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06 Nov 2008 02:58 pm

How Big A Farce Was She?

Larison sighs:

The claim that she didn't know Africa was a continent is the sort of thing that almost sounds as if it belongs to a caricature of a person who knows nothing, but it seems remotely possible that it is true.  Americans' knowledge of world geography is notoriously poor, which does not excuse it in this case if true, but neither is it all that far-fetched. The troubling thing is that I get the sinking feeling that a lot of people who want her to become the future of the party couldn't care less about this.

I can almost hear some dedicated pundits rehearsing the next defense, "Well, how many people understand that Africa is a continent?  Do we expect our elected officials to understand the conventions originally invented by ancient geographers?  Besides, technically, Africa is attached to the landmass of Asia and so you can see why she might have been hesitant to identify it that way."  A more aggressive defense might say, "Who cares about Africa?  Palin is interested in helping this country." The claim about NAFTA seems hard to believe: how could a governor of Alaska not know which countries were involved in this agreement?  Then again, this tends to confirm everything we have come to know about her lack of interest in policy details.  These claims about her are so bizarre and yet specific that it is hard to dismiss them outright.

O'Reilly said that the news that she needed education on civics past a sixth grade level was "nit-picking." Her selection was a bigger scandal than the press reported. They deserve a shellacking for their cowardice and incompetence.

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