Sarah Palin Might Not Know What a Platform Is
Yesterday Sarah Palin did a phone interview with James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Most of it went pretty well -- lucky, he's a creep who likes children, that's an important sign; lucky, she's an asshole with children, small world, isn't it? -- but there was one ugly gotcha question:
Dobson:
The Republican Platform is the strongest pro-life, pro-family document to come out of a political party, even more so than the platforms during the campaigns of Ronald Reagan. There are principles there that I've been fighting for for thirty, forty years and you are trying to articulate those same principles, aren't you?
Oh jeez.
See, the problem here, for most Republican politicians, is that the platform is horrifying. A catalogue of revenge dreams and power fantasies, impossible and illegal, most of them involving women and scourging. It's the portrait in the attic of what Republican rule would look like, if the zealot half took over and pushed out the half who are just in it for the money.
It's not what you'd call a moderate document. Bob Dole, famously, claimed he never even read it.
That's what makes it a gotcha question, for most candidates. How to get around it. For Sarah Palin, what makes it a gotcha question is that I'm pretty sure she doesn't know that her party has a platform, or what one is.
He might as well be asking her the atomic weight of unbinilium.
So she goes into Palin bluff mode. What words does she have to work with from the question? "Platform." Good. We know that word. It's like a deck. "Pro-life." We heard about that at church. "Reagan." He was sort of like a young John McCain. Got it. Go.
Palin:
Absolutely, and Dr. Dobson thank you so much for recognizing that. This is a strong platform around the planks in this platform that respect life and respect the entrepreneurial spirit of this great country and those things, back to the social issues that are what Republicans, at least in the past, had articulated and tried to stand on.
Pause. Did that do it? Wait for next question. Darn it, he's not saying anything. That's okay, we can do this. Deep breath.
Palin:
Now, finally, we have very solid planks in the platform that will allow us to build an even stronger foundation for our country. It's all good and it's encouraging. You would maybe have assumed that we would have gotten further away from those strong planks. But no, they're there, they're solid, we stand on them and again I believe that it is the right agenda for the country at this time. Very, very clear and contrasted tickets in this election November 4th. People are going to see the clear contrasts, you just go to the planks in our platforms and that's where you see them.
And... done. Teacher, is that clock slow?
But Dobson isn't finished. He has a follow up. This must be what hell feels like.
Dobson:
In your private conversations with Senator McCain, it is your impression that he also strongly supports those views? I know that he did not oppose that platform when it was written. Do you think he will implement it?
I just remembered, I have an early out for band. Gotta go! No? Okay. Could you repeat the question?
What are the new words? "McCain" and "implement." Implement means "do."
Palin:
I do, from the bottom of my heart. I am such a strong believer that McCain believes in those strong planks and we do have good conversations about some of the details of the different planks and what they represent. I'm very heartened that John McCain ... he doesn't want a Vice President who will check the opinions ... of me at the door and we talk about some of these and they're very important. It's most important though, as you're suggesting, that Americans know that John McCain is solidly there on those solid planks in our platform that build the right agenda for America.
Nailed it! Pencils down.
She's such a desperate doofus. I'm glad she has nice clothes.
I think we might actually miss Sarah Palin. But we won't know until she goes away.
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...and if we plank the platform with solid planks making the planked platform more solid--we can have a platform of solid planks for a much more solid platform where the planks remain solidly solidifying the planked platform itself.
you betcha.
And we can stand on it
Good one, SterlingArtz! You got it down!!!
Oh my goodness. Is that really how the interview went? My head is spinning trying to get to her answer. She goes around and around and around. That was awful.
That was the gosh darn answer..ji
It appears Dr. Dobson was subjecting the Gov. to one of those 'gotcha' interviews!
To lend credibility to her nomination and Christian values, Gov. Palin might have envoked the witchcraft plank in the platform and her 2006 ceremony by the Pentecostal preacher who anointed her and asked that she be protected from witchcraft.
GoshDarn the Liberal Media and their Anti-American Gotcha Questions.
I wonder what Dobson thinks of her witch hunter from Africa. You think he would approve of such a thing? Is that in HIS platform? Witchcraft?
I've noticed that reading Palin's words convey far more than listening to her. I can get lost in her ramblings with their disconnects and while I"m waiting to finally see the connection, then she's off somewhere else.
But reading, now, seeing how she wanders all around a subject without actually saying anything, she's so good at it! lol You think Dodson heard all that nothing?
My hope is that she goes back to Alaska and if they don't impeach her,they kick her out, firmly and forever, and let her go back to her fishing business with hubby, if Pebble Mine hasn't ruined it. The idea of her anywhere near the White House scares the hell outta me. She does not know what she doesn't know, and often she doesn't know what she does know. She would be more stubborn that Bush and as secretive as Cheney.
OK. I just finished listening to the full audio portion of this painful interview. It was painful because Sarah Palin gave a beauty pageant answer to the question and, as usual, sounded clueless. I don't think for one minute that she deserves my vote just becuase she has a baby who was born with Down's Syndrome! I am totally floored by the fact that she has a pregnant teenage daughter and doesn't support sex education in schools! I am totally floored by the fact that, when interviewed by Brian Williams, she didn't know the role of the Vice President. Her appearance on Saturday Night Live was ridiculous and unnecessary. She continues to dig the hole that she's in! The audio portion includes Dr. Dobson saying that the media has torn her apart. Can you blame the media? The bottom line is Gov. Palin, who claims to have "thick skin", should have declined the offfer to run with John McCain. They threw her under a bus and unfortunately, it seems that she feels the pain every day. She can pray all she wants, but on November 5th, she should just go back to Alaska and put this behind her.
Sounded clueless?.
i am again, crowning her ms. south carolina!
you GO girl!
back north to alaska!
Strong planks. Platforms.
Thank you. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Which is a sign, in itself, that I'm gaining hope that Obama's going to win this thing, and so Palin's startling shallowness is no longer as frightening.
I've actually evolved to the position that I'm looking forward to the next election, to see Sarah competing with fellow Republicans for their nomination. If the Republican Party still exists in 3 years, they'll fully implode at the point that the fiscal conservatives begin attacking the darling of the religious Right.
Loved your last point! That WILL be an interesting battle to watch.
i still haven't understood a single word she said !
The scariest part is that some Republicans see her as the future of the Republican Party.
Democrats can only hope....
sounds like she's evoking "joe the carpenter"
or pete the planker maybe?
does not sound like she knows anything about anything. can functionally string words together however
OMG--my cringe reflex was just overwhelmed and died.
This is a hundred times worse than Katie Couric's interview. At least when Palin refused to answer a question, there was still a slight hope that she did have a coherent thought or two and just couldn't articulate it that day.
McCain must be completely despondent
Q. OK, doorknob. How might we compare you to a doorknob?
A. Oh Jeez.
Below is a link to the radio broadcast:
http://www
Word salad, served with overpriced Neiman-Marcus dressing on the side.
Very funny. Reminds me of the $250 Neiman Marcus cookie recipe. A sham in every way.
I hope this interview wasn't real. I too would like to see her college transcripts from all six colleges she attend. Re member, Sarah Palin was a beauty contestant and was trained to answer questions by rambling on and on with words that means nothing, By that time she's finishes the listner has forgotten the question asked..
Is this a joke? I can't believe this is an actual transcript.
Do you have an audio version?
It says something when reasonable observers are not sure what is real and what is parody.
This Article says it all
Palin stands for no CHANGE!
Article from the Los Angeles Times
By Charles Piller L.A. Times
October 24, 2008
Palin appointed friends and donors to key posts in Alaska, records show
100-plus jobs went to campaign donors or their relatives, sometimes without apparent regard to qualifications. Several donors got state-subsidized loans for business ventures of dubious public value.
"I took on the old politics as usual in Juneau when I stood up to the special interests and the lobbyists and the big oil companies and the good old boys," Palin told the Republican National Convention •
By midway through her first term, she had signed an ethics reform bill, increased oil profit taxes and tweaked Big Oil again by awarding a gas pipeline contract to a Canadian company.
In some other respects, a Los Angeles Times examination of state records shows, her approach to government was business as usual. Take, for example, the tradition of patronage. Some of Palin's most controversial appointments involved donors, records show.
Wow, the LA Time is all over that story.... breaking news that was evident to the even slightly curious the first week of September.
e.g. Sept. 4th: http://jou
p.s. URL/link to LA Times article...
LA Times: Palin appointed friends and donors to key posts in Alaska, records show
By Charles Piller
October 24, 2008
http://www
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