There's one demographic that will solidly reject Palin across party lines

Grammarians. She is without a doubt one of the worst wordsmiths ever to reach national prominence. It's horrifying. Look at this, for example--just fucking look at it:

proper command of the english language is so elitist...

:P

:banghead:

or even writing. I used to teach at a University (Computer Science), the Journalism school would send over droves of students to take introductory programming courses... because learning Pascal or Fortran counted as a "foreign language" for them. I kid you not.

Not that there aren't some outstanding writers who started out as journalists.

But look at her career.

Five or Six schools in five years to get a degree in journalism.

TV Sports caster for a local station.

Vice President of the United States (candidate).

========================================

We really have lowered the standards for high office in this country.

but you'd think they'd at least learn to put a damn sentence together! x(

but for a former beauty queen wanting to be the weather gal or sports gal on the TeeVee, apparently it's not required.

Not reform of the corruption by certain current office-holders, but "reform of this country"!

Into what?

I'll bet you can guess what her mission is.

Silly old lady I may be, but I've grown rather fond of this country the way the Founding Fathers formed it -- the Revised Standard Sarah Palin version of the U.S.A. is not something I care to see.

Oh, and did I mention "white"? Oops. Not supposed to mention that here.

But it's funny. A lot of African-Americans are even MORE devout than the average Southern (White) Baptist... but that sure doesn't integrate churches.

Since she's been chosen as McCain's running mate, nothing that comes out of her mouth is an original thought. She's being force-fed talking points to memorize and regurgitate, but she's too stupid to actually understand them and thus cannot properly string together a sentence. Her inner monologue is probably something like this.

"Okay Sarah, you can do this! You're the closest woman in history to the Oval Office and you like totally deserve it! Now just remember what was on that note card . . . something something buzzword . . . something something big word that I didn't have time to look up . . . something something Russia is something from Alaska . . . that should do it. Man, I really have beauty, brains and power!"

won't be scared away by Palin's grammar.

Partially for that reason, no doubt. No shortage of elitism in the conservative movement old guard.

and she never did learn how to speak proper English?

Yeah, but her constituency goes crazy happy for her when she speaks ungrammatically. It makes them feel like she's "one of them," because her constituency is a bunch of cretins.

her into the back of the truck, if they can manage it.

if, that is, they have something she wants.

That girl never gave it up for the sheer joy of it; she wasn't fucking - she was trading.

If you watch some of his old debates with Ann Richards, he appears more cogent than he ever has on the national stage.

"I am mindful of the difference between the executive branch and the legislative branch. I assured all four of these leaders that I know the difference, and that difference is they pass the laws and I execute them." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 20, 2000

"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." --George W. Bush, LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

"Our priorities is our faith." --George W. Bush, Greensboro, N.C., Oct. 10, 2000

"I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together." --George W. Bush, Bartlett, Tenn., Aug. 18, 2000

"Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis." --George W. Bush, CNBC, April 15, 2000

"Reading is the basics for all learning." --George W. Bush, announcing his "Reading First" initiative in Reston, Va., March 28, 2000

"I answered him yes" :wtf:

She's the flower of the mountain, dontcha know.

Say in Sarah Palin accent: "Why can't folks just start readin' the Left Behind series?"

and the intelligent are full of doubt?
(to paraphrase Bertrand Russell)

Can we be sure that if Palin is involved in a Cuban Missile Crisis of her own, that she will carefully and thoughtfully examine all possibilities?

The frustrating thing about this veneer is that it's mostly impossible to gather anything more than hints about how these people really consider issues. It's all pageantry, and we have to suss out reality from divining some pattern in past actions.

That paragraph just brings us to our knees, doesn't it.
The things we could have learned, if we'd bothered to try.

I made it through the Peloponnesian War (the book, not the war itself) long long ago, but of course was too young to appreciate it then.

Thanks for posting this.
You and Thucydides have improved my day no end.

Amazing to think this was written around 2400 years ago, yet remains so relevant.

“Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought.”

He seemed pretty give-and-take on that matter to me.

Must've been one of those correspondance courses.

It isn't just the relentless lying. Or the naked ambition for power (which I believe she has, big time).

It's that kind of grammatical laziness. She's just like George W. Fucking Bush. Intellectually, grammatically lazy. Once in a fucking while, I'd like to sample something close to "the best and the brightest" in our national politics instead of these embarrassments we're presented with.

It will be nice to see her rejected in November. :D