The 11 dumbest things Sarah Palin has said - so far.

The 11 dumbest things Sarah Palin has said so far.

The 11 Dumbest Things Sarah Palin Has Said So Far
By AlterNet Staff, AlterNet
Posted on October 23, 2008, Printed on October 23, 2008
The 11 Dumbest Things Sarah Palin Has Said So Far | | AlterNet

When Sarah Palin was first added to the Republican ticket, the McCain campaign went to almost comical extremes to guard her from press scrutiny. The Alaska governor was hustled through photo opportunities, kept from doing interviews and hidden from reporters at several events. Palin did prove adept at reading from a teleprompter in front of conservative supporters, though, so the campaign mostly had her do that.

When Palin finally made her teleprompter-free debut in an interview with Charlie Gibson, it became clear why McCain had effectively kept his running mate in quarantine: Palin was uninformed and inarticulate; she said embarrassingly stupid things; and she looked at Gibson as though he were pointing a loaded crossbow at her.

Since then, the Alaska governor has done little to dispel concerns that she can't articulate thoughts that aren't preprogrammed talking points. More than once, Palin has slipped into George W. Bush territory with statements so absurdly inane they seem closer to Dada art than standard political speech.

We've assembled the 11 strangest, dumbest, most alarming and most harmful statements to come courtesy of Palin since she joined the McCain ticket. Here is Gov. Sarah Palin, in her own words.

1. The News Makes Me Sad ... So I Don't Watch It

Sarah Palin at a North Carolina fundraiser:

At those times on the campaign trail when sometimes it's easy to get a little bit discouraged, when, you know, when you happen to turn on the news when your campaign staffers will let you turn on the news ... Usually they're like "Oh my gosh, don't watch. You're going to, you know, you're going to get depressed."

Maybe her handlers could put on a puppet show instead -- something fun that allows Palin to maintain her cheery optimism in the face of overwhelming evidence that the McCain campaign has imploded. There was once another politician similarly unconcerned with current events and the news: George W. Bush. That went well.

2. The People Don't Elect U.S. Presidents, God Does

Upon being asked by James Dobson if the McCain ticket's precipitous slide in the polls gets her down:

... [it] strengthens my faith, because I'm going to know, at the end of the day, putting this in God's hands, that the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4. So I'm not discouraged at all.

... and I can feel it too, Dr. Dobson. I can feel the power of prayer, and that strength that is provided through our prayer warriors across this nation.

Ah yes, the always helpful "prayer warriors," whose appeals to the Almighty actually count for more than the average American citizen's vote. Apparently the next president of the United States will be handpicked by God.

3. Palin Believes in "Divided" States of America

At a fundraiser:

We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hardworking, very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.

Palin later apologized for the statement. But her backpedaling shouldn't get her off the hook for putting forth a deeply divisive vision of America. How would conservatives have reacted if, in an attempt to pander to yuppie liberals, Obama said "I love visiting the parts of the country where people aren't close-minded assholes"? Probably not well.

4. The Vice President Is Supreme Boss of the Senate

Here's what Palin said when Brandon, an elementary school student, asked: "What does the vice president do?"

That's something that Piper would ask me! ... They're in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

To be fair, Palin had no idea what the VP does the last time the issue came up, so this is almost an improvement. Except that saying the vice president is in charge of the U.S. Senate reveals an embarrassing ignorance of our government's system of checks and balances. Also, it's a bit disconcerting to hear someone running for VP endow that office with God-like powers over a separate branch of government.

5. Delusional Response to Troopergate

"Well, I'm very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing ... any hint of any kind of unethical activity there," said Sarah Palin last Sunday, soon after she was found to have engaged in wrongdoing and unethical activity in the "Troopergate" investigation. Again, a propensity for denial and lies, a deep aversion to reality -- not the best ways to signal your commitment to "change" from "politics as usual."

6. Vicious Attack on Obama

The following quote needs little introduction. It's famous now, not only for its inaccuracy but also for how much this line of attack has fallen flat with voters and backfired on the McCain campaign:

Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.

Outright deception is probably not something the American voters are looking to put in the White House; pretty sure they've had enough of that in the past eight years.

7. The Lord is a Pollster

While speaking in North Carolina, Palin decided to take a moment to thank God for a very small bump she and McCain experienced in their otherwise sliding poll numbers.

We even saw today, thank the Lord, we saw some movement.

People often thank God for things that appear to be outside the realm of divine intervention. An incredibly small bump in the polls though? Seems excessive. Not to mention, Obama now has the widest lead he has ever had in the polls. Should God be given credit for that too?

8. America's Teachers' Rewards Are in Heaven (but Nowhere to Be Found on Earth)

In the vice presidential debate, Palin had this to say about Sen. Joe Biden's wife's career in education:

You mentioned education, and I'm glad that you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and God bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right?

Governor, America's teachers should not have to wait until heaven; they should be praised and rewarded right here on Earth. Possibly with living-wage salaries.

9. I Read ... All the Publications

When Katie Couric asked Palin the complex trick question of where she gets her news, the two women had the following exchange:

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your world view, 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've read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media --

Couric: But what ones specifically? I'm curious.

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.

Couric: Can you name any of them?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news.

With all of the intensive reading Palin has done over the years, it's a wonder she's had time to do other important things, like govern Alaska and learn to play the flute.

10. Some of my best friends are gay, but ...

From the same interview with Couric:

One of my absolute best friends for the last 30 years happens to be gay and I love her dearly, and she is not my "gay" friend, she is one of my best friends, who happens to have made a choice that isn't a choice that I have made, but ... I'm not gonna judge people.

Stating in no uncertain terms that being gay is a choice is an odd thing to do on mainstream, national television when medical and psychological associations have contended for years that sexual orientation is biologically determined. Then, she slimily criticizes that so-called "choice" by saying it is not one she would make. But hey, some of her best friends are gay ...

11. A Little Wet Behind the Ears ...

During the vice presidential debate, when Palin was asked which policy plans proposed by the McCain-Palin ticket would have to suffer due to the current economic crisis, Palin gave a pretty dubious response: none. When pressed on the issue, Palin decided that an easy out would be to fall back on her inexperience:

And how long have I been at this, like five weeks?

Uh ... wow, that actually wasn't dumb at all. In that case, she was absolutely right.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden has long been known as a gaffe machine, and lately he's been living up to his reputation. Here are the most laughable Biden gaffes of the campaign so far:

1. Forced Down by Terrorists?

"If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where (Usama) bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me. Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are," Biden said at a campaign stop in Baltimore last week.

Sen. John Kerry, however, set the record straight, telling the Associated Press that the helicopter was "forced down" by a snowstorm.

"It went pretty blind, pretty fast and we were around some pretty dangerous ridges," Kerry said. "So the pilot exercised his judgment that we were better off putting down there, and we all agreed."

2. FDR Did What?

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed," Biden told the CBS Evening News on Sept. 22.

But Herbert Hoover was president in October 1929 when the stock market crashed. FDR wasn't elected until 1932, and television made its debut a decade later, in 1939.

3. That's a Terrible Ad!

When asked by CBS on Sept. 22 how he felt about an Obama campaign ad that made fun of John McCain's inability to use a computer, Biden replied that he thought it was "terrible."

"I didn't know we did it," he said, adding that he wouldn't have approved the ad, but defended Obama's decision to approve it. "The answer is I don't think anything was intentional about that. They were trying to make another point," he said.

4. Working in Coal Mine

"Hope you won't hold it against me, but I am a hard coal miner -- anthracite coal, Scranton, Pennsylvania, that's where I was born and raised," Biden said to mine workers in Virginia on Sept. 20.

While his great-grandfather was a mining engineer, his father ran a Delaware car dealership and worked in the oil business. His campaign tried to spin the comments as a joke.

5. "No Coal Plants in America!"

On Sept. 17 at a campaign stop in Maumee, Ohio, Biden told an environmentalist that the Democrats don't support clean coal. "We're not supporting clean coal," he said.

But they do. Obama said his administration will "enter into public private partnerships to develop five 'first-of-a-kind' commercial scale coal-fired plants with clean carbon capture and sequestration technology."

Biden had criticized China for building "two dirty coal plants" every week and polluting the United States. "No coal plants in America," he said. "If they're going to build them over there, make them clean, because they're killing you."

6. He Should Have Picked Hillary

At a campaign stop in Nashua, N.H., on Sept. 10, Biden said Obama may have been better off had he picked Hillary Clinton to be his running mate.

"Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Let's get that straight," he said. "She's a truly close personal friend; she is qualified to be president of the United States of America. She's easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America and quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me, but she is first-rate."

7. You in the Wheelchair, Get Up!

On the campaign train in Columbia, Mo., on Sept. 9, Biden asked State Sen. Chuck Graham to stand up for the crowd. "Stand up Chuck let me see you," Biden said to Graham, who is in a wheelchair. "Oh, God love you, what I am talking about. You're making everybody else stand up though, aren't you pal." Biden then asked everyone in the room to stand up for Graham.

8. Whose Campaign is it Anyway?

On Aug. 23, after Obama announced that he had chosen the Delaware senator as his running mate, Biden slipped and called him "Barack America."

On Sept. 3 at a campaign stop in Fort Myers, Fla., Biden referred to the future "Biden Administration," which he quickly corrected to an "Obama-Biden Administration."

"Believe me, that wasn't a Freudian slip," Biden said. "Oh Lordy day, I tell ya."

9. Shot at Seven Times in Iraq?

Biden said in a CNN/YouTube debate on July 23, 2007, that he was shot at seven times inside Iraq's Green Zone.

Two weeks later, however, he amended his story, telling The Hill newspaper, "I was near where a shot landed." He said a shot landed outside the building in the Green Zone where he and another senator spent the night in December 2005. While they were shaving in the morning, the building shook.

"No one got up and ran from the room-it wasn't that kind of thing," Biden told the Hill. "It's not like I had someone holding a gun to my head."

10. So Fresh and So Clean

When talking about his eventual running mate when they were still competing for the Democratic presidential nomination in January 2007, Biden blundered when talking about Sen. Barack Obama to the New York Observer.

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."

He quickly retracted the statement, explaining, "Barack Obama is probably the most exciting candidate that the Democratic or Republican Party has produced at least since I've been around," he said in a conference call a few days later. "And he's fresh. He's new. He's smart. He's insightful. And I really regret that some have taken totally out of context my use of the world 'clean.'"

11. Biden on Race

In June 2006, at the outset of a run for the presidency, Biden joked on camera, "You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

When the video hit YouTube the next month, Biden's office defended him, saying, "The point Senator Biden was making is that there has been a vibrant Indian-American community in Delaware for decades."

12. Grandson of a Coal Miner?

Bidents 1988 presidential bid imploded when it was revealed he was lifting parts of his stump speech -- and parts of his supposed family history -- from a speech given by British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.

Biden said he was the first in his family to go to college. He wasn't. He said he was the grandson of a coal miner who "would come up [from the mines] after 12 hours and play football."

While Biden did attribute statements to Kinnock several times, in a Democratic debate at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 23, 1987, he didn't give Kinnock credit when he plagiarized his speech. It was also revealed that Biden plagiarized a paper in law school. That tape kicked off the controversy that sunk his campaign.



5. "I guarantee you, Barack Obama ain't taking my shotguns, so donâ??t buy that malarkey. They're going to start peddling that to you. I got two, if he tries to fool with my Beretta, heâ??s got a problem. I like that little over and under, you know? I'm not bad with it. So give me a break. Give me a break.'" --Joe Biden, threatening his running mate

4. "A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States â?? Barack America!" --Joe Biden, at his first campaign rally with Barack Obama (Watch video clip)

3. "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened." â??Joe Biden, apparently unaware that FDR wasn't president when the stock market crashed in 1929 and that only experimental TV sets were in use at that time

2. "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me." --Joe Biden, speaking at a town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire

1. "Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see ya." â??-Joe Biden, to Missouri state Sen. Chuck Graham, who is in a wheelchair, Columbia, Missouri, Sept. 12, 2008

^That is nooooowhere near as bad as Palin....or hysterical for that matter...:D

hah what a dumb bitch...that's all I've got to say...

Yea, I was kindof hoping someone would reply by trying to prove just how dumb Biden is.... If you actually compare the two lists, you'll notice a significant difference :-)

Palin isn't just dumb, she's completely freaking insane - and all we need to do is read her own words to see it.

Dumb huh? I'll bet she knows how many letters are in the word J-O-B-S, or even when t.v. was invented. Polls must be getting closer in the end run here.

Have a good one!:s4:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Psycho4Bud

Dumb huh? I'll bet she knows how many letters are in the word J-O-B-S, or even when t.v. was invented. Polls must be getting closer in the end run here.

Have a good one!:s4:

---

Yeah two bad neither of those two things have anything to do with being the president if Mccain croaks..she scares the shit out of me..

I'm glad the electoral college has put the democracy back into America...not

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Markass

Yeah two bad neither of those two things have anything to do with being the president if Mccain croaks..she scares the shit out of me..

I'm glad the electoral college has put the democracy back into America...not

---

I have to look at all of this in a different prospective... as a business owner, there are a whole lot of other issues I have to worry with, as opposed to the average working person that punches a time clock every day.

The 2 things that absolutely scare the crap out of me are tax increases...between the feds and the state, I am already paying real close to 40% of my net income in taxes. Before the kids on here even start, keep in mind that your employer is paying HALF of your federal taxes.
The second thing that scares the crap out of me is if Obama is elected.... He has already said that we live in the greatest country in the world, lets change it. If we DO live in the greatest country in the world... why would we purposly change it so we no longer fit the discription??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Markass

Yeah two bad neither of those two things have anything to do with being the president if Mccain croaks..she scares the shit out of me..

I'm glad the electoral college has put the democracy back into America...not

---

LOL, no? how about as a sign of intelligence, or lack thereof

and McCain is as healthy as a horse, shit man, his mother was with him,
on stage at the convention. he looks older than he is because he spent
6 years in the service of his country, your country, being tortured!
maybe you don't know what that means.

and the rest of us are terrified that that junior senator from Illinois
with all those unsavory connections will get in. with his cheapass
VP. and all those other liberal assholes like Pelosi, Dodd, Reid and
Frank, once they're in, you can kiss your freedom and your money
goodbye, the 'gubmint' will be spreading it around to other people.

so don't worry, your money will be taken and given to other, more
deserving people. i'm surprised you haven't figured that out yet.

oh well, none are so blind as them that will not see.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Markass

Yeah two bad neither of those two things have anything to do with being the president if Mccain croaks..she scares the shit out of me..

I'm glad the electoral college has put the democracy back into America...not

---

Not if McCain croaks but it would if Obama did. So what's the difference?

Have a good one!:s4:

Venezuela's Chavez calls Palin a pitiful 'beauty queen'
Published: Saturday, October 25, 2008 | 12:03 PM ET
Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin a "poor thing" who didn't know what she was saying when she called him a dictator.

Friday's verbal attack was the latest in long history of creative insults by Chavez - but was not unprovoked.

In an interview with the U.S. Spanish-language network Univision aired Tuesday, Palin remarked that "through negotiations or sanctions, if necessary, we can pressure dictators like Hugo Chavez to make it clear that they cannot mess with the United States whenever they feel like it."

Speaking at an event to inaugurate a thermoelectric plant, Chavez said he had heard of Palin's remarks.

"The poor thing, you have to feel sorry for her," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. Palin, he said, is "a beauty queen that they've put in the role of a figurine."

Chavez said one must do as Christ did: "Forgive her, for she knows not what she says."

you guys forgot "Sure John, I'll run as your VP."

That might be the twelfth.