You just can't make this stuff up. From Fox News reporter Carl Cameron (italics mine):
I wish I could have told you more at the time but all of it was put off the record until after the election. There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lack the degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency. We're told by folks that she didn't know what countries that were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that being the Canada, the US, and Mexico. We're told she didn't understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country just in itself ... a whole host of questions that caused serious problems about her knowledgeability. She got very angry at staff, thought that she was mishandled.....was particularly angry about the way the Katie Couric interview went. She didn't accept preparation for that interview when the aides say that that was part of the problem. And that there were times that she was hard to control emotionally there's talk of temper tantrums at bad news clippings.
And then there's this:
He said that, in the most startling shortcoming, she actually didn't "understand that Africa was not just a country, but a continent." This led, among other things, to her asking how, in that case, South Africa could be a separate country. She also could not name all of the countries in North America, he said, not even the NAFTA partners. And she did not know many of the basics of civics and local/state/national duties.
Um, there aren't that many countries in NAFTA... And thinking Africa is a country? How is she supposed to deal with problems in Africa if she doesn't even know what Africa is?
You'll notice that I used the present tense--I assume there are still plenty of Republicans who think she would be a great presidential candidate even though she doesn't know what Africa is. She's not a third-grader, she's a U.S. governor: she should know what Africa is. Anyone who still thinks Palin should be president needs to be publicly humiliated. Think of Palin as an entry-level intelligence test to civilized society.
Of course, this also explains why she is so popular among the Republican base--she's just as dumbass ignorant as they are (But she loves fetuses so it's OK. You betcha!). Until Republicans start taking governance seriously--and that means putting forth serious candidates--they will remain a regional Appalachian, Texarkana, and Oklahoma panhandle party. No thinking person (regardless of where they live) can take such a party seriously.
Oh Barracuda.
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I don't buy it. While I have no desire to ever see Palin in the White House, I do not, for a single second, believe she could be this dumb.
I also find it hard to believe that, if you stopped and thought about it yourself, that you'd believe it too.
I totally buy it. Have you seen the interviews?
Knowledgeability? Shouldn't that be knowledgeabilitarianism?
There is good reason to be skeptical of the report. Consider the source: anonymous McCain campaign staffers whose future employability may be at stake, dishing to a Fox News reporter.
At the same time, I disagree with TomJoe. I'm not certain that she's that dumb, but I can't rule out the possibility.
Isn't Africa the capital of Togo? Skip to the the defining Repub primary in August 2012. Palin is guaranteed the nomination if she can find both Togo and Zanzibar on a map.
BAWAHAHAHA. Chuckle, chuckle,'nort, 'nort.
I believe it, because I've had to explain that Africa is a continent made of many countries several times to my students. You can get surprisingly far in life without knowing basic facts about the world.
Oh, and I know some people think Asia is a country too. I laugh at them in an elite manner. :)
Well, you can't see it from Alaska, so how is she supposed to know??
Hmmmmm, "NAFTA countries"? Togo, Zanzibar and uh, Vancouver?
O, Sarah, we see just a hint of improvement there, you "real
American," you.
"...that Central America means Kansas, and apartheid is a new headache remedy" - Disposable Heroes
It's also interesting that this is coming from Fox. In itself, means not reliable, but why are they turning on her when some think she's the Great White Hope of the republican party? Fox wouldn't be running with this now without a reason. Maybe the Powers That Be don't want that--they're probably smart enough to see that Palin, despite her following, was part, a big part perhaps, of why they lost. So they're trying to nip that in the bud, now, as quickly as possible. So they make her the scapegoat (not unjustified), and try to move on, I guess.
I may be wrong, but I don't think Fox is the only source reporting this, nor is Fox the original source for the other outlets.
I think the are reporting it because they HAVE to. If they don't and others do, they look supremely stupid and biased, rather than just collossaly so.
TomJoe, thinking Africa is a country is nothing on the stupid scale compared to thinking the earth is 6,000 years old, and we know she can manage that.
is that more or less stupid than Obama saying that there are 57 states in the union? Or that Roosevelt got on the TV and told the people what had happened when the market crashed?
Seems more likely that Palin didn't "think Africa was a country and not a continent" but that she just had a weak understanding of the difference between the two -- she comes from a country called "America" on a continent called "North America", and there are some other countries there too. She knows there's a country called "South Africa" on a continent called "Africa", so she assumes that there's also a country called "Africa" on that continent, and that's the "main" country on the continent. -- that is, that the general rule for continents is that there is one big country there and some little ones, and usually the big country has the same name as the continent (Russia being, in her mind, the main exception).
If pressed, she might actually believe there are other countries on the continent of Australia -- but Australia is the "main" one.
The whole thing was a hoax.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/13/msnbc-retracts-false-palin-stor…