Others Say Smart Stuff, Too (Five Years Ago!)

Sarah Palin has been the butt of much abuse and criticism since her introduction to the national political scene as John McCain's running mate in 2008. Most of the criticism is undeserved. Ignorant boobs even continue to accuse her of saying she could see Russia from her house -- a quote actually made by Tina Fey (as Palin) in a SNL bit.


What Palin did say regarding Russia, however, was documented in Foreign Policy magazine in 2008. The title of the article says it all: "Russia Might Invade Ukraine if Obama Wins, Palin Warns."

Now here it is, just over five years into Barack Obama's term in office, and headlines everywhere scream about the international crisis as Russia prepares to invade the Ukraine. 

Now, let's sit back and wait for the apologies.

Didn't Sarah Palin get creamed for this?

From a transcript of Barack Obama's interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News last night:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, since we are on the web here-- live on Yahoo.com, everyone wants to know which-- websites do you surf?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, I'm pretty eclectic. You know, I'll-- you know, I read a lot of newspapers that I used to read in print, I now read on-- on the web.

GS: Do you have an iPad or just--

OBAMA: I-- I've got an iPad. And-- and-- Steve Jobs actually gave it to me-- a little bit early. And-- (LAUGH)

GS: Oh, that's pretty cool.

OBAMA: Yeah, it was cool. I got it directly from him. And-- you know, I go to ABCNews.com, of course, and Yahoo.

GS: And Yahoo, too, thank you.

OBAMA: Of course. But-- you know, typically, my-- I-- I-- I read on the web what I read in hard copy. I mean, there-- there are some exceptions. There are some blogs and some websites that-- that are interesting that-- you don't have--

GS: --make a comment.

OBAMA: I-- you know-- I don't. I-- I figure if I-- if I got started-- I wouldn't stop. And I've got other things to do.

GS: Mr. President, thanks for your time.

Okay. With the exception of ABC News, who was hosting the interview, and Yahoo, which Stephanopoulos fed him, what was Obama's answer to the question "Which websites do you visit?" This is the same type of non-answer that Obama has given before, for which Palin was smeared by everyone in the media.  Obama once again gets a pass. But we do discover that Steve Jobs himself gave Obama his iPad.

That sound you hear is Liberal heads exploding

Column headline:  "Palin Doctrine Emerges as Arab Nations Echo Her Demarche on Libya."


The column, written by Benjamin Korn, goes on to cite how her foreign policy advice has been on the money, as opposed to Obama's, um, "leadership."






(demarche - "a statement, protest, or the like presented to public officials by private citizens, interest groups, etc.")

Blundering with impugnity

Recent headline from the Columbus Dispatch: "Obama had facts wrong about visit here."

The story goes on to report how Barack Obama, on a visit to Ohio to tout how well his stimulus plan is working, cited a project that was not funded with stimulus dollars.

"What we've been trying to do is to build infrastructure that puts people back to work but also improves the quality of life in communities like Columbus," Obama said in his remarks. "So Joe is an architect, and he's now working on a new police station that was funded in part with Recovery Act funds."

Two problems here -- first, of course, is that the money came from a congressional earmark rather than stimulus funds.  The second is that the project in question was not a "police station" but rather an abandoned warehouse the city is renovating to house its crime lab and property room.

White House representatives went back later to clarify what Obama meant.  This seems to be an ongoing process whenever Obama says something.  He, or his spokesman, have to go back and say what he really meant to say.

George Bush was ridiculed for his Bush-isms. There were plenty, to be sure, over his eight years.*  His opponents cited these instances as indications of his supposed lower-level intellect. Yet he rarely had to have anyone explain what he really meant to say.  Even when it was inelegant, his meaning was usually clear.

Obama, in his year and a half in office, has committed one gaffe after another without remark. And his supporters still consider him an "intellectual."

In comparison, Sarah Palin was destroyed by the media during the presidential campaign for her response to Katie Couric's question about what Palin reads.  Here's the exchange:

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?
Palin: I read most of them.
Couric: What, specifically?
Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.
Couric: Can you name a few?
Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too.
 
Remember, Palin was roundly criticized and ridiculed for her answers.  Now, here's Barack Obama's response to a similar question from a New York Times reporter.
 
NYT: Sir, we’re landing here, but what are you reading these days? What kind of newspapers do you read, do you read the clips, do you read actual papers, do you watch television?
Obama: Other than The New York Times?
NYT: Other than The New York Times. Do you read Web sites? What Web sites do you look at?
Obama: I read most of the big national papers.
NYT: Do you read them in clips or do you read them in the paper? (Note: This is where the reporter could have asked, "What, specifically?")
Obama: No, I read the paper. I like the feel of a newspaper. I read most of the weekly newsmagazines. I may not read them from cover to cover but I’ll thumb through them. You know, I spend most of my time these days reading a lot of briefings.

Now then. How much difference exists between the answers of "dimwit" Palin and "intellectual" Obama? 


*("Misunderestimate" is a good word. "Strategery" was not coined by Bush but by Will Ferrell impersonating the President during a SNL sketch. Bush's White House staff apparently picked it up as a joke and used it as a nod toward the comedy sketch.)

Slanted Snopes

Just an observation that even non-political websites as trusted as Snopes.com has a political agenda sometimes.  This came to mind recently as Liberals jumped on a Sarah Palin tweet in which she had a typo, interpreting it as her being a "dumbass" and "anti-intellectual."


Here's how Snopes excused Barack Obama's comment during the presidential campaign that he had visited "fifty-seven states" -- First of all, they mixed that fact with e-mails in which nutjobs referred to some fifty-seven Muslim states in whacko e-mails.  In doing that, they move the rumor from being "True" to being "mixture of true and false information."


Then they say this:  "...in May 2008, an obviously tired Barack Obama mistakenly told a crowd..."  (highlights mine.)  And "The actual intent behind Senator Obama's misstatement is easy to discern."


First Snopes diluted the real accusation, which was entirely true.  Then they excused it.


Republicans (like me) made fun of Obama for the slip, but we understood that those things happen.  Nowhere did I ever see someone who made a serious judgment on Obama's intellect based on it.  Liberals, on the other hand, have no qualms on making such a judgment promoting the idea that Sarah Palin is intellectually sub-par. She's another in the long line of prominent Republicans who have been attacked on their supposed lack of intellect, going back (as far as I know) to Reagan, who was described in his time as an "amiable dunce."


One last note -- Al Gore and later John Kerry were described by admirers during their campaigns as "brilliant."  George W. Bush, whose mind Democrats constantly made fun of, had a higher GPA in college than both of them.

"Chief Executor of Good Intentions"

Byron York has a column highlighting what Conservatives have been saying since Obama became the Democrat candidate for President -- he has no practical experience running an organization.  The federal government's confused response to the BP oil spill shows no coordination or accountability.  Obama is used to other people making the decisions, and the bureaucracy is going to destroy the Gulf Coast.  From York's column:


"The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is gushing out of control. The Obama administration is at first slow to see the seriousness of the accident. Then, as the crisis becomes clear, the federal bureaucracy becomes entangled in itself trying to deal with the problem. "At least a dozen federal agencies have taken part in the spill response," the New York Times reports, "making decision-making slow, conflicted and confused, as they sought to apply numerous federal statutes....


The direction from the top was not clear. And accountability? So far, the only head that has rolled during the Gulf crisis has been that of Minerals Management Service chief Elizabeth Birnbaum. But during a May 27 news conference, Obama admitted he didn't even know whether she had resigned or been fired. "

Sarah Palin's résumé looks pretty good in comparison about now, doesn't it?