'No, it's not your opinion. You're just wrong'

"The man can only ride you when your back is bent. So strengthen it! Then the man can't ride you, America won't get taken for a ride, because so much is at stake."

 

Her lack of "book learnin'" is a plus for the 60 percent of Americans without a college degree.

 

All right, I am going to make one last stab at this -- and I know it's not going to make a rat's-ass difference to anybody but me -- but this little piece of history is just a fucking embarrassment. It's an embarrassment to Palin, of course. But Couric is a clown-show here, too.

I'm at least twice as smart -- and RIDICULOUSLY [/crossthread] better educated -- as either of these two, and I read one friggin' newspaper -- the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. And, of that, I really only read the sports section. I guess, on that basis, I don't measure up to the intellectual gate-keeper that is Katie Couric.

 

In a lengthy interview with Rolling Stone, President Obama describes where he gets his news:

What do you read regularly to keep you informed or provide you with perspectives beyond the inner circle of your advisers?
[Laughs] Other than Rolling Stone?

That goes without saying.
I don’t watch a lot of TV news. I don’t watch cable at all. I like The Daily Show, so sometimes if I’m home late at night, I’ll catch snippets of that. I think Jon Stewart’s brilliant. It’s amazing to me the degree to which he’s able to cut through a bunch of the nonsense – for young people in particular, where I think he ends up having more credibility than a lot of more conventional news programs do.

I spend a lot of time just reading reports, studies, briefing books, intelligence assessments.

Newspapers?
I’ll thumb through all the major papers in the morning. I’ll read the Times and Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, just to catch up.

Do you read Paul Krugman?
I read all of the New York Times columnists. Krugman’s obviously one of the smartest economic reporters out there, but I also read some of the conservative columnists, just to get a sense of where those arguments are going. There are a handful of blogs, Andrew Sullivan’s on the Daily Beast being an example, that combine thoughtful analysis with a sampling of lots of essays that are out there. The New Yorker and The Atlantic still do terrific work. Every once in a while, I sneak in a novel or a nonfiction book.

I thought you were going to say Playboy.
No [laughs].

 

COURIC: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families, who are struggling with healthcare, housing, gas and groceries, allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That's why I say, I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the tax payers looking to bail out, but ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping tho— it's got to be all about job creation too, shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track, so healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as— competitive— scary thing, but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

 

That right there should have been disqualifying ...

 

Let's not kid ourselves and think McCain had much of a chance in '08.

 

He who has itchy ass has smelly fingers.

 

Not exactly. He was a C student at DePauw as a legacy admit (the Pulliam family were huge donors). He did not go to law school at IU-Bloomington. He went to IUPUI, which was definitely not top-tier -- currently ranked #102 in the US News Survey. He also did not practice law after law school. While he was in law school he had a couple of jobs in the state government and after law school he worked for the Pulliam family's newspaper chain on the business side for a few years until he ran for Congress on a lot of right-wing PAC money and -- to be fair -- his underrated campaigning skills. He got elected to the Senate on Reagan's coattails in 1980 -- Birch Bayh was a major Republican target that year. He was not particularly distinguished in the Senate. Now he was never anywhere near as dumb as he was made out to be (or as dumb as his speaking skills would lead people to believe), and while he was no Jack Kennedy (except for the inexperience and family connections), he was no Sarah Palin either. But let's not make him out to be some sort of misunderstood genius -- or someone who made it where he was through a combination of brains, work ethic and paying your dues. He is one of the least accomplished individuals ever to be nominated for national office.

 

Wonder what newspapers he read ... knowing that would give us a clear picture as to his intellectual suitability for higher office.

 

Quayle was probably smarter than Dubya.

 

Tina Fey read the passage I posted above verbatim during her parody of Palin on SNL. No embellishment was needed.