Palin is at a loss for deep thoughts
By Robyn E. Blumner, Times Columnist
In Print: Sunday, February 14, 2010


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Since Sarah Palin won't rule out running for the presidency in 2012, her performance recently at the Tea Party convention in Nashville deserves more scrutiny. Voters may have to soon evaluate her as a future leader of our nation and defender of the free world. Which makes her strikingly vapid answers to the softball questions thrown her way all the more frightening.

The last time Palin barnstormed the country as Sen. John McCain's running mate, she had a glaring lack of comprehension of national issues. But then she had a lot to learn in a short time.

By now she should be prepared, particularly since she quit her day job. But she's not. While her written remarks at the Tea Party were intelligible, her performance during the question period demonstrates that Palin has no ready command of issues and has little to offer beyond platitudinous and confused rhetoric.

Sitting in comfy armchairs she answered questions put to her by the adoring Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation.

Palin was asked: "We hear about the Obama plan. What's the Palin plan?" Her answer on her national defense plan — the entirety of it — was this: "And when it comes to national security, as I ratchet down the message on national security, it's easy to just kind of sum it up by repeating Ronald Reagan when he talked about the Cold War. And we can apply this now to our war on terrorism, you know. Bottom line, we win, they lose. We do all that we can to win."

Compare that bit of nearly indecipherable triumphalism with the answer President Barack Obama gave at a news conference Tuesday when asked about Iran's decision to further enrich uranium, which is too long to reprint verbatim.

First he spoke about efforts to negotiate with Iran and the country's rejection of the offer to convert "low-enriched uranium" into the "isotopes that they need" for medical research and hospitals. Then Obama said bluntly, "That indicates to us that, despite their posturing that their nuclear power is only for civilian use, that they in fact continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponization."

He went on to discuss the "regime of sanctions" being developed to isolate Iran and the role China and Russia might play.

Whether you agree with Obama's approach or not, it was an articulate briefing that gave context to and specific action for a vexing national security issue.

Back to Palin, who was asked at the Tea Party for her three top things to get done if conservatives win majorities in Congress.

It was here that Palin peeked at her hand for some palm-prompter help, meaning she was probably given advance notice of the question. Even so, her answer was a garble of attack-Obama talking points and pandering to the Christian Right.

Palin: "We've got to rein in spending, obviously, and not raise it extremely high budgets and then say, Okay, we are going to freeze a couple programs here. That doesn't do us any good really. We've got to start reining in the spending."

Palin's excruciating syntax aside, she's a jejune thinker. Without notes, she could barely conjure the words to cryptically criticize Obama's budget.

Her second priority, she said, is domestic drilling and mining for fossil fuels — "oil and gas and our coal." She offered a fuller energy policy in her prepared remarks, but extemporaneously, the equivalent of "drill, baby, drill" was all she could muster.

Palin's last must-do for Congress is to allow "America's spirit to rise again." To do this, she said, we should seek "some divine intervention again in this country so that we can be safe and secure and prosperous again. To have people involved in government who aren't afraid to go that route."

Gee, is there really a dearth of religious politicians? I can't seem to find any who aren't. But I don't doubt some miracle for our nation would be needed, desperately, if Palin-like conservatives took Congress.

During the Q & A, Palin called on people to run for office who have no elective office experience and don't have "some kind of fat elite resume in their back pocket." I guess that is one way to make herself sound cogent by comparison — dissuade candidates with training, education and knowledge.

All I can say is in 2012, I "hopey" we don't "changey" to this embarrassing woman.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

On the other hand, I have learned that Canada lacks freedom of speech. I suspect this thread would be censored if it were on a Canadian server.

I'm free to speak. It's right here in the Charter of rights.
I know Faux makes Canada out to be some sort of near communist state, but only the simple minded would believe that.

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html#anchorbo-ga:l_I-gb:s_2

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

On the other hand, I have learned that Canada lacks freedom of speech. I suspect this thread would be censored if it were on a Canadian server.

I'm free to speak. It's right here in the Charter of rights.
I know Faux makes Canada out to be some sort of near communist state, but only the simple minded would believe that.

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html#anchorbo-ga:l_I-gb:s_2

You seem to be forgetting a little something that happened with Ann Coulter. We don't agree with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but he was able to speak in our country.

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LOL
Colter was asked by someone to tone down the rhetoric in her speech.
This request came from someone from the university and was not, I repeat, was not the official stand of the government of Canada.

What surprises me is they found anyone willing actually go listen to her...hmmm...must have been free tickets with complimentary coffee and doughnuts.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan.
Sarah Palin
Speaking at a fundraiser in San Francisco, October 5, 2008.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that's with the energy independence that I've been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.
Sarah Palin
Misstating the amount of energy produced by Alaska, which is only 3.5 percent, September 11, 2008.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

You'll be there to defend the innocents from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the deaths of thousands of Americans.
Sarah Palin
Linking Iraq war to the 9/11 attacks while addressing U.S. soldiers shipping off to Iraq, Fairbanks, Alaska, September 11, 2008.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Absolutely. Yup, yup.
Sarah Palin
Asked by People magazine if she was ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency after being chosen to run for vice-presidency, August, 2008.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?
Sarah Palin
Her surprise at US presidential candidate John McCain choosing her as vice-presidential running mate, interview with CNBC's 'Kudlow & Co', July 31, 2008.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

LOL
Colter was asked by someone to tone down the rhetoric in her speech.
This request came from someone from the university and was not, I repeat, was not the official stand of the government of Canada.

What surprises me is they found anyone willing actually go listen to her...hmmm...must have been free tickets with complimentary coffee and doughnuts.

When you ask Coulter to speak, you better know what your are getting. She speaks her mind and has a very sharp tounge. If you don't want it, don't have her speak in the first place.Tone it down is not in her vocabulary.
I have meet many lumber jacks from your county and I think many of them would be interested in attending something like that. Of course they were also complaining about the restrictive gun laws of your country.

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I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that.
Sarah Palin
On $30 billion national gas pipeline project that she wanted built in Alaska, speaking to students the Wasilla Assembly of God, June 2008.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't.
Sarah Palin
As quoted by former City Council Member Nick Carney, after he raised objections about the $50,000 she spent renovating the mayor's office in Wasilla, Alaska, without approval of the city council.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?
Sarah Palin
Inquiring with Wasilla librarian Mary Ellen Emmons about banning books right after Palin took office as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, in 1996.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Who calls a shot like that? Who makes a decision like that? It's a disturbing trend." –Sarah Palin, pushing a conspiracy theory that "In God We Trust" had been moved to the edge of coins by the Obama administration (the change was made by the Bush administration in 2007 and was later reversed by Congress, before Obama took office), West Allis, Wisconsin, Nov. 6, 2009

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." –-Sarah Palin, in a message posted on Facebook about Obama's health care plan, Aug. 12, 2009

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I think on a national level your Department of Law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out." --Sarah Palin, referring to a department that does not exist while attempting to explain why as president she wouldn't be subjected to the same ethics investigations that compelled her to resign as governor of Alaska, ABC News interview, July 7, 2009

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

"It may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: 'Sit down and shut up,' but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out." --Sarah Palin, announcing her resignation as governor, July 3, 2009

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Palin? A closet socialist???
Could I have been wrong about her?......naaa


"And Alaska -- we're set up, unlike other states in the union, where it's collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs. ... It's to maximize benefits for Alaskans, not an individual company, not some multinational somewhere, but for Alaskans." --Sarah Palin, explaining the windfall profits tax that she imposed on the oil industry in Alaska as a mechanism for ensuring that Alaskans "share in the wealth" generated by oil companies, New Yorker interview, Sept. 2008

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I don't know if you're going to use the word 'terrorist' there." --Sarah Palin, asked if people who bomb abortion clinics are terrorists, NBC News interview, Oct. 23, 2008

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Oil and coal? Of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, you know, the molecules, where it's going and where it's not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first." --Sarah Palin, billed by John McCain as the nation's foremost expert on energy, clumsily answering a question while speaking off the cuff at a town hall meeting, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Sept. 17, 2008

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.