are talking about a potential president of the united states here, not the manager of the Wasilla Walmart. Critical thinking skills are an absolute requirement for the job. We have seen what the lack thereof gets us. Just look at W's record - -the other politician who doesn't read.

Wow. She can read cue cards. Big. Deal. I can do that too, but that doesn't qualify me for higher office.

She dazzled the mouth-breathing subpopulace that looked for pizazz and flare, but didn't give a crap about substance. She said /nothing/ substantive in that speech. Nothing.

Assuming I didn't catch the Steph Carse (the singer who's magically become PM of Canada, you know, the other country Palin can see from her state and must therefore know all about) or the part where he said Richard Sirois, the Canadian comedian, was Prime Minister of Quebec (which must be a surprise to jean Charest), I think once he started talking about guys with bread under their armpits I'd have figured out something was fishy.

No, we don't. We're mature and intelligent people, and when the boss wishes to communicate something with us, we want to be sure we understand what it is that the boss wants, and so we get clarification if we do not understand it the first time.

smooth

This is not about rational things your boss says that you're trying to clarify. If your boss starts talking about bread under his armpits I don't know what you would do, to be honest. Personally, I would smile and nod and get the fuck out of his office. If he was speaking with a foreign accent on a transnational phone line, I'd be more likely to think I misheard him...and I certainly wouldn't stop and say, "did you just say bread and armpits". I would just hear something entirely different and more sane (which is what the brain does when sent bizarre information) or move along to the next topic.

Anyway, whatever, this conversation has taken a bizarre cartwheel because I've not got any interest in defending Palin.
I was just surprised that someone who works in the media would feel confident assessing someone's mental abilities from media presentations; and even more complicated by the fact that the current Republican party seems to believe it's base appreciates close-mindedness and eschews complexities.

It's obvious to me that she was ignorant of foreign affairs, but I don't know how you then move toward an assessment of one's intellectual abilities based off lack of information. She is a high level politician, she has to deal with cutthroat corporations, and she has demonstrated social intelligence to me.

I am disgusted by many of her policies, I'm disgusted by this appeal to ignorance as qualification, but I'm equally disgusted by otherwise intelligent people who seem to confuse the real with the portrayed and then move from there into posts like yours over a crank call.

Smart people get taken by crank calls all the time...or they wouldn't work and they wouldn't be funny.
If you really think she's just dumb, then this crank call isn't funny at all it's just mean.

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"The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman

asaris

Yeah, I can't really blame Palin for this. It does show a lack of judgement on the part of her handlers, though. I think it was a bad idea to let her take this phone call in the first place. Eh, whatever, it's kinda moot now.

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"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

shakran

Well, that's just it. She's a high-level politician who has failed utterly to demonstrate any knowledge of high-level. . .or even grade-school level politics. Just because you're voted into office by the Alaskans (who I will point out just voted in a convicted felon to represent them in the Senate) does not automatically make you a wise and capable executive.

No one who, with a straight face, says that seeing Russia qualifies you to deal with foreign policy, or who says that being Mayor of Wasilla, population 5,500 when a tourbus is in town, gives you the executive experience necessary to be president, or who thinks the Vice President is in charge of the Senate and can "make policies there if she feels like it," and all the other demonstrations of ignorance and stupidity, willful or genetic, that Palin has exhibited just in the few short months she's been in this campaign, can possibly be taken seriously or considered intelligent by a rational observer.

abaya

Can you all really take pity on someone who wanted to be VP but didn't know which countries were in NAFTA (!!!), or that Africa is not a continent (!!!!!)? Please. I hope she goes down in TOTAL FLAMES from this day forward. What a fucking tool.

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