This is great. Red State “interviews” Sarah Palin, although I’m not really sure you could call this an interview, because there are no real quotes, and it turns out she has been doing some book learning:
One of the criticisms leveled by the right when Palin was chosen as McCain’s nominee is that she had not shown she’d done the reading to lead, i.e. read the Hayek, Friedman, Goldwater, Bastiat, to form her thoughts. She admitted she is a gut level conservative, but also said that criticism comes mostly from “shallow people who have not delved into [her] record.”
I did not want to sound like Katie Couric and ask what she’s read, but I broached the subject and she went right into mentioning Thomas Sowell and Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism. She said she has read some of the foundational stuff, but she sees no need to focus on the old writings. She likes “the modern stuff too.” Her preference is policy and application, focusing on writers who are not just following up on foundational conservative ideas, but applying those ideas too.
I can’t believe 25% of the country thinks this woman could be President.
BTW- does the Bible count as an “old writing?”
El Cid
Again, The Onion: “Ask A High School Student Who Didn’t Do the Required Reading”:
Ladies and gentlemen, the next President of the United States of the Republican Party of the Neo-Confederate Baptist Free Market No Regulation Real America Uprising.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
The existence of the Sarah Palin phenomenon shows we’re on our way to an Idiocracy.
South of I-10
The Bible is not conservative enough, remember? It has dirty hippie Jesus, not machine gun Jesus. Once it has been revised by Conservapedia, she may try it.
Wile E. Quixote
I’m sure that she’s a huge fan of Hans Robert Jauss.
El Cid
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: I’m afraid we may have to take you to the facility for particular individuals.
BDR
A good 50% of that 25% is primarily motivated by the thought of our heads exploding the second Palin declares victory in Nov 2012.
meh
mark my words…at some point it will come out that Palin was banging Levi and Trigg may, or may not, actually be his kid.
Katie
Well I didn’t understand a darn thing in that quote. I think it was supposed to sound intelligent, but it sure missed the mark.
Demo Woman
@South of I-10: OMG, I am so stealing the machine gun Jesus line. That’s a classic.
Rey
Good grief, I’m exhausted from all this Palinpalooza. No wonder the Prez went to Asia, maybe all that bowing to the Japanese Emperor was Obama’s way of thanking him for a place to hide out while Palin is scorching the USA with her nonsense. The “Maverick” really owes this country an apology, also……
calipygian
I fucking give up.
Now I WANT Sarah Palin to be President, because I’m convinced a significant proportion of the population DESERVES her.
It will be the democracy equivalent of taking a 100 hostages and shooting 10 at random as an object lesson to the rest of them.
calipygian
Have at it.
Demo Woman
@calipygian: Well all I can say is that Red Kitten better watch out cuz Sarah is gunning for Baldacci.
Mark S.
Proof there is no god: Sarah Palin was not struck by lightning after saying that.
Midnight Marauder
So, just to make sure we’re all clear here, on a page entitled “RedState Interviews Gov. Sarah Palin,” there are maybe three substantial, attributable quotes from the interviewee. In fact, here are all of the “quotes” (so meta) from the “interview” (ed. note: These are things that appear in quotations. There is barely any context, and certainly nothing resembling a coherent, completed thought/sentence…not like those would be a part of a Sarah Palin interview to begin with):
She wants people to read about what she thinks should be done to get the country back on its feet and help “everyday ordinary Americans,”
She admitted she is a gut level conservative, but also said that criticism comes mostly from “shallow people who have not delved into [her] record.”
She likes “the modern stuff too.”
She cited “cutting taxes, helping employers, and building up our military” as examples.
“We should be selling energy to China,” Gov. Palin said.
“It is encouraging to see the race tighten even more,” she said.
She too agrees NY-23 was a “real victory for conservatives.”
“An independent with common sense really can make a difference outside the party establishment,” she said. “It shows an underdog can make a difference.”
“I’m not gonna sit down and shut. That’s why I resigned,” she said referring to her resignation as Governor of Alaska.
By resigning, she said she could “throw off the shackles” groups were putting in place to restrain her ability.
calipygian
“We should be selling energy to China,” Gov. Palin said.
Wha?
Dom Phenom
Wow. She wants people to take away policy?? With nuggets like this on nation building:
““I really do think America is blessed. We have taken a voluntary responsibility to assist other nations,” but we have to do our part at home first to build ourselves up. She said it didn’t do us any good to help lift up other countries if we weren’t lifting up ourselves. She cited “cutting taxes, helping employers, and building up our military” as examples.”
That and shoring up the economy. And it’s about those concerned with healthcare. Also.
My god, it’s unreal that this is actually how a vice presidential candidate talks about issues.
Wile E. Quixote
@meh
OMFG. That would be so delicious, so absolutely delicious. Not that it would matter, the wingers would just double down on her, but it would be fun to see Bobo Brook’s reaction to the whole thing. Plus we’d get to watch Andrew Sullivan start frothing at the mouth about l’affaire Trigg and demanding to see Trigg’s paternity test.
Jay B.
One of the criticisms leveled by the right when Palin was chosen as McCain’s nominee is that she had not shown she’d done the reading to lead, i.e. read the Hayek, Friedman, Goldwater, Bastiat, to form her thoughts.
I’m surprised you decided to highlight the other part — this passage is pure comedy gold.
First: Criticisms leveled by the right? A few, a tiny minority, thought Palin was a joke (David Frum and, um, maybe Brooks?) — most were enthralled. Palin was the game changer! The PUMA tamer! Camille Paglia’s new be-bopping enthusiasm.
Next: The reading to lead? That’s close to smartypantism. And elitism! If it wasn’t so telling that the lockstep stupidity that guides the modern “conservative intellectual” runs the ideological spectrum from A to B and is so narrow and narrowminded that to learn only that is worse than not reading at all.
Finally: In the end it recalls Wanda and Otto’s conversation from A Fish Called Wanda. Of course Palin could read those books, but that doesn’t mean she’d understand them.
calipygian
@Midnight Marauder: She admitted she is a gut level conservative, but also said that criticism comes mostly from “shallow people who have not delved into [her] record.”
Yes. That windfall profit tax she increased on oil companies for redistribution to Alaska residents in the context of the Alaskan oil fund is a textbook, Friedmanesque, free-market conservative move if I ever saw one.
If I were a GOP presidential primary candidate, I’d hammer her on that from today until we all grow old and die.
calipygian
@Wile E. Quixote: I will make the call now –
The reason why Levi is so smug and confident is because he’s got the video.
You heard it here first.
meh
@Wile E. Quixote
You watch…with Todd being away for months at a time, maybe one night, a bit too much Natty Light…Bristol fell asleep and it was just Levi and Sarah from Alaska drinkin beer on the bear skin rug…
That’s why the kid is just sitting back acting like he doesn’t give a shit – 3 months from now he’ll get pissed and pull out a phone-cam pic of her or be able to describe some birthmark only her husband should know about…then the narrative becomes how great she was to comfort that boy in his time of need…
calipygian
@Jay B.: I suspect Sarah listened to Jonah Goldberg’s careful argument that no one has ever made before on CD by accident, mistaking the smiley face on the cover of “Have a Nice Day: Super Hits of the 70’s , vol. 13” from Rhino Records.
That’s the one with “Midnight at the Oasis” on it.
I love that song…
calipygian
@meh: Or Levi tells us how Sarah gave him herpes.
Demo Woman
@calipygian: I can’t watch.. did she really say that?
Call me Sully but I think Todd had a big V.. making Trig a virgin birth. Maybe the last part is not Sully but I wanted to appeal to John’s trolls.
L. Ron Obama
@calipygian:
Right. And the Obama Whitey Tape is going to surface any day now!
gf120581
What exactly does Palin consider “old writing?” Anything before the year 2000? Anything before 2006? I’m curious, because she’s really limiting herself. But then again, I’m amazed this woman can read at a first grade level.
jaime
Anyone notice this “interview” isn’t really an interview? It’s like Erickson is providing his own interpretations of Baraquitter’s mush mouth answers. I don’t see a lot of Q and A going on.
arguingwithsignposts
I had to look up Bastiat.
Fucking Randroid.
Jay B.
@calipygian:
Do you think Goldberg does the underarm farting noise on the CD when he thinks he makes a point? Or does he just giggle nervously and suck spit through his teeth? Christ, I can only imagine listening to that. You could probably hear the sweat on the mike.
And Midnight at the Oasis is awesome — Yacht Rock nonpareil.
calipygian
@Jay B.:
Goldberg probably sweats when he eats or breathes.
South of I-10
@Demo Woman: That would be the awesome!
Warren Terra
I don’t know which is nuttier: that the conservative version of Palin seemingly lacking the necessary knowledge of policy and current events to possibly lead our nation in the twenty-first century is couched as her really needing to brush up on her “Hayek, Friedman, Goldwater, [and] Bastiat” — or that her version is that she really needs to wrestle with the ideas of Thomas Sowell and Jonah Goldberg. Either way, way to miss the point.
It’s conservatism as an insular religion: knowledge of the modern world isn’t important, but you’d better know your dusty theology texts written by long-dead authors well – or, failing that, the two-bit desecrations of their ideas written by their debased modern heirs. Actual thought and awareness of the world around you isn’t so important.
New Yorker
Whatever it is, I’m sure anything written by John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, etc. counts as “old writing”, so I’m sure she has no idea what ideas were behind the founding of this nation.
Then again, given the bleating of “Christian nation! Christian nation!”, I doubt very many in the GOP have any idea what the founders were like.
valdivia
If this woman even knows who hayek is I am a cosmonaut. And Erick son of Erick is putting words in her mouth to make her look better and even then she sounds vapid and stupid.
New Yorker
Actually, the more I think about it, the more insane that comment about “old writings” get. So Sarah Palin feels no need to read (presumably) Homer, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Thomas Aquinas, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Dostoevsky, or George Orwell (just to name a drop in the bucket among history’s giants of philosophy, politics, and literature)….
…but she’s read Jonah Goldberg.
My head a-splode.
aimai
I can’t believe any adult person could type the phrase “she’s read some of [X’s] ‘foundational stuff'” and not simply crack up laughing. I mean, jeezus, how many ways can the woman take to say “all of them…” and “in what respect?” before her stooges wise up?
aimai
Liberty60
Its funny- I was thinking about this whole “Sarah vs. The Elites” meme that she puts out.
When you actually read what her supporters consider the Enemy, is it AIG, Goldman, Big PhrMA?
Naw..Read through the messages at RedState, Pajamas Media, Townhall and you will The Enemy are those who force us to “press 1 for English”, homosexuals, those who accept government help and mostly illegal immigrants who are taking away Our America.
So Sarah palin will go out onstage at the Hyatt Regency and complain bitterly about the Elites, when her supporters understand that the dreaded Enemy Elite is…Rosa, the cleaning lady who is at that moment scrubbing Sarah’s toilet.
Demo Woman
Erick also writes for Peach Pundit. There was an unfortunate incident where Glenn Richardson the House Speaker from the state of GA.. one of the supporters of the anti gay amendment to the GA constitution tried to commit suicide. He was recently divorced because of an affair with a lobbyist. I take depression seriously but when you have a gun in a bathroom that you don’t use it but write a suicide note and then pop some pills while your mother is in the other room, something is wrong. Anyway poor Erick was so upset, he cut off the comments.
Erick creates his own stories. Of course he is not going to ask Sarah hard questions because it does not fit with his agenda.
I’m not sure what his agenda is though.
kth
Palin is probably as well-read as that pigfucker from Macon is.
SFAW
She does, ya bleedin’ liar! She loved Selma Hayek in “Vanilla Sky”! It’s one of her favorite TV shows.
Annie
@Dom Phenom:
“We have taken a voluntary responsibility to assist other nations,” …
Maybe she should read the “old stuff.” Foreign assistance has a long history as part of public diplomacy and economics. During the cold war we helped developing countries so they would be on “our” side, not the Soviets. Development aid has never been just about assisting other nations. It has been about opening up markets to US goods, national security, and public diplomacy. As well as, in some cases, a genuine desire to help.
Exactly when does modern begin and old end? Maybe she is talking about children’s books. Because her answers reflect a childish approach to most everything, with a touch of self-absorption thrown in…
Anne Laurie
Her preference, like so many modern Talibangelicals, is for shiny mass-marketed tracts with no long words and lots of white space. If Joel Osteen and Jonah Goldberg ever collaborate on “The Purpose-Driven Politician: God Wants You to Be A Celebrity! ! !”, Sarah Palin will write the jacket copy, or at least allow her name to be signed to the favorable copy that some Scaife drone writes. That’s one reason the American Taliban are re-writing a “correct” version of the Bible — their target audience is too lazy to read all those woooords, even when it’s all been broken down into bite-sized chapters & verses. In the Red State universe, books are not word containers to be read, they are brick-like icons conveniently shaped for using as blunt objects or to build forts against Teh Enemy.
I would be really, really curious as to whether Palin has even read her “autobiography”, or had it read to her. Admittedly, it concerns the only subject about which Sarah has ever shown an interest sustained beyond the five-minute mark, but on the other hand — soooo many words!
Nellcote
@arguingwithsignposts:
Thanks for looking it up! I always think they’re talking about the artist Basquiat and get confused.
Irony Abounds
O’Reilly’s first segment tonight was positing O’Reilly’s belief that the “left wing” fears Palin. He had the pussy liberal Colmes on to say the left wasn’t afraid of Palin, just amused. Obviously the left wing fears a Palin with power, sane people of whatever political persuasion fear a Palin with power because she’s a self-absorbed petty dimwit who, with power, could do considerable damage to the country. I have no clue why Colmes was the least bit defensive about being afraid. He should have stated that anyone with half a brain should be very afraid, no matter how slim the possibility, that someone as shallow, petty and unqualified as Palin could become President. Disaster doesn’t begin to describe what would ensue.
Alex S.
I like to read the modern stuff, too! Especially lolcats!
And this Palin/Levi stuff makes me think of Sarah Palin as Mrs Robinson who is trying to reassure herself of her own attraction by seducing her daughter’s boyfriend. I can see it right in front of me: Levi on the couch, and Sarah walking down the stairs to the bedroom with a hockey stick and a hockey mask in her hands saying: “Levi! Time to play!” Levi looks up and realizes that the future is, indeed, plastics.
Anne Laurie
@calipygian:
Apart from the dirty jokes (which I admit are almost irresistable), I doubt that Sarah’s sex drive is high enough that she’d have risked actually doing anything that might leave trace evidence. At heart she’s a Beauty Pageant Queen, and BPQs live by the rule “Give ’em a good show, but never let ’em touch the merchandise!”
From the anecdotes we’ve heard, as separate from the tales that have been spun, my bet would be that Sarah might have pulled the parading-around-in-a-towel routine in front of Levi… and Bristol… and squicked them both out a little. Possibly followed by a screaming argument with a semi-drunken Todd, during which the kids retreated into their bedrooms and tried not to hear any details related to their own conceptions that hadn’t already been retailed during those happy family reunions where the Palin sisters tried to one-up each other.
Speaking of squick, as far as the Trigg/Tripp uteri speculation… there are lots of Modern Conservative Supermoms who get a little antsy when the youngest kid starts school / outgrows home-schooling, because if a SuperMom doesn’t have *c*h*i*l*d*r*e*n* to plan their schedule around & use as an excuse for not working outside the home, where will her day-to-day ego validation come from? That’s when Supermom starts “encouraging” her oldest daughter to get pregnant… say, by inviting daughter’s boyfriend to start sleeping over… because if daughter should somehow accidentally fail to implement that abstinence training, Supermom gets a nice healthy newborn to raise without the risks inherent to late-life pregnancy. It’s the clean suburban Pleasantville version of the stereotypical second-generation welfare queen. Unfortunately for Palin, she had the bad luck to get knocked up again, and with a “retard baby” at that, before Bristol could get the subliminal message and start a new generation for Sarah to indoctrinate, which would matter to nobody outside of Wasilla if Bill Kristol hadn’t come looking for the next Dan Quayle to serve as a political puppet.
Incidentally, there was a clip on the evening news of Barbara Walters interviewing Palin & her younger daughters, with Walters demanding, “Maybe the next Palin bestseller should be a cookbook! Is your mommy a great cook, Piper? Do you love her cooking? What’s your favorite thing, that mommy cooks for you, that you love best?”
And the littlest Palin girl said, “Hot dogs.”
Then she looked past the camera, obviously getting signals from off-stage, and added “…. uh, with cheese on them.”
Bubblegum Tate
@Anne Laurie:
Somebody apparently forgot to inform Miss Japan 2008 and Miss Trinidad & Tobago 2008 of this rule.
Wile E. Quixote
@Demo Woman
Yeah, I’ve always thought it’s unfortunate when a wingnut tries to commit suicide and fails.
HRA
@Anne Laurie:
“Incidentally, there was a clip on the evening news of Barbara Walters interviewing Palin & her younger daughters, with Walters demanding, “Maybe the next Palin bestseller should be a cookbook! Is your mommy a great cook, Piper? Do you love her cooking? What’s your favorite thing, that mommy cooks for you, that you love best?”
And the littlest Palin girl said, “Hot dogs.”
Then she looked past the camera, obviously getting signals from off-stage, and added “…. uh, with cheese on them.”
This is what gives me the best insight into the stupidity and lies of Sarah Palin. Using your children to advance yourself into the public scene is not a wise move IMO. Sure I could go on and on about it. It’s best not too get too irritated before bedtime.
noncarborundum
@arguingwithsignposts:
You don’t suppose that “defend[ing] the right of an individual to life” might involve, say, seeing to it that he or she doesn’t die for lack of health coverage, do you? Nah, I didn’t think so.
graves
Probably the same 25% that are eagerly awaiting
the destruction of humanitythe second coming of jesus. And their chief believer in sky fairies Palin is the answer to their prayers. The sooner she becomes prez, the sooner she can send the world spiraling into chaos so jeebus can come and swoop up the blessed and whisk them off to heaven.America are raised teh smartz peeplez :o
Lesley
I can’t believe 25% of the country thinks this woman could be President.
I can’t believe Palin – who thinks she can be president – has 25% of the country behind her. Maybe America should make education mandatory.
jetan
The ancient writings – such as “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop bam -boo.”
SFAW
Why not? After all Bush did to the country, he still had numbers in that range. She hasn’t (officially) done anything to the country yet, she spouts gibberish pleasing-to-the-wingnut-masses (not counting the “Rich Lowry effect”, which adds another couple of per cent), and the press and Faux don’t point out how clueless she is.
Re: the education thing: it’s one of the reasons the wingnuts keep doing their best to kill public education in this country: an uneducated electorate is a wingnut-supporting electorate. So why would they try to improve education? Better education would help kill the Republican “brand”.
AutieMurf
she’s a direct descendant of Myxzptlk
Bulworth
“She admitted she is a gut level conservative, but also said that criticism comes mostly from “shallow people who have not delved into [her] record.” ”
And her “record” is most impressive indeed. Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, highlighted by book banning initiative. Governor of Alaska for two years (of a four year term).
Bulworth
@Anne Laurie:
“Talibangelicals”. That’s gold.
b-psycho
@calipygian: And that just happens to be the sole policy she co-signed that actually makes sense. If there’s going to be government, it’s only fair for it to be funded by the people that actually benefit from it.
Bubblegum Tate
@Bulworth:
Don’t forget plunging a small Alaskan town into $40M debt in record time. Gut-level conservatism!
jonas
She said she has read some of the foundational stuff, but she sees no need to focus on the old writings.
“Foundational stuff?” The “old writings?” It’s starting to sound positively Lovecraftian down there at Red State.
FastEddie
You now have a “Bring on the Brawndo” category? This is rapidly becoming my favorite blog.
Paul in KY
Have to agree with Nooner’s assesment of Palin’s preferred reading: ‘She doesn’t read anything’.
Also, I thought a ‘Bastiat’ was an offspring of a Basilisk & Michelle Malkin. Harry Potter would have been lunch if he’d ran into one of those.
Drclaw
All this criticism of Palin is totally unfair. After all, didn’t Bill O refer to her book as being a policy tour de force? I think I understand where the rightwing echo chamber comes from-its because their heads are totally empty..
sigh
welcome to Amerurica