Will the nation reach a limit? Is there no limit to how far things will go? I will put aside, for the moment, McCain advertising lying to make Obama out to be some form of supporter of teaching unvarnished sexual education to kindergardeners (when, in fact, Obama was supporting efforts to teach young child how to understand and then report pedophiles). I will put aside, for the moment, the viciously deceptive attacks about “can put lipstick on the pig”. I will put aside, for the moment, the deception and lies that the McCain campaign and the Republican Party have at the core of their campaign strategy. The absurdity of calling Sarah Palin some form of “Energy Expert” has gone from ridiculous to beyond the realm of absurd. I have to ask, however, how in the world anyone could assert this with a straight face,
[Sarah Palin] knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.
This is beyond comical and beyond insulting.
Okay, John, are you going to put her up in a debate with some lesser figure who evidently knows less?
Why don’t we try some of my fellow bloggers? For example, Joseph Romm, PhD, and former Assistant Secretary, Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Why not a ‘simple’ blogger like BruceMcF? David Sasson at SolveClimate? How about simply selecting a random edictor from The Oil Drum. Or …
Moving past “bloggers”, are you ready to put Sarah Palin up against Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Insitute? Are you saying that Sarah “Pit Bull with Lipstick” Palin is more knowledgeable than your own advisor and support, Jim Woolsey? How about looking toward your opponent’s (very deep) stable of energy advisors, such as Daniel Kammen, who is advising Barack Obama? Or …
In the political arena, would you allow Sarah to go face-to-face with Al Gore? Ed Markey? John Kerry?
In fact, if we really started this process seriously, the list of more knowledgeable people would likely extend into the 10,000s rather workers in industry, government employees, academic experts, and others.
John, you need to ask yourself: At what point will no one be able to take anything that you say at face value? Has this point already passed?
Now, John, you have already agreed to allow Sarah to face one person who certainly knows more about energy (and a raft of other issues) than Sarah Palin: Joe Biden. Let us hope that the media judge that debate, that confrontation on the terms that the McCain-Palin camp have chosen to set:
[Sarah Palin] knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.
Watch out Joe, you’re going to face the nation’s top expert on energy. Be scared … be very scared.
If this weren’t such a serious issue, I would be falling off my chair with uncontrollable laughter.
PS: See Crooks and Liars John McCain stumbles badly after being asked if Palin has National Security experience: He says she knows ‘Energy’ for more information about McCain’s interview. Other excellent write-ups include EmptyWheel at FireDogLake and Josh Nelson’s typically excellent piece at The Seminal.
The real danger here is not that John McCain is willing to say anything to win: we know that is true. What we should be concerned about is the very real possibility that John McCain actually believes Sarah Palin knows more about energy than anybody else in the United States. Perhaps Obama was on to something in Denver when he said it’s not that McCain doesn’t care… he just doesn’t know. Sadly, it is becoming increasingly obvious that he doesn’t care or know a whole lot about any of the issues.
8 responses so far ↓
1 McCain Thinks Palin Knows More About Energy Than Anyone Else in the United States - The Seminal :: Independent Media and Politics // Sep 11, 2008 at 5:52 pm
[…] Siegel calls this what it is, beyond insulting. Empty Wheel points out that the 20% statistic is wrong and breaks down the danger of equating […]
2 Is drilling the #1 priority? Crickets in the room … | Get Energy Smart! NOW!!! // Sep 12, 2008 at 2:58 pm
[…] top experts (from MIT, Google, CSIS, CERI, and Shell’s CEO). (Although, regrettably, the nation’s top energy expert, Sarah Palin, was unable to attend and bring her deep knowledge and wisdom to the table for conversation.) And, […]
3 DaBigNob // Sep 13, 2008 at 9:04 pm
I am a conservative and registered Republican.
But I am at least one vote (and hopefully just one of millions) that will not be for McCain.
The Sarah Palin pick is an embarrassment and I do not know how so many people (including McCain) are willing to cast aside their integrity by publicly supporting this candidate who is remarkably unqualified.
I gave her the benefit of the doubt when she was first added to the GOP ticket. I read what I could about her. I pondered all the accusations and daily revelations, real and false, that appeared on Kos and HuffPo. I watched her convention speech. I defended her in my own mind with a “wait and see” attitude.
But when I watched the Gibson interview and I saw that deer in the headlights look on her face, my initial curiosity turned to disgust. Initially, I trusted McCain and brushed off all the attacks on Palin as nothing more than partisanship from the left. Furthermore, one of McCain’s primary tenets is “Straight Talk”. He also has a notable and oft-cited degree of integrity that many consider to be among his strongest attributes. Based on this, it wasn’t difficult to surmise that surely he and his campaign must know something that the rest of us do not and that we will literally be blown away by the performance of Palin under fire.
During the week before the interview, I heard more than one McCain surrogate on TV indicate that Sarah Palin was going to impress us all. I was led to believe that she was going to annihilate everyone with her intellect and grasp of the issues. She was elevated to superhuman status as Sarah “Barracuda”. I heard supporters say mockingly that “Joe Biden doesn’t know what he’s in for” regarding the upcoming debates. I was led to believe that despite her short tenure as governor, that once I saw her performance under fire, any concern or doubt would melt away and we would see that Palin was the real deal. That turned out to be false.
Her lack of authenticity was made painfully clear during that brief interview. Her ignorance and shallowness on the issues spoke for itself. Every time I heard her say “Charlie”, it unnerved me. I don’t know why, but how can addressing someone by name come across as an insult? I don’t know why but it did. I think it did because it seemed like Palin was trying to suggest that she was above it all, and that little “Charlie” had no business asking her these questions. I listened to her repeat her memorized answers, never showing even the slightest confidence to deviate from the script to firm up her responses. For example, when the “God’s Plan” question was asked, I was fully expecting her to respond with a straightforward believable answer that was formed from her own thoughts and words. But instead, she trotted out a mendacious reference to Abraham Lincoln. It was made worse by her speechified delivery of the phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and then punctuated with her unnatural hand gestures. All she needed to say was “Christians pray all the time, and that often includes praying ‘Thy will be done’! It happens every day, Charlie!” But instead, she came off as being nothing more than an automaton reciting canned answers that lacked any believability.
Regardless of that, she was so nervous and rigid that it reminded me of that poor blonde beauty pageant contestant from a couple of years ago who thought that us US Americans didn’t have maps. When my stream of consciousness brought me to that particular memory in real time, I knew right then and there that I’d been had. Palin is a phony. She’s fake. She’s not even close to being ready for being Vice President, and she will NEVER be ready to be President. The interview revealed to me that this is nothing more than a deception on the part of the McCain campaign in order to win the election at any cost.
She’s is NOT a credible candidate and I do not understand how anybody can say otherwise. An examination of the record has already discredited the main accomplishments she touts on a daily basis. This includes killing the Bridge to Nowhere, for ending wasteful spending earmark spending, and for being a progressive reformer of all things government. These primary claims to fame have all been thoroughly discredited by reputable media outlets.
This is a serious time in the history of our nation, and as citizens, we should accept the responsibility of electing our leaders with all due seriousness. It’s not a popularity contest and it’s not about one side winning and one side losing. This is about the governance of our nation and the power that is granted to those we hoist into the Executive Branch. We need to make damn sure we get it right by electing people who are actually capable of leading the nation. Sarah Palin is not one of those people.
4 A Siegel // Sep 13, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Thank you for this extensive and thoughtful comment.
No matter our political leanings and general philosophical concept, at some point the “letter” of our political allegiance can no longer hold sway over our common sense and our common concern for our common interests. From your extensive comment, it is clear that you have reached that point.
This is a very serious time … I do believe that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden are quite intelligent and quite serious people who are, writ large, going to strive to achieve real solutions to real problems.
Are they now or will they be perfect? Absolutely not … but I do think that they will take their responsibilities seriously and will strive not just to do well, but to learn from successes and failures to do better as their Administration progresses.
Perhaps … perhaps … in 2012, the Republican Party process will give you a ticket that you can support. Or, perhaps, Obama’s and Biden’s Administration will convince you of the basic competence that one can find in the Democratic Party …
5 Hair Loss // Sep 15, 2008 at 1:11 am
Its always just for campaign purposes that people like Mccain always stretch the truth in their own direction. This simply goes to show the type of administration that they are going to run in the future.
I believe that based on how he likes to bend the truth just to get more votes that the administration that he will run will be very much a healthy apple on the outside but a rotten apple on the inside type of government.
6 Evidence that deception, truthiness, and lies work: polling on energy // Sep 23, 2008 at 8:00 am
[…] energy, again this is just one poll and one question, my opening supposition: deception, truthiness, and lies are working when it comes to energy […]
7 Lifelong Republican Energy Guru: “McCain doesn’t have a clue.” // Sep 23, 2008 at 2:39 pm
[…] Or that we don’t have any idea of exactly where to drill.” (As for McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, Simmons says: “She’s a very colorful person, but I don’t think there’s a scrap of evidence […]
8 Palin-McCain: Can’t get energy facts right // Sep 29, 2008 at 8:39 pm
[…] Or that we don’t have any idea of exactly where to drill.” (As for McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, Simmons says: “She’s a very colorful person, but I don’t think there’s a scrap of evidence […]