Seriously. I really can’t stand her. You know, the “vplif”.
I get most of my information on politics from my smart boyfriend, who reads about everything news related on the web, literally…everything. And then he shares the important stuff with me. This saves me a lot of time.
Anyway, today, as we drove down to Laguna Beach to see Amanda, Mike, Nate, Danny and Rachel, he read an article off his iPhone {more on that later} about Sarah Palin giving a speech in Carson City, Nevada. As he was reading I got so agitated I had to tell him to stop. He chuckled and kept reading and I said, “No, seriously, please stop. I can’t listen to it anymore.”
I hope you agree that the President of the United States shouldn’t be “just like me” {which Sarah P. definitely is not}, but rather, should be the smartest fucking person in the room. An elite politician, yes. And if you don’t agree, then just know that I love you, but we probably shouldn’t discuss politics.
Anyway, as I step off my soap box now and attempt to keep this light and enjoyable, here is something that I love very, very much on this same subject…
Tina and Amy for President!
~
I am with you 100%!
I agree. It would be nice if the VP were the “smartest person in the room”. The problem is neither VP has proven themselves intellectually capable of this rule. Hillary and Romney should have been chosen (both valedictorians) if school performance were the only way to show fitness for office.
Actually, it has been reported that all 4 candidates have shown weakness in school. That being said, it is hard to confirm this since they do not like to release school transcripts. Makes you wonder What they are hiding!
Biden:
UDelaware ranked 506th out of 688 students
Syracuse Law ranked 76 out of 85 students
Palin:
University of Idaho: ?Who knows?
Obama:
Columbia: Reported by his roommate that he was “C” student before he “stopped getting high” (Never released records)
Harvard Law: graduated top 50 of class of 500 or so! Nice comeback!
McCain:
Naval Academy: 894 out of 899 students (Naval Academy Rankings is not based on grades, it is based on the number of demerits). He has not denied a lackluster academic performance and that the POW situation changed his attitude.
I always think it is funny how people distort the intelligence of the candidates. Example: GWB had better grades and standardized test scores compared to Al Gore and John Kerry! Clinton is often cited as a Rhodes scholar, but this does not actually confirm he had a great GPA. To my knowledge, he never released his GPA. McCain’s intelligence is questioned based on his class rank, but that does not show his academic performance.
I believe none of these candidates are stupid and probably are intellectually capable of being our leaders. The question is whether or not they can lead. This is why I believe that leadership experience (or relevant experience for that matter) is so important.
I agree with you that none of the candidates are stupid. I promise that was not my intention with this post at all. I was not insulting Sarah’s intelligence. I perceive her to be smart and sharp.
I realize in re-reading this post that I really left out the true intention of my words.
My true irritation was really with the fact that many people seem to be warming to Sarah because they “identify with her”. The article that made me cringe was illustrating how many of the Sarah admirers were saying “She’s just like me”. I think this is a strange reason to decide to vote for someone rather than looking at the candidate’s personal and professional accomplishments. Even more importantly, voting for a candidate based on their positions and rationale for supporting those positions. Once that investigative work is done…one should vote for the person who feels right for their views. Unfortunately I think that many people don’t do this work and end up voting for the person they “like” the best or the person they feel the most “kinship” with.
There was a similar kinship felt with George W in 2000 and he turned out to make some poor choices and his administration (because of course it’s not all him) turned out, in many cases, to display some pretty bad ethical patterns. And the similarity to how some voters are responding to Sarah just makes me cringe is all.
But, as my boyfriend says, the problem with talking about morals and beliefs is that there is no way to prove them, so it just opens the door to irrational empathy rather than judging a person based on their ideas about how to DO things while in office.
So, my statement in saying I’d like my candidate to be an elite politician was really in response to my confusion over people choosing a candidate who reminds them of themselves. Personally, I am not qualified to run the country, so I want someone who seems to me to be exceptional.
I think John McCain, Joe Biden and Barack Obama are all very exceptional politicians and prove to be very interesting candidates. I simply wish McCain had chosen a different running mate.
But maybe, it’s really certain types of voters that drive me crazy more than anything else. A smart, thoughtful voter, like you, does not bug me.
I think, dear cousin…that we agree. One should judge a candidate on how one feels they will LEAD. Exactly.