Truth is Utterly Optional

Rarely does my blogging divert from energy and environmental issues, as we so desperately need to Get Energy Smart! NOW!!! on the path to Energize America toward a prosperous, climate-friendly society. Rarely ...

Amid the flood of revelations of biblical proportions about Sarah Palin, which seems destined to last for at least 40 days and 40 nights, here is an item that might not be receiving the focus that it merits.

I've been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in, like, the second grade.

Obviously, this is the attempt by the running mate of a 72-year old ill man to try to make an issue of Joe Biden's 65 years and over 30 years of public service.

But, importantly, this is clearly a lie, an untruth, not even rating into the category of truthiness.

Truly, the core question: Is there such a thing as honor without honesty? Can anyone, anyone with even an iota of common sense, look at Sarah Palin's comment and believe it?

"I've been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in, like, the second grade," she told an audience in Columbus, Ohio -- emphasizing her youth, as well as suggesting an unusual attentiveness to the earliest speeches of Biden, who was sworn in when she was 8. WashPost, 1 Oct 08

That article is an interesting examination of how Sarah Palin is "armed with a smile and sometimes a rifle", looking at how her exaggerated emotional style and 'smile' can reach people through the television and touch (some of) them despite any absence of substance in what she says.

But, let us return to this quote ... Sarah Palin was "hearing about" the "Senate speeches" of the junior Senator from Delaware in second grade?

Who are we kidding here?

Who is she trying to kid?

Who is insane enough to believe her?

If one reads today's Washington Post, the front page has Sarah Palin's strengths rooted in Alaska. This goes through her youth. An outdoors and very athletic-focused youth. No television in summer for that household and rare otherwise. Remember, those are the days before the "tubes" of internet. This wasn't a household with the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, or Washington Star on the breakfast table every morning. Newsweek or Time magazine as required bedtime reading for the second-grader?

1972 ...

What is the chance that an Alaska second-grader knew the name of more than 5 Senators, if any? (Perhaps the two from Alaska ... perhaps. Perhaps George Mcgovern, due to the presidential election ... perhaps. But, even that is likely stretching it for second graders.)

In this year, it seems quite possible that many American second-graders could name a number of Senators. Obama, McCain, Biden, Clinton ... those four might actually get some decent percentage of name recognition. But, in the days of internet, do we really think that 1 percent are watching (excuse me, "hearing about") speeches from junior Senators?

The McCain-Pain ticket is demanding that Americans suspend all disbelief.

The GoPac training program relies on unquestioning, unthoughtful audiences.

The absurdity of not being able to name/discuss any Supreme Court cases. The absurdity of not being able to name/discuss any sources of information of import. The absurdity of claims that Sarah "Pit Bull with Lipstick" Palin is perhaps the nation's top energy expert. The absurdity of their inability to get energy (and other) facts right. The absurdity of claiming that living in Alaska somehow, inherently, makes one a foreign policy expert (after all, it is closer to Russia than Delaware, no?). The absurdity of it all ...

And, well, it is clear that for McCain-Pain,

Truth is utterly optional.

And, the nation should ask a simple question: Can their be honor without honesty?

Comments

[darker]

Another reader wrote:
"McCain-Palin are LIARS, HYPOCRITES and FRAUDS."

Cannot deny that now!

[BuckarooBanzai]

Can't say that I agree with your priorities..................Your tagging Sarah Palin over an obvious rhetorical flourish is a waste of time.

The much bigger issue ( and the reason I clicked on your post in the first place) is that the truth has become totally optional over every single phase our national discussion.

Nixon's old rule that you don't have to prove someone guilty, you just have to prove they lied, has been turned on its head for this election. Republicans like Giulianni, Romney and now McCain are falling over themselves to prove they can lie better than anyone else.

We are witnessing the entire elite structure of this country, blatantly lie to us about what is going on in the financial markets. The are deliberately taking the symptoms of an economic slowdown, that we have seen before (1990 to 1991saw exactly what is going on in the current market) and conflating them into a panic.

It's amazing and outrageous. Please focus on this.

[A. Siegel - Huffpost Blogger]

Sorry to frustrate ...

As per links in this discussion, I have talked about disingenuous nature of discussion of energy issues, false claims about "drill, baby, drill", Sarah Palin as "perhaps the nation's top energy expert ..." I have discussed, elsewhere, implications of this bailout for dealing with real structural problems (such as energy and global warming).

In the search to communicate, sometimes it is the small items that really reach people. Perhaps someone reached their level of outrage over Sarah Palin's taking per diem travel payments while sleeping in her own home. Or, perhaps it is the very clear willingness to lie about such a 'trivial' issue. The blatant nature of this untruth might just reach parents out there ... what 2d grader has the sort of connectedness that she is saying that she had when 7 years old? And, by the way, this comes from somone who can't name a newspaper that she reads.

[MyVoiceHere]

This was a non issue to me when she said it because it did not say anything other than trying to make Biden look old, when McCain is much older. I did think the same thing about the age and second grade. Did she not have any friends? At that age children are developing social skill and playing, not watching politics without any interest.