James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
Ed Brayton deserves a big tip of the hat for bringing to our attention Sarah Palin's latest demonstration of her expertise. On what I'm not sure, but get a load of this response when asked in a town hall meeting how she would help keep any new domestic oil produced in the United States:
"Oil and coal? Of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, you know, the molecules, where it's going and where it's not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first," Palin said. "So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first."ABC News' Political Radar blog called that "a less-than-well-articulated non-answer."
I say, "WTF?" would have been a more appropriate description. I know this was an unscripted town hall meeting and sometimes it's hard to think on one's feet. But come on. She's not running for mayor of Wasilla anymore.
Meanwhile, the gap between Obama and McCain continues to widen. The former now leads the latter by 9 points.
Comments
Looks like they've taught her the word "fungible." Any bets on how many times we hear her use it over the next four weeks?
Posted by: imr90 | September 24, 2008 2:10 PM
Give Sarah credit. Her handlers have obviously bought her a "Word of the Day" calendar and fungible just happened to be her word that day. By next week, she'll have probably learned a whole bunch of new words.
Posted by: Romeo Vitelli | September 24, 2008 4:11 PM
What bugs me is she did not even come close to the issue. She used the word but has no understanding of a world wide market.
Posted by: The Backpacker | September 28, 2008 8:25 PM