Palin IQ // Current

Palin co-author Lynn Vincent's inflammatory record

On May 21, HarperCollins announced that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had chosen... more

LadybugLady
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Palin blames Bush administration for Republican loss

"Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, amid speculation she will run for president in four... more

Sublime_Emperor
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Joke on Palin again as she falls for fake Sarkozy call

Maybe Sarah Palin should have caught on when the caller purporting to be Nicolas Sarkozy told her he could see Belgium from the Elysée Palace.

But the Republicans' vice-presidential candidate remained blissfully unaware during the six-minute conversation with a Montreal comedian that she was the victim of a prank - even after the fake Sarkozy said his wife, Carla Bruni, was hot in bed, and slipped in a line in French about how fun it was to kill baby seals.

The caller, Marc-Antoine Audette, was one half of a comedic duo called the Masked Avengers. Audette described his call with Palin as his greatest triumph.

The prank on one of the most heavily protected personalities in US politics was an instant internet sensation in the final hours of the presidential campaign.

It also overshadowed what John McCain had orchestrated as his comedic moment - an appearance on Saturday Night Live with his wife, Cindy. McCain used his turn to try to make light of Obama's dominance of television advertising, saying his campaign only had the money to appear on the shopping channel - where his wife displayed campaign jewellery.

"I'm a true maverick - a Republican without money," he joked. He went on to lay out a number of strategies for trying to overcome Barack Obama's lead including one he called "Sad Grandpa".

"That's where I get on TV and go, 'Come on, Obama's gonna have plenty of chances to be president. It's my turn'," he said. But instead, it was Palin who got the most laughs - albeit inadvertently. The telephone call got off to an auspicious start.

Palin, evidently thrilled to take what she had been told by aides was a call from the French leader, told the faux Sarkozy within a matter of seconds that she loved him. She did her best to keep that love alive, even when the conversation took an increasingly bizarre turn. When her caller pointed out the two have a lot in common "except from my house I can see Belgium", Palin cheerfully responded: "Well, see, we're right next door to different countries that we all need to be working with."

When her caller mentioned his love of hunting, Palin instantly invited him on a hunting trip. "We can have a lot of fun together while we're getting work done. We could kill two birds with one stone," she said. "Exactly," the caller responded. "We could go try hunting by helicopter like you did."

He added in French that the pair could also go out and kill baby seals. Switching to English the caller added: "I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun." The exchange was littered with other clues. The fake Sarkozy mentioned an adviser called Johnny Hallyday who was in contact with the McCain campaign. Palin, who has made much of her contacts with Canadian officials in her negotiations over an oil pipeline through Alaska, might well have been expected to catch on when the caller got the name of Canada's prime minister wrong, substituting that of a singer.

Or when he added that Bruni was jealous of Palin. But the vice-presidential candidate evidently missed those cues - or at least was too polite to raise objections even when her caller extravagantly praised a porn film about her.

In interviews at the weekend, Audette said it had taken five days to get clearance from Palin's communications team as well as the Secret Service for the phone call.

"I wanted to see how she was on an intellectual level," he told the Canadian Press. "You can see that she's, well, not really brilliantMaybe Sarah Palin should have caught on when the caller purporting to be Nicolas... more

synclaire
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1 year ago
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Palin scored 843 on SAT, has an IQ of 83

The report on Governor Palin has some staggering facts regarding the self claimed... more

welter
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1 year ago
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Palin: New Hampshire part of the "Great Northwest"

Who needs satire when the real thing is so ludicrous?

ArtisGilmoreHOF
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1 year ago
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Palin supporters percieved as protesters

And just when I thought that she couldn't get any dumber.... ..... Palin... more

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1 year ago
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This Woman will set Women's Rights back to the 19th Century!

I as a woman would love to see a woman in the White House! However I do have my... more

bpacheco
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1 year ago
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Palin Heightens Rhetoric on Abortion

Knowing that anti-abortion rhetoric turns off women and independent voters, Sarah... more

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1 year ago
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Palin denies she abused power

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin denied Saturday that she had abused... more

Crazyotto
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1 year ago
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"Northern Exposure" causing birth defects: Palin's plan

"...As governor of a state with a birth-defect rate that's twice the national average, and which has the gloomy status as repository of toxic chemicals from around the world, Palin has pursued environmental policies that seem perfectly crafted to swell the ranks of special-needs kids."

There's no reason to doubt Sarah Palin's sincerity when she talks about her commitment to family and--more specifically--special-needs kids. When she introduced her son, who has Down syndrome, to the audience at the Republican convention, the family tableau drew cheers. And she issued a promise. "To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message for you," she told the crowd. "For years, you've sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters, and I pledge to you that, if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."

Unfortunately, as governor of a state with a birth-defect rate that's twice the national average, and which has the gloomy status as repository of toxic chemicals from around the world, Palin has pursued environmental policies that seem perfectly crafted to swell the ranks of special-needs kids. It's true that Alaska's top leaders have placed industry wishes over environmental protection for years. But, instead of correcting this problem, she's compounded it. Peer into her environmental record, and Palin ends up looking a lot like George W. Bush.

In the past 20 years, research has shown that exposure to some metals and to chemicals such as pesticides, flame retardants, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can cause birth defects and permanent developmental disorders both prenatally and in the first years of childhood. And Alaska is vulnerable to some of the worst environmental pollutants out there. In a state whose wealth depends on the exploitation of its natural resources, the toxic byproducts of mining and energy development, such as arsenic, mercury, and lead, are particular problems. Alaska Natives, such as the Inuit people, eat a diet that is heavy in fish, seals, and whales--animals that are high on the food chain and therefore more likely to be contaminated with high doses of PCBs and mercury. And the state is vulnerable not only to homegrown pollution, but also to industrial pollution: Trace gases and tiny airborne particles are contaminating the polar regions, carried there on atmospheric and oceanic currents, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The mess of pollutants in Alaska has clearly taken its toll. In general, the state has double the national average of birth defects. While the causes are unknown, environmentalists point to the region that includes the North Slope, an area slightly larger than Minnesota, where most of Alaska's oil is produced. The byproducts of oil production can cause serious nervous system disorders, and the North Slope and its environs, home to Alaska Natives and itinerant oil workers, has the highest prevalence of birth defects in the state--11 percent--compared with 6 percent statewide and 3 percent nationwide.

Read more at the link."...As governor of a state with a birth-defect rate that's twice the national average,... more

aswift1
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1 year ago
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The Best Candidate

Some simple FACTS about the various candidates if you care about who will be trying to... more

aliasone
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The Week in Media

Palin's huge reading list. O'Reilly's non-comparison camparison. Financial ruin's new... more

infoMania
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Dumbing down of the GOP

Sarah Palin's debate performance should signal the beginning of the end of her fad. But for the moment it is worth looking at the meaning of her nomination, without the protective varnish of what conservatives usually dismiss as political correctness.

Why should we pretend not to notice when Gov. Palin's ideas make no sense? Having said last week that "it doesn't matter" whether human activity is the cause of climate change, she said in debate that she "doesn't want to argue" about the causes. It doesn't occur to her that we have to know the causes in order to address the problem. (She was very fortunate that moderator Gwen Ifill didn't ask her whether she truly believes that human beings and dinosaurs inhabited this planet simultaneously only 6,000 years ago.)

Why should we ignore her inability to string together a series of coherent thoughts? As a foe of Wall Street greed and a late convert to the gospel of government regulation, along with John McCain, Palin promised to clean up and reform business. But when her programmed talking points about "getting government out of the way" and protecting "freedom" conflicted with that promise, she didn't notice.

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Why should we give her a pass on the most important issues of the day? Supposedly sharing the fears and concerns of the average families who face the burdens of mortgages, healthcare and economic insecurity, Palin simply refused to discuss changes in bankruptcy law and proved that she didn't know the provisions of McCain's healthcare plan.

All the glaring defects so blatantly on display in her debate with Joe Biden -- and that make her candidacy so darkly comical -- would be the same if she were a hockey dad instead of a "hockey mom." In fact, the cynical attempt to foist Palin on the nation as a symbol of feminist progress is an insult to all women regardless of their political orientation.

There was a time when conservatives lamented the dumbing down of American culture. Preservation of basic standards in schools and workplaces compelled them -- or so they said -- to resist affirmative action for women and minorities. Qualifications mattered; merit mattered; and demagogic appeals for leveling were to be left to the Democrats.

Not anymore.

Actually, the Palin phenomenon is the culmination of a trend that can be traced back to Dan Quayle, the undistinguished Indiana senator whose elevation onto the Republican ticket in 1988 had nothing to do with intellect or experience and everything to do with the youthful appeal of a handsome blond frat boy. (That was how Republican strategists thought they would attract female voters back then, which must be why they believe Palin represents progress.) Quayle too was unable to articulate, let alone defend, the policy positions for which he was supposed to be campaigning. He too had to undergo the surgical stuffing of stock phrases into his head as a minimal substitute for knowledge and thought. And in the same sad way, he too benefited from the drastically reduced expectations applied to anyone whose inadequacy is so obvious.

Quayle deserved more pity than scorn, however, because he seemed to know that he was fighting far above his weight class. Palin evokes no such sympathy, with her jut-jawed, moose-gutting confidence in her own overrated "common sense" and her bullying insistence that only "elitists" would question her expertise.

As Biden showed quite convincingly when he spoke about his modest background and his continuing connection with Main Street, perceptive, intelligent discourse is in no way identical with elitism. Palin's phony populism is as insulting to working- and middle-class Americans as it is to American women. Why are basic diction and intellectual coherence presumed to be out of reach for "real people"? Sarah Palin's debate performance should signal the beginning of the end of her fad.... more