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Palin's education, can someone clarify?
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Anonymous
I must admit I was surprised to see how bad it was. And when the WaPo actually takes the space to quote her two of her answers in an editorial calling for her to talk to the press, you know it's pretty bad. There isn't much space in there and I'm sure they weigh every word carefully. I've never seen them use it for direct quotes of such length before. |
Anonymous
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The fact that she jumped around to a few colleges doesn't bother me at all. That was 20+ years ago; people grow up and settle down. It also doesn't bother me that her son joined the military rather than go to college. That is NOT an uncommon choice, and lots of those kids go to college later. The other kids aren't old enough to be there, so who knows what they will do?
I do wish she had gone to grad school though. Biden graduated at the bottom of the class at his non-Ivy league school, but did at least go to law school. That said, she led a different life-- she got married and had kids right out of college. I don't think she's "dumb" just because she didn't go to grad school; I do think, however, the additional coursework would have been a big plus. |
Anonymous
Yes, well. Barbara Bush only went to one college. Not five. And it was Smith College. Not the University-I-Don't-Know. And she dropped out to marry George. Which wasn't all that uncommon in that day and age. I'd much rather have lunch with Barbara than have to suffer through one with some hick I have no use for like Sarah Palin. |
Anonymous
If only more people had seen that as reason to oppose her husband. Sigh. |
Anonymous
With respect to Barb's generation, she did not go to college to get her BA; her goal was to get an MRS. She succeeded with flying colors. |
Anonymous
Comments like this really disgrace this forum. It's a step beyond elitist snobbery. |
Anonymous
It would take a lot to disgrace this forum; to quote Obiwan Kenobi, "a more wretched hive of scum and villainy you will never see." Some of the smartest, most intellectually curious people choose no-name schools, and some even wander among them. The important thing is not where and when you went to school, but how you were educated, and those are two different things. Being educated means learning to think, learning to inquire, learning to love to learn. Sarah Palin doesn't have enough respect for science to believe that it deserves top billing in biology classes. She doesn't know enough about the past eight years to characterize Bush's (disastrous) foreign policy doctrine. She first got a passport at age 43. This doesn't make her a bad person, or even a hick. But the standard for VP-- especially VP of an older POTUS-- is not "not so bad" and "not a total hick." It's both knowledge and wisdom; a lifelong commitment to public policy; intellectual rigor; experience with the ideas and principles-- be it economics, education reform, public health, international relations, or preferably all of the above; frequent interaction with the experts in all of these fields over time. It's possible to learn and know this without being president of the Harvard Law Review. Palin hasn't. And what's sad is that many people don't care, because we've accepted the folly that being "just like us" is a good quality in the leaders of the free world. |
Anonymous
Some people go to colleges like Smith, or top law schools or grad schools, and don't do all that much with it. Others go to "no-name colleges" and end up being governors or vice presidential candidates, like Sarah Palin or. . . Joe Biden. (Has anyone compared their class rankings?) Those trashing Palin's ability to string together logical sentences in interviews obviously haven't seen much of what Biden's been saying lately. I'm an Obama supporter myself, but I find some of this criticism of Palin to be laughable. If you think these arguments are going to convince someone not to vote for John McCain, you're nuts. You also have a lot of time on your hands. |
Anonymous
Actually the original PP just did a beautiful job of separating out Palin's educational trajectory from a judgment of her ability to be vice-president. Meaning that attending many public universities doesn't condemn one to a life of mediocrity (she points out) just as attending Smith (as you have noted) doesn't ensure one will be a success in life. Rather, the original PP came to the conclusion separately that Palin does not have what it takes to be v.p. based on her current performance as a candidate. Not that I disagree with your critique if you apply it to many of the comments on this thread -- but I think this one rises above most of them. |
Anonymous
I'm the PP you're replying to and I perhaps (no, obviously) didn't make it clear that I think the PP I was quoting had already commented a number of times in this thread denigrating Palin for her education, or lack thereof. It's possible that I'm wrong, but reading through the full thread I reached that conclusion. If one wants to simply compare current performance as a candidate, while disregarding the similarities of Palin and Biden in educational background, I would argue that Biden has recently made a number of poorly conceived remarks that lead me to question his performance as a candidate. I would also argue that the original PP did not come to the conclusion that Palin doesn't have what it takes based on her current performance. If she did, she'd be forced to equally consider Palin's and Biden's performances while giving great weight to the 36 years Biden has spent in the Senate, and his two prior presidential runs. If you do that objectively, you might be forced to concede that despite his great advantage in years, Senate experience, and presidential campaign experience, he's not doing all that much better than Palin. He just talks a whole heck of a lot. No, I think the original PP made her decision based on ideology, just as I did. Not based on Palin's performance as a candidate. Probably 95% of the negative comments about Palin on DCUM need to be considered within the context of the posters' deep ideological differences with Palin. I'm a Democrat and Obama supporter and I wish Biden would get with it. He says of himself and Obama, "We're not supporting clean coal." But Obama does support clean coal. He's asked if he still supports partitioning Iraq and he gives a 13-minute answer that no one can decipher. Sheesh. |
Anonymous
I know, I'm such a snob because I seek to judge the intelligence of those who want to run the free world. Actually, I didn't say this. Bill Maher did, and I agree with him 100%. And why get all pissy because Barbara didn't get a degree from Smith? You don't know that she ONLY went there for her MRS. Look at it this way: she got in. The Admissions Committee at Smith would have had a big laugh over a Palin application before burning it in one of their fireplaces. Palin simply could not have done the work required to achieve a BA at Smith. Nancy Reagan, however, did earn a degree from Smith. She got married, too. Did she just go for her MRS? And yes, I will grant you that where you go to school is not an always-reliable indicator of just how much of a go-getter someone is going to be. Neither is IQ. All of these are just indicators of potential that it is up to the individual to make the best use of. Some do. Some don't. I have said it before and I repeat it again: I do not think "Governor" Palin has had a distinguished career. She hasn't done or had to do bup-kiss. Fenty's job is 5 times as hards and hers and he has 5 times the responsibility. And bonus: Fenty went to a good college! And law school too!!! Whooo-hooo. I may only be an average DC attorney, but at least I know (without having a lifetime career in the Senate) that you cannot fire the Chairman of a bipartisan commission!!!! I may sound angry, but I don't get all hacked off at interns and secretarys and spend a lot of my professional time trying to get them fired. I don't enjoy sticking it to people with whom I work. I don't call my wife a cunt. I don't sing about bombing Iran. And you know what? I've always knows that there exists no border between Iran and Pakistan. Me for Prez!!! |
Anonymous
Posters like this must work for the RNC. Or at least have read their playbook front to back. Isn't it getting a little tiresome that every time somebody questions whether - quite honestly - Sarah Palin is experienced OR educated enough to lead this country, that we get called elistists? For me, it is a pluthera of things - her jumping around at college, not going to grad school, her ignorant responses to the press that have been very well documented, her strict views on creationism (which has been refuted by science at great lengths), etc etc etc. And - by the way - the problem with her husband also being inexperienced and uneducated is that he has taken an unusual role as "First Dude" of Alaska and by many accounts is actively involved in policy meetings, etc. That is just too much for me. |
Anonymous
Actually, no. I'm a democrat. And I went to a top 20 school for undergrad, and a top 10 school for law school. I just absolutely can't stand it when people feel the need to refer to state schools as "the University I Don't Know" and feel the need to refer to someone who happens to live outside of a metropolitan area as a "hick." I have many close friends and associates who fall into both of those categories and they are perfectly nice, interesting, and successful people. Frankly, my comment really had nothing to do with Sarah Palin herself; it's the attitude of "I'm better than she is" based on the school she attended and the rural area where she resides that I think is obnoxious. |
Anonymous
Being guilty of posting two different McCain riffs on "The rain in Spain" (so far), I feel I have to jump in and defend McCain's right to blurt out his little "Barbara Ann"/"Bomb Iran" nonsense. Although I hope never to see Wasilliness in the White house, I see nothing wrong with a little ordinary silliness now and then. |
Anonymous
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Actually, no. I'm a democrat. And I went to a top 20 school for undergrad, and a top 10 school for law school. I just absolutely can't stand it when people feel the need to refer to state schools as "the University I Don't Know" and feel the need to refer to someone who happens to live outside of a metropolitan area as a "hick." I have many close friends and associates who fall into both of those categories and they are perfectly nice, interesting, and successful people. Frankly, my comment really had nothing to do with Sarah Palin herself; it's the attitude of "I'm better than she is" based on the school she attended and the rural area where she resides that I think is obnoxious. For someone who has had opportunities to develop an intellect, you certainly do make great leaps in logic. Any intelligent person knows that there are some great state schools: Michigan, Texas, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Cal & probably a couple of others I'm not listing off the top of my head. I called it the "University-of-I-Don't-Know because I thought it was a nice play on words with the University of Idaho, which is distinguished for nothing I will be the first to point out that there a lot of really bad private schools, too. Not everyone who lives outside of a metropolitan area is a hick. People who believe in creationism; who eschew birth control; who speak in tongues at Church; who names their children hick hock jock truck and trock; who have an exceptionally limited education; wjp kill moose and hang them in their house, and cannot have a competent conversation in public -- are hicks. That's right: she cannot speak a single sentence competently on her own in public. She reads speeches written by others and practiced such that they can be recited from rote memory. And then there's still the problem with the hair. |