Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, September 30, 2008
2008 Sarah Palin Can't Name a Single Newspaper or Magazine That She Has Ever Read
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 4:49 PM
Can you name another prominent Republican politician who doesn't read newspapers or news magazines? Give up? The answer is here.
He walks into the Oval Office in the morning, Bush said, and asks Card: "What's in the newspapers worth worrying about? I glance at the headlines just to kind of (get) a flavor of what's moving," Bush said. "I rarely read the stories," he said.Instead, the president continued, he gets "briefed by people who have probably read the news themselves." Rice, on the other hand, is getting the news "directly from the participants on the world stage."
Bush said this had long been his practice.
"I have great respect for the media," he said. "I mean, our society is a good, solid democracy because of a good, solid media. But I also understand that a lot of times there's opinions mixed in with news."
And if there's one thing Bush's aides don't have—besides souls, of course—it's opinions.
5
Okay. I was seriously thinking about making a video of why I should be Sarah Palin's gay friend. In the shower this morning I was running through all the show tunes I know by heart trying to think of how I could have a whole thing of nothing but lyrics from musicals. It was going to be super *and* super gay.
But I can't. I can't even fake it. I don't want to be her friend. I want her to mount her Jesus Horse and ride off into the sunset.
8
Oh, come on now... she's just practicing her pivoting for the debate! This is part of debate camp! And, hell, we haven't had a literate president for the last 8 years so no worries, right?
9
Sometimes people are better off if they explain why they won't, or can't, answer a question, versus simply not answering it. Much more insightful, and appreciated. I don't get what Palin's goal was there.
10
Oh, come on now... she's just practicing her pivoting for the debate! This is part of debate camp! And, hell, we haven't had a literate president for the last 8 years so no worries, right?
11
Oh, come on now... she's just practicing her pivoting for the debate! This is part of debate camp! And, hell, we haven't had a literate president for the last 8 years so no worries, right?
12
hey, you guys are being unfair. she said she reads "MOST OF THEM." that's tens of thousands of newspapers and magazines! she's a genius!!!
13
Do you think she's just afraid of naming the wrong one? Like, if she named a more liberal-leaning paper/magazine? Or, do you think it's more, she thinks that Katie will then ask for a specific article she's read or a columnist she likes from that paper?
Why on earth wouldn't you answer this question? Anybody with an IQ over 70 could say "Time", "Newsweek", "The New York Times", etc., etc. And there'd be no way that anybody could prove her wrong.
What the hell is the downside of saying something, anything, here?
14
sorry, hit post by accident.
I keep thinking that my cringe reflex is broken, then I watch another Palin/Couric clip.
15
Of all the frightening things she's said, and there have been many, this has got to be the most horrifying.
How does she get her information? Why couldn't she name just one of the "vast variety" she peruses every day to stay informed and enlightened? Too busy looking for Putin? Hitting on the First Dude? Thinking up names for the grandbaby?
The upcoming debate will be both fascinating and repulsive, like a slug.
16
wow...trying to spin katie as having an anti-alaskan bias. thinking about how much outside thinks and hates on alaska is very alaskan. however palin is now outside and can't get rid of that complex.
and by the way alaskans can be very well read. before our village got tv it was the vcr, movies in the school gym, and lots and lots of books.
17
either
a) she simply can't answer questions directly.
b) she doesn't want to upset the media paranoid far right by endorsing a media outlet.
c) she actually can't read.
d) she actually has read every single newspaper and magazine in the history of the world.
or d) she hates catie couric and refuses to give coherent answers to any of her questions, no matter how banal.
18
When is someone finally going to tear the face from this femme-bot, ala Six Million Dollar Man (or was that The Bionic Woman)?
21
@17 Your "d" is exactly what I was thinking. My favorite part is that Hooker Heels is so obviously offended at this point and visibly upset by EVERYTHING that comes out of Couric's mouth. She's belligerent and petulant over being asked what magazines she reads! Exactly how open are we supposed to expect her to be with the big questions?
22
i don't think i've ever seen an interview this bad. flavor flav is more coherent after he eliminates jigglee or whomever from flavor of love.
23
interesting comment about "how much outside thinks and hates on alaska is very alaskan".....
what are some other attributes of alaskan-ness?
25
Hahaha. Priceless. And REALLY scary. For me the crowning moment comes at 0:36 when Palin begins her "Alaska is not a foreign country" rant and Couric gives this look to the side, like, "I cannot believe this horseshit is coming out of her mouth."
Honestly, the only bigger softball Couric could have tossed was, "How do you spell 'cat'?"
"Well, Katie, some people might think that folks in Alaska spell 'cat' real different than other Americans, or that we might spell it like Russians because that country, Russia, is so near to the state - that is Alaska - of which I am the governor of. But that is simply not true. Folks in Alaska like to spell 'cat' in the same way that we care about job creation and healthcare reform and invading the Pakistan."
26
That settles it!!! I am voting for McCain/Palin and pray McCain drops dead on January 20th!! We NEED Palin!!!
27
Some quotes from Republican friends of mine:
"Seriously though, the campaign should let her be herself. She's been overhandled."
"The TV interviews, done by liberal talking heads, were done in such a way as to purposely make her look bad."
"So she should bow out because she's been made to look bad after a concerted smear campaign? Please...."
"30+ dem. paid lawyers working very hard in Alaska for two weeks now to discredit her, and this was the very best they could do.
The libs are praying she bows out."
"She was interviewed by people who are registered Democrats
She was interviewed by people who have regularly made derrogatory and desparaging remarks about every Republican candidate since this election cycle began.
She was asked a question regarding a doctorine which does not even begin. What was her response? "What are you referring to exactly?" So, now she is stupid. Typical left-wing one sided BS.
I would be more concered that Obama was talked down from a 30% capital gains tax to a 20% in less than two minutes by BILL O'RIELLY if I were you. He could neither identify his reasoning, nor could he defend it. On national TV."
28
I think Sarah Palin must completes loathe Katie Couric. Katie Couric is everything the over-the-hill Prom Queen/Beauty Queen wants to be. Remember, Sarah Palin's dream job was tv anchor/weather girl, not VP or Governor. Katie has achieved the thing she wanted the most and couldn't get.
p.s. She might be illiterate. After all she thinks dinosaurs and man lived together like in the Flintstones. That doesn't strike me as very edu-ma-cated. If she couldn't name the 'Anchorage Daily News' or 'The Juneau Empire' from her home state or at the very least the 'MAT-SU Valley Frontiersman' from her own hometown, what makes you think she reads at all?
29
People like Palin get their news from their church, when they are told what to believe about a narrow set of current events that show up on their conservative radar. At best they will recognize an item from the headlines while their pastor spins it heavily to mesh with the metanarrative that goes with their belief system. Top that off with FUD from the local Alaskan news and you've probably got a good start at the basic news sources that formed her world-view.
30
Sounds to me like she is a Stranger reader. If I were a right winger I'd mumble through that answer too.
32
I love Sarah Palin so much. She is truly a gift. It humbles me to see her invent new ways of helping Obama win; ways I would never have thought of. I'm going to miss her.
34
I don't think I've ever heard such a softball question as "What do you read?" The fact that she fumbles such a stupid question is dumbfounding.
35
i just put myself in palin's position and answered the question as i would have had i been interviewed, just as a sort of mental experiment. i cannot fathom why she wouldn't simply give an example, anything at all. also, why is couric asking this question? does she know something we don't about palin and her 'reading' habits? it's so bizarre...
38
I'm having a vision of Sarah Palin at Thursday's debate. She is asked a question like "What's your favorite color?" and immediately the wheels of her mind start turning. Only the wheel that powers everything is actually a small furry rodent running on a treadmill like some Rube Goldberg contraption or one of Wilma Flintstone's kitchen appliances. And while she is thinking the Final Jeopardy music plays in the background.
I also have a vision of her ending the debate by sitting on a tall stool in a corner wearing a conical dunce cap.
Maybe I should go lie down...
39
It is like watching Derek Zoolander run for VP.
"What is this???? A school for ants?!"
Instead of a debate tomorrow I would settle for 90 minutes of civic trivia. That would be pure gold.
40
Christ, at least Bush was up-front about his willful illiteracy (aliteracy?). And fuck Palin for being the first person to make me compare Bush favorably to anyone for any reason. And we were almost to the Bush-Cheney finish line.
41
I am going to watch the debate blindfolded so that I don't
a)puke
b)cry
c)laugh til I pee my pants
In reality, the voice alone is going to put me over the edge. I cannot wait for Tina Fey's skit on Saturday night.
43
HUNTING ILLUSTRATED...FIELD AND STREAM...GAME AND FISH...OUTDOORS...GUNS AND AMMO...WOMEN AND GUNS...
Yup, she reads them all!
45
"i start with national review and end with the new republic."
that would have been a perfect answer
46
I think I saw her reading Russian News and Alaska Report once, but she was mostly looking at the parka ads.
47
And, like most Republicans, she does read Socialist Weekly religiously.
But maybe she gets that from her husband.
49
What about the new lie/inaccuracy? The one about listening to Biden in the second grade?
Palin was born in Feb, 1964. If she started school at the usual age, she'd start the second grade in Sept, 1971. Biden took office in January, 1973, after winning the election in November, 1972.
Was she left back or something?
By the way, interesting quote from Wikipedia: "C-SPAN first went on the air on March 19, 1979." Prior to that, it wasn't that easy to see routine speeches by freshman senators, or even press releases about them outside of their home state.
50
@42
OMG, that's right, she does. Holy shit.
I mean, clearly the woman doesn't read the news. I get 85% of my news from the Daily Show and the Slog, and I'm much more informed than she is.
But I think she didn't just make some shit up because she was afraid she'd make the WRONG shit up and accidentally claim to be reading some liberal propaganda.
Hilarious. Well, scary now. Hilarious on November 5th.
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