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What does Sarah Palin read?
Gov. Sarah Palin has been criticized for not revealing in her interview with Katie Couric what specific magazines and newspapers she read prior to John McCain choosing her as his running mate. There’s one news magazine, however, we know she read. In the final year of her second term as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin subscribed to WORLD. According to our records the GOP VP candidate’s subscription had lapsed, so we renewed it for her.
Topic: Campaign 2008, WorldMagBlog
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back to top121 Comments to “What does Sarah Palin read?”
Good for Gov. Palin.
Katie Couric is a high paid partisan hack–nothing more. She has proven that over and over. But our standards for journalism in America are pathetically poor, so she will continue to hack away.
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It would be interesting to learn what Katie Couric reads.
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Strange that Sarah didn’t mention this then.
At root the issue is not that she doesn’t read, although this is itself an interesting dicussion, but that she does not appear to be cognisant of what she is reading. The response in the interview was what amounted to a blank stare, and this is not a tough question.
I find it amusing that people are blaming the interviewers for Palin’s difficulties here.
If Sarah becomes president do you seriously believe that Putin will have any thoughts for kindly considering her apparently fragile sensibilities?
Palin is in the big leagues now and she has to learn to play as if she were in the big leagues OR she will not end up staying in the big leagues.
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Just because she didn’t reveal which newspapers, etc., she reads, doesn’t mean she doesn’t read, Musing. My answer would probably be that “I read all sorts of things, what’s it to ya?” This wasn’t a probing question. It was a question designed to mock the woman. They would criticize anything she reads, including World.
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Simply amazing. Does the criticism never end? I couldn’t have imagined in a million years that someone would be criticized for not revealing what they read.
I think the left is officially unhinged. Including you, Musing. You simply assumed she didn’t reveal anything because she doesn’t.
That’s quite a gap in your logic.
Get off it. Start criticising Obama and Biden for a change. This is simply a nitpicky smear campaign by the left, and I for one, and very disgusted with y’all.
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NJLawyer post 4,
and look at my posting: I didn’t say she didn’t read. Realisitically we can’t tell.
But it would seem that she is not cognisant of what she is reading: it is not making much impact on her. That conclusion can be drawn from the interview.
And I find that an interesting commentary.
And no, Couric tried several times to draw out of Palin what she was reading and Palin muffed the question. I do find what people are reading a very insightful to discussion, just as I look at what books are on the bookcases of people I visit.
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Make It Man post 5,
if Palin had said she would prefer not to discuss it fine.
Palin did discuss it but clearly the books she may be reading are having little impact on her. And I do believe that is valid data.
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Hey, my subscription renewal is due, too. …..
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Palin uses icons, if you call that “reading.”
My four-year-old granddaughter has started to read. However, she doesn’t meet the age restrictions to be a vice-presidential candidate.
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Does she really have a lot of time for leisure reading anymore?
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On the one hand, it wasn’t a difficult question, and she should work on ad-libbing a little bit, maybe take a class or something. On the other hand, it’s none of ya’ll’s business what she reads, so lay off!
Cool, a VP candidate likes the same magazine I do!
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Klasko post 10,
one may not have time for leisure reading, but does a national leader not need to read the varous materials to keep up with current events?
There is an obvious rejoinder here, but the obvious rejoinder itself I suggest opens serious questions.
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Opinionated teen post 11,
I disagree, it is indeed perfectly appropriate for the elctorate to understand the source of information which our national leaders are using to form their opinions. The choice of source says much about how a person is thinking about these topics (consider for example World Magazine and Rolling Stone magazine regaridng popular culture).
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Outkast #2: Katie Couric is not running for VP, with the possibility of becoming president.
NJLawyer #4: As Musing points out, if she’d gracefully said something like, “I’d prefer not to discuss what I read,” or something of that nature, then it wouldn’t be a big deal. The awkward silence really looks like it was her trying to think of something specific, failing to do so, then saying she can’t recall. That’s more problematic.
Honestly, it wouldn’t bother me at all if she were not reading any *books* at the moment. I do, however, think someone like her should be reading *something* to keep up on current events. She could even have said, “Well, I typically don’t read the newspapers because I get briefed by my staff every day.” But she didn’t.
Also interesting that “The Bible” wasn’t something that came readily to mind.
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“At root the issue is not that she doesn’t read, although this is itself an interesting dicussion, but that she does not appear to be cognisant of what she is reading. The response in the interview was what amounted to a blank stare, and this is not a tough question.”
Considering the MSM reaction to her so far, she was probably mulling over how they would spin her answer into a negative. “She reads the New Yorker, what a snob, she reads Readers Digest how shallow. Oh, she reads WORLD, she is clearly a far right whacko, oh she reads National Geographic, she probably likes to look at naked natives.”
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I think KBells (15) nailed it. Her instinct kicked in, she pulled back knowing they’d have a field day with whatever her answer would be.
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kbells post 15,
interestingly enough, under your model, worrying about the problem became the problems.
This would seem pretty simple:
1) say you would prefer not to discuss it
2) comment on something you have actually read recently (lieing here can get very exciting)
If we assume she is reading various magazines and books etc. then then fact that none of them have made any impact on her is interesting.
If she is not reading anything, then just say so.
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Donna J post 16,
then she would seem to be very ill prepared when she is accross the table form someone who is indeed focused on catching her out, say someone like Putin.
Come on - these are simple questions. Giving her excuses for this round simply is not going to hep her grow into this job: she really needs to uinderstand the problems she is creating so she can effectively fix them.
Bad news is much better than false news.
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Musing, here’s your phrase, “At root the issue is not that she doesn’t read….”
Sure, the Bible would come to mind, and maybe that’s what she was thinking which would account for her hesitance. She was probably trying to think of an answer that wouldn’t be picked apart the way it is here. If she said the Bible, you guys would have laughed at her.
It is horrible what is being done to this woman, and if you want grace, I think you’ve seen it. You haven’t even seen that Hillary moment when she was so worn out and on the verge of tears. Palin’s strength — and grace — is very evident. I would have told off all these so-called journalists a long time ago. But then again, that’s what leftists and liberals do — they just mock people.
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Since inquiring minds want to know…I just finished reading a book called Agnes and the Hitman, by Jennifer Crusie. While some of the content might not be considered good quality Christian reading it did have the ability to make me laugh out loud in quite a few places and one even spew what I was drinking through my nose because I was laughing so hard. Next up? I have decided to re-read The Fountainhead. I also read a lot of JD Robb, Sandra Brown, and Jonathan and Faye Kellerman. (Faye writes about a Jewish police detective and his wife so I pick up quite a few tidbits on being Jewish from her)
Give it a rest! She probably was concerned that they would spin it wrong.
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It would be interesting to put this question to our Govinator in the great state of CA. Because the reading for his job is so huge–you know, all those bills and stuff–he has readers who bring him the important thing. “The Freson Bee ran this. . . an Op-Ed in the LA times is saying . . . The San Francisco Chronicle is upset about . . . ” He gets it all, but in proportioned serving sizes.
But I’m with OT, c’mon Sarah, shoot from the hip a little better tonight.
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Being a mother of 5 and a governor and a VP nominee, who’s got time to read? I assume most of her reading these days is speeches and political information.
My guess is that when she does read a book she is probably reading it to her kids. The media piranha would have had a heyday with Dr. Seuss.
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I thought World had a privacy policy that didn’t reveal subscribers. Perhaps Sarah didn’t want it known, but World went and blabbed it anyway, all for attention.
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I’m sorry, but I saw the interview and she was asked several times what she reads. Her only answer was “whatever is put in front of me”. She was asked specifically what publications, and she repeated “whatever is put in front of me”. Bottom line is that she doesn’t have a clue.
And everyone knows the Emperor has no clothes.
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CCC, I wondered about the privacy angle as well.
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NJLawyer post 19,
certainly I said:
“Musing, here’s your phrase, “At root the issue is not that she doesn’t read….””
because this appeared to be the clear complaint when complaints were made, and I further noted that we could discuss this issue at leangth. I also said that from the interview we can not confirm whether she does or does or does not read.
I suggest you are taking my comment out of context and not reading the entire material. Further, my sense is that this approach to evaluating my material is based on ideological perspectives, not rational perspectives.
You also are apparenlty insisting that I am concernedwith a portion of the issue which I have explicitly pointed out is by my standards of little concern.
My concern is that if she does read, it appears to have little impact on her.
And if she doesn’t read, then she handled the question poorly.
I did not say anywhere that there was an issue if she does not read.
Please reread my materials again.
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xion post 22,
then just say so.
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#6, Musing wrote; “…look at my posting: I didn’t say she didn’t read.”
Musing, look at NJLawyer’s posting. She did not say that you said she didn’t read. NJL just made a correct statement: “Just because she didn’t reveal which newspapers, etc., she reads, doesn’t mean she doesn’t read.” NJL’s statement stands.
And looking at your posting, Musing, you did aver “…that she does not appear to be cognisant of what she is reading.”
That is a blatant misinterpretation on your part, Musing, and unfair-minded to boot.
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Gov. Palin should have listed some of the books she has read to her children over the years. There may be more widom in them than much of what gets published today.
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I skipped down and didnt read other postings.
Does Alaska have any major metro papers?
I spoze we are all able to read all the news you could want from the internet. But I wish she had said something like:
“Oh Katie, you know all the usual pubs: NRA magazine, National Review, HUMAN EVENTS, American Spectator, Today’s Christian Woman..”
I’ve been told that lotsa pols have a staffer whose job involves just skimming all the big headlines and responding if any statemts need to be challenged.
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Better we ask “What should Sarah Palin read?”
Did she thoroughly read all the bills she signed into law in AK?
Will she do the same as President of the US Senate?
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I can think of a few other possible explanations (besides those already suggested above) for her answer (“whatever is put in front of me”).
One - She is not selecting her own reading material, so she is not pondering titles and authors as she picks up what she reads (as I would be, so that I could look for similar titles or authors). She absorbs information but not where it came from. The negative of this approach would be, not having a good idea of the sources of the information, she would not have a good idea of their credibility or where to find the information again.
Two - If she does not enjoy the kind of reading she is doing (there may be other kinds of reading she does enjoy that she doesn’t have time for) she is less likely to remember it. I read loads of stuff when I was in college, but if you asked me what I had been reading, I might have had trouble naming books other than those I read for fun. That doesn’t mean I didn’t learn what was in the books, but the sheer volume of it sometimes made it all run together. And would I want to bring up some silly book I read just because I noticed it on the paperback shelf and read it for pure escapism?
Three - From what I have read about her interviews (I haven’t seen this one or any others), she likes to give an answer and stick to it, rather than modifying her answer upon further thought, which might make her appear indecisive. If she initially couldn’t think of anything specific and chose to say “whatever is put in front of me” she might choose to stick to that answer even if she did think of something else (especially if it was something that might not sound very “presidential”), not wanting to give the interviewer the satisfaction of having pried it out of her by repeated questioning. If that is the case, I don’t consider that a positive trait. There’s a time to be decisive, but an interview isn’t necessarily that time.
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I would have greatly enjoyed it had Sarah Palin, when asked that question by Couric, replied something like this:
“What do I read?”
“First let me tell you what I DON’T read - I don’t read the Communist Manifesto - I read it once, and it was a crock of manure. In other words, I probably don’t read what Barack Hussein Obama reads.”
“Which I suppose you think is a shame, since you and your fellow so-called ‘journalists’ (sneer, here) are so diligently prostituting yourself and your integrity to his election, asking nothing substantial of him and wetting yourself whenever he speaks, but engaging in smears and slander against his opponents.”
“So: What else do I NOT read?”
“I don’t read your left-wing commentaries in the trash tabloids such as the NYTimes, nor do I read the partisan slanderous anti-American bigoted racist and sexist rants that you like to call ‘news’. ”
“I don’t read transcripts of the so-called sermons of Obama’s minister and spiritual and political mentor, the so-called ‘Reverend’ Jeremiah Wright, as he curses American, preaches racial hatred, and incites violence.”
“I don’t read the manifestos of William Ayers or his ‘wife’ who helped launch Obama’s political career in the corrupt corriders of the Chicago political machine - after all, these are the same individuals who yet pride themselves on killing police officers and blowing up innocent people.”
“I don’t read the horribly convoluted and chilling legal justifications that Barack Obama gives for the act of delivering a full-term child and then murdering her by sticking a sharp instrument in her brain, then cutting up the pieces and dropping them in a waste bin. I don’t read his phrases like morally justifying that by saying ‘it is above my paygrade’.”
“So you want me to continue on this ‘reading’ angle?”
“Or maybe you want to move on to the next question?”
“Your call, Couric.”
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Joel Mark post 28,
so are you in disagrement with my fundamental question that she does not seem to be cognisant of what she is reading?
By the way this statement would apparantly be true whether she is reading any material or not: she stalled during the question.
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Drill post 33,
I agree that an answer of that sort you are suggesting would have indeed been information laden and would have allowed us to evaluate Palin better.
Note that she did not answer as you described.
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Has any VP candidate ever been subjected to such scrutiny? What does the Democratic nominee for President read?
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The thing is, Pauline, she was given three opportunities to mention even one book or periodical, and she didn’t or couldn’t. One can draw a reasonable conclusion from that, which would not be favorable to Sarah Palin.
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Stubob post 36,
but as noted, she could have easily said she would prefer not to answer.
It is the disconnect between what appears to be her world and the question that was asked which appears to be interesting.
This isn’t a hard question. Apparently none of the materials she presumably does read have any impact on her.
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Stubob: According to Obama’s own memoirs, he has spent a good deal of time reading Marxist-Leninist works - purposely sought them out, actually, due to his feeling an affinity with the ideology itself (complex motivations in his history here due to his father who was a Marxist-Leninist-Socialist ‘intellectual’, such as that is).
Presumably, as an extremely close spiritual and political disciple of Jeremiah Wright for 20 years, he has read and absorbed important elements of ‘Black Liberation Theology’, which, simply put, is raw anti-American racism and bigotry that the most extreme members of the KKK or the Aryan Nation could appreciate.
Evidence might point to the fact that he has read Machiavellia’s ‘The Prince’, as he has displayed an enormous capacity to lie and subvert and slander in order to gain power, although incompetently, but supported and covered up for by the controlled media that champions him.
I could go on, but you get the idea of the readings that have informed the man we know as Barack Hussein Obama.
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Couric’s question was a softball, and you all know it. I can understand why you all (who still defend her even while most conservative pundits are suggesting she step down) are embarrassed at her deer in headlights reaction to a such a basic and frankly conversational question, but it is not the left that is unhinged.
One really would expect some basic things to pop on on the regular reading list of a Republican governor. The Wall Street Journal, Economist, Christian Science Monitor, and the local Anchorage paper could have been rattled off “Sarah Palin list” style, but she choked up even on that. Considering that she had just met with Henry Kissinger “Diplomacy” would have also been a good thing for that list.
Kbells response in 15 is cynical, paranoid, and idiotic.
That question was WAY more revealing than Couric could have possibly intended it to be.
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What newspapers do you read or what magazines do you subscribe to?
Pretty simple questions. Everybody here can answer them.
Why can’t Sarah Palin?
In my unofficial job I go into a lot of homes, two or three a day.
There is a substantial number of homes here in WV where there are no newspapers and no books at all. I was in one last week where there was a Bible, some school books for the three kids, not a newspaper in sight and not a single other book anywhere. Well, maybe the “Care and Feeding your Cockatiel” booklet counts, but that was it. Oh yeah, there were three flat screens, and two elaborate video gaming set ups. And a couple of magazines.
They were very nice people, a senior claims adjuster and a Pentagon techie, and the kids were beautifully behaved. But I certainly wouldn’t want either of them to hold national office.
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We should ask legislators at any level what bills they’ve authored co-sponsored and whyso. Also which laws did they or would they vote to repeal. Is Sarah particularly proud or ashamed of putting her sig to any bills or city council resolutions? Whyso?
Again, unlike Barack and Biden she lacked the luxury of consulting 99 others prior to affixing that signature.
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Michelle: I did respond to your question about the homeowner in yesterday’s bailout thread. Short answer is that he lost his downpayment less the second mortage. He may still owe $150K on the first note.
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Now of course while what one reads or whether one reads may be of arguable import to the election, a working knowledge of key supreme court cases does seem to be a reasonable request for knowledge of a national leader.
And the apologia for Palin apparenlty not know any cases other than Roe v. Wade?
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Drill post 39,
so you do argue that knowing the rading habits of the candidates is important?
In which case Palin would arguably have blown it.
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Musing: You display astounding illogic.
We do not know what Palin reads. She did not divulge that because she knew that the prostitutes in the Democrat-controlled media machine would twist and distort it, no matter WHAT she said she read.
We DO know what Obama reads - or has read (see my Post 39 for a fairly concise summary). Note, Obama has not been asked this question in a hostile environment, of course. In fact, it is arguable that Obama has been asked ANY question in a hostile environment, with possibly one or two exceptions - which he uniformly screwed up.
Finally, I am not sure about Joe Biden. We presume he reads fairly widely. That is probably true because he has displayed enormous versatility and diversity in what he plagiarizes. To be an accomplished plagiarist, such as Biden, you have to be fairly widely read.
It is the same sense that a master counterfeiter of art must, in many important ways, be extremely artistic himself. So I assume Biden is widely read, based on his impressive plagiarism record.
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Anlir,
I didn’t say the conclusion would be favorable to Palin. I merely pointed out some more possible explanations for her answer. And two of them, as I pointed out, would reflect unfavorably on her.
I know some wonderful people who don’t read. I find it very strange to go into their house and see absolutely no reading matter (not even a TV Guide, since these days you can get the programming schedule on TV). I would trust the one guy with my life (especially as he’s an EMT). But, like Arcadia, I wouldn’t want to elect him to high office.
I’m still undecided - between McCain/Palin and voting for a third party. I don’t consider the question of what she reads a deciding factor - but together with other things (that each by themselves would not be either), it might be.
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Thanks, Arcadia.
Perhaps a better question is, what do the candidates’ advisors read–aren’t they the ones really calling the shots?
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Drill, I too would have enjoyed seeing Palin answer as in #33, but I would have enjoyed even more her ticket’s subsequent plummet through the polls.
As for the question, I know many of the liberal blogs are acting like Palin couldn’t name any magazine or newspaper that she read because she doesn’t read any and doesn’t even know what they are. I think that highly unlikely. Even someone who doesn’t read newspaper could rattle off a couple titles.
I think one of these two scenarios far more likely that didn’t want to “tip her hand” as to her ideology and give the media more points of attack. If she had answered, for example, “I read WORLD Magazine for news from a biblical worldview,” the media would be all over WORLD like flies on a cowpie, dredging up any errors (I seem to remember a 2004 story about secret documents “proving” that WMDs were in Iraq but the liberal media didn’t want to cover it), its most egregious examples of bias. WORLD would have seen snippets from their stories (edited for greatest dramatic effect) all over the news as ridiculous right-wing propaganda that Palin buys.
She probably could have gone with safe answers, like “The New York Times and the Washington Post,” but she knows something of McCain’s increasingly testy relationship with the media and didn’t want to appear to be endorsing any outfit that criticized him. And there are many.
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Drill post 46,
why you are miming exactly my point:
“We do not know what Palin reads. ”
since she did not reveal any reading material in her interview.
Astounding that you and I are in agreement, as you would have seen if you had been reading from my post 6 where I said exactly this!
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Se lets look closelyo at the material:
1) we can not tell whether Sarah Palin reads any material: she didn’t tell us and we have no other information
2) if she does read, the materials she was reading apparently were not impactful enough on her for her to remember to mentio them
- there is the possiblity that she does nto want us to know: the response would then arguably be deceitful
3) and when questioned she stopped cold rather than making a germane statement such as “I would prefer not to discuss it”
So I suggest it is the stall which is of interest with points 2 and 3 being the operatvie issues.
Do I care whether Darah Palin reads? Quite frankly no.
Do I care whether Sarah Palin is able to answer simple questions quickly and clearly? Since she intends to be a national leader: yes.
Do I care whether she integrates what she reads? Since I would hope that the reading helps inform her thought processes: yes.
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And the silence reagrding Sarah Palin’s knowledge of supreme court cases in this discussion is itself perhaps telling!
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Oh, so now we’re being told (above) that the reason she didn’t answer the questions is because the media would ridicule or poke fun at her? Insanity!
If Sarah can’t handle the “heat” of that question, what’s she gonna do when the media starts asking her questions about her Administration’s policies (if God forbid, she should get elected!)?
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I am looking forward to tonight’s debate. I have heard that in the Alaska gubernatorial debates she was the pit-bull-with-lipstick” Sarah Palin, not the deer in the headlights variety. I hope she is the pit bull tonight as well. I cannot wait to see Sen Biden with the deer look.
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Peter L post 54,
that is what I have heard as well.
I will be watching closely.
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Question: has the McCain campaign already released the Palin wins the debate ad?
They were very efficient at this in the past presidential debate and I am assuming they will be equally efficient with the VP debate.
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Oh, come on, people! Have you ever heard of a “mommy moment”? Older folks might have “senior moments”. Everyone stumbles occasionally when speaking. There are many reasons for it. Obama stumbles. Biden gets things plain wrong.
This requirement to brilliantly think on your feet in every situation is bogus. No one can do that. So what if she needs a few minutes sometimes to think something through and give a solid answer.
You will probably accuse me of spin, but I’d much rather have someone in office who doesn’t speak carelessly, and who doesn’t just make something up, than have a smooth operator with an air of infallability–too slick.
BTW, the mocking of Obama’s “ummm”s was also bogus, IMHO. If we insist on Hollywood-type, scripted-sounding instant answers to every little thing, we’ll end up with an actor rather than a statesman.
I want someone with a solid moral compass, who takes the time needed to think issues through carefully much more than I care about how photogenic or oratory he or she is.
This whole critique sounds like a Miss America pageant commentary–how did she do on the question section?!
Wish I knew how to do the emoticon with the rolling eyes…
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One other thing about all this bothers me. Why, oh why is Katie Couric vested with all this power? Why are the media so ridiculously powerful, and so unscrutinized themselves?
I DO NOT trust the MSM. I feel wary of them. As far as I can see, the MSM claims to be a watchdog protecting the “little people” like me. So why do I feel so manipulated and condescended to?
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JJF #49: That is well-stated; essentially what I had indicated (and some other posters as well); to put it into perspective it should be noted that Palin and her family, including minor children, have been the target of what is almost assuredly the most sustained slander/lie/slime/gotcha organized campaign by so-called ‘mainstream journalists’ (actually paid prostitutes of the Democrat Party) and the willing stooges of the Left on blogs and other media in modern times (maybe throughout human history). So her reticience in answe