Thank You, Captain Obvious

Thursday, February 11, 2010
Via DEM, I've been made aware of a new Washington Post Poll showing that 70% of Americans polled don't think Sarah Palin is qualified to be the President.

::gasp!::

Really? Sarah Palin is an unqualified git? WHO KNEW?

Aside from anyone with a modicum of sense and the ability to parse through her retarded rhetoric* to the non-substance beneath, that is.

This is the part I don't really understand about the whole "Tea Party" thing. I can sort of understand their white anger, and the desire to maintain their unearned privilege. I think it's reprehensible and intellectually dishonest, of course, but I kind of understand what they're getting at. No one wants to have their quality of life and privileges reduced, even if it IS the moral and just thing to do. So yeah - I do understand (but don't agree with) their "fuck you, I've got mine" mentality.

What I don't get is how why they chose her. I mean, seriously - I don't think they could have chosen a spokesperson who was stupider, or less educated on the issues, or had fewer substantive ideas on how to address people's concerns. I'm racking my brain, and I honestly can't think of a politician who outdoes her on those points.

"Join the Tea Party! Our de facto leaders are a dumber than a box of rocks quitter and a mental midget comedian who are long on rhetoric and short on ideas and policy! We'll make you feel SMART in comparison!"

Maybe that's the appeal of the whole "everyman" populism. Almost anyone would be a better choice for public office than the public face of this movement, and people support her in a misguided attempt to make themselves feel better about their own worth.


Me? I want a leader who's smarter than me, better educated than me, and has taken the time and made the effort to understand the issues of the day. Plus, they need to actually, you know, HAVE A POLICY PLAN.

Because all that planny, researchy stuff works out just fine for me, thanks.


*See what I did there? SUCK IT, YOU CRAZY, STUPID BITCH.

14 comments:

Stacey said...

ROFLMAO - Thanks Janiece for rocking my morning.

Venus Vaughn said...

How is it possible that 30% of people think she's qualified to be president?

And another thing, why, WHY is she still in the media or the public consciousness? She was unknown, came in and helped her party fail, then quit her job. She's been exposed as someone with unplumbed depths of stupidity. Why does anyone care what she does or says anymore?? Why? WHY????

Janiece said...

You're welcome, Stacey. :)

Venus, I don't get people's admiration of that fatuous bitch, either. I'd be perfectly happy if she'd just disappear into the obscurity she so richly deserves.

Anonymous said...

Totally agree with you, and can I say that when I see her being treated seriously by the media or when I hear yet one more person say she has a real chance in 2012, I want to drive hot knitting needles into my eyes and ears.

Also heard a tea party organizer say seriously that they are not a racist group because they had African-Americans speaking at their march on Washington. I think this is the political equivalent to "some of my friends are black." Would like to see all teabaggers ignored immediately.

Megan said...

They like her for the same reason people like Tom Cruise. She's good-looking and people can relate to the fake stories she spins. It doesn't matter that it's not true: it looks good on the screen, and that's the important thing.

They don't have any understanding of the work involved in running the country, so they want someone they can relate to to be in charge.

Janiece said...

Welcome, shannonoz. I hear you. Except I want to drive the hot knitting needles into their eyes and ears.

Megan, you may have put your finger in the sore, but I still don't get it. I don't care if I can "relate" to Obama, or not - I care whether or not he can get shit done.

Eric said...

Other reasons Palin is in the media consciousness:

1) She arouses passions, favorable or very-much-un, which brings in readers. The media doesn't exist to inform, it exists to turn a profit.

2) The media has internalized the right wing narrative of the "liberal, elitist MSM," which in turn has skewered the media's sense of what "balanced coverage" means. To ignore Palin because she is ignorant and kinda dumb is to court accusations that Palin is really being ignored because she is a conservative and the press are out-of-touch snobs. This effect is amplified by the fact that Palin coincidentally happens to be a woman, and there is an unfortunate history of women not being taken seriously and being presumed to be ignorant and not as smart as men; consequently, it's very easy to spin criticisms of Palin as conventional sexism, and even many liberal/feminist media outlets and blogs have bent over backwards not to state the obvious or have even promulgated the "Palin's critics are sexist" narrative.

3) The media no longer understands the meaning of balance to even start with. Half a century ago, journalist Howard K. Smith observed, "Truth is not equidistant between right and wrong," a comment he made, IIRC, around the same time he was fired from CBS for not giving "balanced" coverage of the civil rights movement (Smith, a believer in equal rights, was open about his animus towards Southern segregationists in a documentary about police abuse of civil rights activists in Birmingham, AL.) Things have only gotten worse since then, with reporters and editors erroneously believing that every story has two sides--therefore, if somebody dislikes Palin, for whatever valid reasons, you need to present an admirer. If someone says she's dumb, you have to prove the contrary case. (This, incidentally, is why there is a national debate over things like evolution and vaccination.) Actual balance, of course, does not mean you give two sides to a story equal time when one side is right and the other wrong; it merely means giving fair coverage to whatever sides might be right. In Palin's case, her educational accomplishments and public statements speak for themselves in making an objective determination of her relative intelligence, but the media continues to present the "other side"; sadly, the "other side" has to be kinda dumb and/or delusional, too, to think somebody who doesn't even know what she reads isn't something of an idiot.

Janiece said...

Eric, you've just identified why that SMBC video "Both Sides" was so f'ing funny.

Cuz it's true and stuff.

The Mechanicky Gal said...

I was JUST reading about that on Gawker, my snark fix for the day! What a coincidence!
You Betcha! (said in Amy's Sarah Palin voice. You know what I'm sayin' Janiece!

Janiece said...

For the gallery, The Mechanicky Gal does the best Sarah Palin voice.

Anne C. said...

Palin's strength is that she's relate-able. It doesn't matter to you, Janiece, because intelligence in a leader gives you confidence in them. To the ignorant and insecure, intelligence raises fear. "What did he or she really say? Those words that I don't hear every day are 'slick'. That person is different from me and so won't represent me or my 'values'." When someone sounds like them, says the same soundbites that they hear on TV and repeat amongst themselves, they feel like that person is "one of them." And that makes them feel better. It was what was Bush's greatest strength, making the average Republican feel like he was one of them and that he understood the challenges of being them. That he would act on their behalf for their interests.

It's important to remember that every president in modern times (since the advent of TV, I'd hazard) has, in some way been relate-able to the average person. Bush Sr. was elected because people couldn't vote for Reagan, but was only one term because he really isn't at all relate-able. That is why Gore failed, Kerry failed, and I rejoiced when the Dems picked Obama who has a modicum of charisma.

WendyB_09 said...

How is it possible that 30% of people think she's qualified to be president?

Venus, I'm afraid it's the same 30% that thought Bush was doing a good job when he left office. O.O

Steve Buchheit said...

I have the same reaction to her speechifying as I do to nails on a chalkboard.

Obama is elitist? Really. He was a community organizer in South Chicago. You know, one of the toughest neighborhoods in the US. I wonder if she (and her like minded bobble heads) have ever been on the south side of a city except by accident or on the highway.

Jim Wright said...

Augh, I came over here to get a little boogie dog and away from Palin on my own damned blog - and what do you do?

Bad Senior Chief, Bad.

And funny.