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Okay. Disclosure most readers know: I went to law school. Big whoop. I’ve got kids who are in or have been through middle school – and that is where you first learn about Brown v. Board of Education and Miranda and even in the supplements they get from Newsweek or TIME, Bush v. Gore.
And yet Alaska Governor and GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin could not even mention summarily issues that SCOTUS has written about that matter to conservatives such as the dealth penalty, the gun law from DC that got panned this past term, school prayer or school vouchers. There were hundreds of ways she could have responded without having to name or even know the name of a single court case. But she is so over-confident in being told that she is in fact qualified to be VP when she isn’t that she is in too deep to ever say when she doesn’t know something. That is her single biggest flaw. Sarah Palin is a walking example of why students should take proficiency exams because either no one taught her, she wasn’t listening, she doesn’t remember or she doesn’t care.
None of those reasons suffice for the person we’re expected to consider as eligible and qualified to be vice president or president of our country.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:36 pm October 1st, 2008 in Campaigning, Courts, Elections, John McCain, Media, Politics, Sarah Palin, Social Issues, WH2008
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22 Responses to “[video] Couric interview on Supreme Court cases of concern to Palin”
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This kind of is the last straw.
I don’t mind the ignorance of foreign affairs or policy. But these are basic American facts and if our second most powerful person doesn’t know them, how can we ever expect our kids to want to know anything at all?
Thanks for posting, Jill.
Thanks, Morra. You know this kind of thing can really get me unhinged, but think of it – she was a mayor of a small town who fired and replaced a police chief, right? How could she not know Miranda? How could she not know about free speech cases related to campaigning? She floats herself as a religious person – how could she not know any of the cases that deal with separation of church and state?
I agree with you – these are basic facts. If the second most powerful person doesn’t know them, how can we expect anyone to aspire to?
This sounds so strong, but really – she should feel ashamed, truly. She should have AT LEAST said something about issues – these Constitutional issues, the Bill of Rights.
Sigh.
In the total petty department, I can’t stand her passive voice (grammar-wise — she’s got a pretty AGGRESSIVE voice otherwise) and also the way she drops her pronouns. I used to think McCain was trying to throw the election (realizing Obama was a better choice) but he seems too serious to believe this of him anymore. I just couldn’t grasp that someone who was so proud of his political integrity would bring her on board!!!
Thanks for commenting, Dawn.
What’s so disturbing to me is: how does ANY person go through life – not just a person who has run for and been elected to office – not know any single other court case beyond Roe? Even television is full of court case references.
OR – why not just FESS UP?
This is so aggravating.
UPDATE: Talking Points Memo has a longer version of that video clip, and it includes Biden’s answers to the same question.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/221277.php
Aside from the obvious, Brown v. Board, and without the experience of law school, I still nailed Tinker, Plessy, and Bush v. Gore before Palin had time to wrinkle her brow.
Her lack of knowledge about landmark cases and her lack of curiosity, as evidenced when she couldn’t or wouldn’t name a single publication she reads regularly, affirmed something for me: she really is Bush in a Skirt. Remember when Bush said he didn’t read the papers?
I had avoided that term, didn’t really care for it, but good Lord it fits.
Oddly, though, didn’t Palin admit to learning about the surge from newspapers? I don’t really care if that’s how she learned [face it, most of America learned from TV or a newspaper], but strange that she couldn’t name a paper when it was her Iraq War source.
me too I started with Plessy v Ferguson while she was uh, silent lol. Sigh; just watched John McCain claim that conservative ‘georgetown cocktail sipping’ people may not like Pallin but overwhelminglyl the Am. peeps are embracing her. Do you think they have jumped the shark yet?
I just can’t stand it! But I am not distracted by it!
But this speaks to some folks thinking that a plain speaking, everyday ordinary person can and should be VP.
As I said: I want someone smarter than me. I want the best and the brightest America has to offer. I want someone intellecually astute. I want someone he has not just read the papers…but reads papers from all around the world. I want someone who has read the classics, who has an opinion on War & Peace… the book. I want someone interested in the world and the people of the world.
This chick is only interested in totting the GOP water bucket.
Tommorrow will be good theatre…but SNL will do a better job of capturing the real essence of this nonsense.
What I’ll give her is the possibility of a brain freeze, too much going on and cameras and all that to be able to put her hand on a case name. Case name. There are plenty of issues she could have named, all she’d have had to say is “I’m pullng a blank, but…” slavery and on and on and on. It would have done, but ‘states rights’?
I do think she’s incurious, unintellectual, nearly unintelligible, and incompetent and a complete disaster. I’m a nail bender from NE OR and I have a lot more at the tip of my fingers at any given moment than she demonstrates in her entire being.
McCain’s political calculus was stupid, she can’t help him with anyone other than the BushCo diehards and where else do they go? She can hurt him very badly, as I said in my blog, “It would be bad if the general perception of “Country First” becomes “I’ll do any damn thing for a vote.”
Shalom Jill,
To be fair, Couric asked Palin:
That’s a tougher question for a conservative, but like others here I immediately thought of Plessy v. Ferguson.
B’shalom,
Jeff
[...] 1112: Couric interview on Supreme Court cases of concern to Palin [...]
I agree, Jeff but I want to add that as Blue Ohioan’s post shows, Palin HERSELF just attacked, on video, three months or so ago, a SCOTUS decision that she felt adversely affected Alaska. Total utter duh.
Read and watch here.
Shalom Jill,
Yeah, Exxon v. Baker came to me too.
I really think they have her on auto pilot.
B’shalom,
Jeff
What is MOST instructive about that video on Blue Ohioan, though???
She does EXACTLY what she did with Gibson and Couric and does on the stump: she repeats the same several words, either in the same order or slightly altered, to re-inforce what she just, you know – said!
I think I wrote this before, but this reminds me so much of the Steve Martin bit about going to Paris, France, where, he learns, that, like, EVERYONE speaks French. And then he does this thing where he’s in a cab and has to yell louder at the cabbie, in English, because the cabbie doesn’t understand him. He just repeats what he is saying, over and over, in English, but louder, since it must be the cabbie’s hearing and not Martin’s inability to speak French.
Hysterical when Martin does it. Really really unfortunate when Palin does it. Over and over and not for laughs.
Shalom Jill,
While the debate format tonight — two-minute responses with 30-second rebuttals — plays to Governor Sarah Palin’s strength (fast and shallow), I’m betting that she’ll fall apart over the course of 90 minutes.
And therein lies the real danger for Senator Joe Biden, Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic Party and the United States of America.
Our expectations for this woman are so feckin’ low that if she doesn’t melt down, the debate will be declared a victory for her.
B’shalom,
Jeff
the question is, will voters watch and say to themselves, I can’t recall, without pondering, names of court cases either; and will she have enough self confidence and joe six pack displayed that it appeals. I know I said did they finally jump the shark, but in reality, the bar is set so low for her, she could come off better than expected
Winning the battle losing the war still works for me on this one.
Also – have you read this re: John McCain on Ifill, he said it this morning on FOX:
“Frankly, I wish they had picked a moderator that isn’t writing a book favorable to Barack Obama,” McCain told Fox News on Thursday. “But I have to have confidence that Gwen Ifill will treat this as a professional journalist that she is.”
Again – refusal to take personal responsibility for his campaign’s ineptitude at vetting ANYONE about ANYTHING, trying to come up with excuses in advance but worst of all, playing the race card in this particular way.
Chuck!
Thanks for commenting – hope all is well with you. Great comment btw.
Chuck brings up a point which I would consider more plausible if she wasn’t so inept at everything else she is asked. Many times people ask me what is my favorite movie and I can’t think of one movie. SO I get that,but in this case, not allowable LOL
Carole – I really don’t think so – I really believe people know the difference between people on the street not knowing many if any SCOTUS cases by name and a president in waiting who may have to choose someone to be a court nominee – actually, HUNDREDS of them, for all federal court positions.
There is only so far anyone can stretch this “she’s just like me” thing re: little education on so many topics.
I agree with you, that is my thinking, but I always worry about getting too complacent lol. Btw, I vote for Eric Holder as SC Justice.
Shalom Jill,
Senator John McCain vetted Glen Ifill just as he did Governor Sarah Palin.
The campaigns agreed to Ifill.
I’d be curious to know, however, exactly when Ifill was selected. If it was before the convention and McCain’s choice of Palin, then they’re banging their heads against the wall.
On the ignorant-like-me idea, I remember a nasty little bit of prejudice in the Black community in the ’60s and ’70s where Blacks, when faced with a serious court case, rejected Black lawyers and instead wanted a Jew lawyer.
And as far as knowing the SCOTUS cases, does anyone think Palin could name all nice Justices? (I don’t.)
B’shalom,
Jeff