Okay, I like to think I am a fairly sharp guy, fairly up on current events and politics — but, then, I’m not running for national office, nor have I had the advantage of whatever intense briefings on economics, politics, and the current crisis that someone like Gov. Palin has. So why is it that I think even lowly geeky civilian me — or, heck, my eight-year-old daughter — could give an answer on this question that would be orders of magnitude more coherent than Palin does?
“That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and getting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.”
Again, this is a woman who’s had the best briefers money could buy, the most clever Republican rhetoricians, who is being groomed for being a heartbeat away from the presidency, who is checking out notecards in her lap fergoshsakes … and she still can’t come up with an intelligible sentence, let alone an answer to the question. She doesn’t even stammer out the standard talking points coherently, just stringing together clauses in a desperate attempt to get to the next question.
I almost feel sorry for her.
The expression on Couric’s face in the cut-aways is exquisite.
I’m not necessarily looking for everyone to be an Obama-class orator, but it would be nice if, when she’s speaking to foreign officials, she doesn’t provoke either aneurysms for the translators or giggle-fits from the diplomats — let alone staring disbelief from journalists.
“When asked about x say y
When asked about a say b
It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t fit the question, just use the key phrases”
and so on. preprogrammed standard answers. She wouldn’t have got away with it opposite Paxman, Humphries or Snow- damned liberals!
This goes beyond preprogrammed answers. It’s Bush level trying to answer a question. I agree with Dave it’s just sad. What’s even scarier is how much people beyond Dems like her as a candidate. It still makes me wonder, how in the hell McCain still polling as high as he is? WTF is wrong with people?
I think it involves a lot of poking of fingers into ears and chanting la-la-la-la-la-la really loudly.
Or people more scared of Obama than they’re willing to admit that they’re scared of McCain/Palin.
I never thought I’d see the day when someone would make George Bush sound intelligent by comparison.
I was describing this to Margie in the car last night. The subject of Dan Quayle came up, and I noted that, while Quayle was a gaffe-filled buffoon, at least he could articulate the party talking points using complete sentences.
Now wait for the screams “It’s been edited the liberal media”