Dana Perino And Cuban Missile Crisis

But that would not be the last time that she provoked critics. On Saturday, she appeared on NPR's "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me" during a segment that guarantees embarrassment for its well-known guests, or as the introduction gamely puts it:

The subjects are "asked ridiculous questions about completely random topics and then being mocked and punished for your wrong answers."

And mocked and punished she was, but not for batting 1-for-3 on the subject of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer minutiae. Instead, it was for volunteering up front the kind of canned tale of self-deprecation that is often seen on late-night-television. The Washington Post retells the relevant passage about a recent question in the White House briefing room that uncovered a glaring historical blind spot for her:

"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis," said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown. "It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."

So she consulted her best source. "I came home and I asked my husband," she recalled. "I said, 'Wasn't that like the Bay of Pigs thing?' And he said, 'Oh, Dana.' "

Read entire story here.

Comments

[HereticalPolemicisit]

The LEGACY OF THE BUSH FRAT ADMINISTRATION GROUPIES


If you're wondering what's wrong with both ends of Pennsylvania Ave, just think Fraternity House Mixer and the attending groupies from the town. Particularly at the White House where you have the President as the #1 Frat-boy, the people chosen to be his associates and operatives face the same vesting as rush candidates or guests to their mixers.

Qualifications of merit are coincidental to being "their kind of people". That is interpreted as people so desirous to have the association that they would lean, if not e eager, to compromise their better judgement, ethics, and morals to have the association. With this lack of existential qualification you get the "Brownies". the "Bremers", "the Meirs", the "Roves", et al..


In otherwords, we have allowed the equivalent of debauched"­initiates" of willing moral compromise to run a system based on justice, fairness, and equity under the rule of law.

[zundra]

I listened to this episode when it aired and I thought Ms. Perino did a good job and was a great sport about the whole thing. So what if she didn't know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was, it has no effect on how well she does her current job. And this is coming from a hardcore Bush despising self described liberal.

[Butai]

oh my god!! what a bunch of morons. My 14 year old knows what the cuban missile crisis is. Not only are these people crooks but they and their followers seem totally content with being ignorant as if that were somewhat cool... like "Dumb and Dumber" is cool.

[VSamuels]

This incident is a very good example of how some in the dominate culture are basically ignorant of the very system that they profess to love. Here, we see the Whitehouse press secretary being consciously unaware of the Cuban missile crisis, and compounding her unawareness by openly joking about 'her ignorance' to reporters.

This is one of the chief features of 'white priviledge' that there is no consequence for white Americans to be ignorant of themselves or of other people and their cultures. Ms. Perino is but an 'empty vessel' who has succeeded because of her well-connected network of friends and associates; and, her not knowing or questioning of Whitehouse matters is probably one of the things which pushed her above her peers in gaining the job.

And, the career Whitehouse journalists who come to ask Ms. Perino questions most days, now see that she is a simple mouthpiece of the Whitehouse devoid of intellectual curiousity, much like the dolt who she works for. And, if she enjoyed any respect from the press, it just flew suddenly out of the window, with her admission that she isn't as informed as my 11 year old about world history.

Sad, but a real reflection not just of the state of American under the Bush administration, but of the dominate culture which directs the nation and the way in which it accepts ignorance by its members as standard operating procedures.

[LairdKeir]

My God. 300 million people in the US and the only ones we hear about outside are the leaders who all happen to be superstitious, ignorant, intellectual lightweights. No wonder the US is on its way to hell at this very moment.
lairdkeir.­spaces.liv­e.com

[Atlas Scruggs]

Republican, enough said.

[goofticket]

She gets the Gump "Box of Chocolates' Award.

Does she think Polio if Coolio's brother?

Clueless and a National Embarassment.