Everything You Ever Hoped and More

I'm sure Sarah Palin is qualified in ways that I am not aware of, but as a rhetor, she makes George Bush seem eloquent.

Old school.

Comments

Jamie Zvirzdin said…
I agree! I have quite enjoyed the SNL skit of the vice presidential debate. The skit was so well done that Italian news showed a piece of it! Italians are quite gung-ho about McCain, except here in Bologna the Red. This place has been governed by communists for a loooong time. Anyway, Mary, I hope you've seen that skit. It's worth two chuckles and a guffaw.
October 9, 2008 at 7:48 AM
Makayla Steiner said…
Well, they definitely got this right:

"they're also forced, from time to time, to answer questions, and their answers often resemble the rambling nonsense, obfuscation, and grammatical insanity that many of us would produce when put on the spot.

Yet surely, more than most of us, politicians need to be able to think on their feet, to have a brain that works quickly and rationally under pressure."

And yet, sometimes (key word: sometimes) I think that smart and qualified people aren't always great talkers. Politics demands fancy speech, which a lot of times allows them to make something look good or okay when it isn't. So I guess once in a while I'm okay with an awkward sentence - especially if it was made before having time to think completely through the issue. For me, sincerity and honesty trump grammar.

But yes, I think if you're going into politics, making sense when you speak is a huge plus. And you being a rhetoric person and all, I can see why this caught your attention. :)

And SNL has been amazing lately. My favorite is still the Palin/Clinton one.
October 9, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Makayla Steiner said…
P.S. My two favorite Bush phrases? "Subliminable" and "Uninalienable rights" :)
October 9, 2008 at 5:48 PM
xister said…
That was an amazing article! I loved it.
October 10, 2008 at 6:51 PM
Day said…
I'm experiencing a deep failure to understand how the title relates, unless it's a brutal sarcastic dig. I'm gonna say it's 'cause I'm autistic. . .? Wait, unless it's all you could have hoped for in stuff to diagram? For your diagramming hobby?


If it is a brutal sarcastic dig, I weigh in that I am much in favor.

Sarah Palin honestly frightens me.


Interesting article, though. :)
October 13, 2008 at 12:51 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Arithmatic of humanity

Between this (we knew him, but didn't like him, even before) and this (made what should have been happy, tragic), a bunch of my friends keep thinking, "man, humanity is sad, sad, sad." I want to restore faith in humanity for them, but how? Does it require big acts of kindness to counter-act big acts of violence and hate? Or is the quiet, well-lived life that keeps plodding along trying to to its best, enough? Today on the radio, the old-timey radio station was commercial- and pledge-free because of "a friend in North Austin" and a bunch of my friends are pitching in to buy diapers for low-income mothers.I want to do grand acts of kindness, but I don't know if I can, right now. Does that count in the balance? Is faith in humanity a series of bank transactions, deposits and withdrawals, so that acts of cruelty and callousness must be counter-acted by well-meaning patsies who have to try to buoy up humanity well enough to keep Q (or almost any alien) fr...
Read more

Products of A Slightly Fevered Mind After A Long Girls' Night Out.

1. 28 Dresses Later a high-adrenaline zombie-bridesmaid thriller. When one dress too many turns the minds of the perpetual bridesmaid, they roam post-apocalyptic London, tearing to shreds everyone with well-manicured nails and biting them with their recently-whitened teeth. 2. I wake up, groggy, bed-headed, pajamaed. Lying next to me, fully dressed on top of the bed is Gregory Mankiw, the economist. "You're Greg Mankiw," I intelligently remark. He springs out of bed and stands up. "Would you like to discuss consumer surplus and tariffs?" "Why are you here?" I ask. "Don't you remember the Make-a-Wish Foundation?" 3. I was going to throw my tiara, but it turns out to be made of popcorn. "What a cheap groom I have," I think. He's already changed into jeans by the time his extensive family starts playing a traditional game of "here kitty, kitty," around the equally extensive reception grounds. I have no idea why we...
Read more

Total Rant I Wrote at 6:00 am, to be taken with grain of salt.

During the weeks leading up to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, there was a lot of discussion about changing social attitudes. A law that had been generous at its time for allowing gay soldiers to serve their country was now oppressive because soldiers weren’t as intolerant as once they were; many soldiers in the same barracks as openly gay men have teachers, aunts, friends who are also gay. The law could progress to match social attitudes. There’s another place where Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is still thriving, though: surrounding religion in public universities. One prominent class-discussion scholar calls the discussion of religion in academia “the last great taboo” and one of my professors described admitting her religious persuasion as “coming out of the closet.” Why are we so anxious about the idea that academics can be religious? There’s a persuasive view in academia, like there once was about gays in the military, that all religious people fit an undesireable ste...
Read more