"Americans are strange

The US must be the only country that considers it an advantage for its leader to be as common as possible. Kerry was derided for speaking French. Even if you are very smart as Bill Clinton is, you never try to come across as an intellectual. Adlai Stevenson was ridiculed for being an egghead.

Contrast that with Margaret Thatcher who never..." etc.

I think it's quite odd to compare Americans and their methods to other countries, when clearly Americans have been leading the free world for a very long time. Why should Americans adopt the methods of those who are not as successful as they are? Now THAT would be strange.

"And I also know that the average person isn't smart enough to recognize a smarter-than-average person or know why it's important. I'm not smart enough to be president myself - I can barely find Iraq on a map - but at least I'm smart enough to know that the PRESIDENT needs to be able to find Iraq on a map. That puts me in the top 1% of people in this country."

Great post. Thanks. I couldn't agree more that the PRESIDENT (and VP) need to know more than I do (and more than the average person does).

Rhetorical question: Shouldn't that be obvious...? (I ask, as if I think the GOP would ever listen ;)

Hey Joe—

Maybe it's time for a fun, funny Palin palate cleanser? Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx4kXgF88wQ

Cheers,

Steve

If this note gets to you........have you heard (read) from your audience how many of us don't like logging on to Salon.com every day and seeing Sarah Palin's face every day?

Biden's in the clear. Palin won't be seeing any press.

VP debate's over. Obama. McCain. Obama. McCain. One month away.

you may be right, but your a knuckle dragging knee-jerk liberal and you are entitled to your opinion!! You always fail to mention how the dems, especially this time around continually dumb-down the candidate for president.

Keep it in perspective, Joe, if you have perspective.

But I never thought I'd live long enough to see the African-American candidate for president be pegged as the "elitist" while the enfeebled Republican with so many houses he had to get a fix on the total would be the "common man."

This is a result of the Rove Doctrine that holds "we create reality." So in the bizarro world of Republican politics, McCain - who has demonstrated more positions than the Kama Sutra - becames the "straight-talker" and Sarah Palin's self-parody equates to "connection to real people." Those propositions are put forth not because they have any semblance of truth but because the Republicans want them to be true. It's like the guy who takes a bogus sick day and has a car accident coming home from the movies. He explains his bad luck by contending "if only I hadn't been sick." They lie and then they believe the lie.

More than abdicating intelligence in this campaign, the Republicans have eschewed truth. In my experience, a candidate might play fast and loose with the truth occasionally and then let the lie go. McCain-Palin have so little regard for intelligent discourse, they've been repeating the lies over and over even after neutral observers have pointed out the lies.

John and Cindy McCain paid $273,000 for DOMESTIC HELP last year. Their bill for servants is four times larger than the average Main Street income. And yet Geriatric John is the patron of the common man. That's an insult to our collective intelligence and the most base lie in political history.

Here she explains the GOP philosophy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIA1VS2bDa4

Very good Joe. Her answer to the question of the VP's job was enlightening. She wants more power! Congress has been silent in the presidential coup, Junior goes bike riding whilst Cheney runs the country. Can you conjure up the image of Palin running the country while McCain is nodding off in his rocking chair? Was it a Freudian slip when she said Palin-McCain administration?

I completely disagree with Biden not slapping her down, because it allows the GOP to continue to foist these unqualified extremists on the country. Picks like Palin is really a result of McCain's lack of judgment. As far as he is concerned, a crap shoot is a crap shoot. And to think that people would actually vote for him. Hell, I am not so sure that McCain will vote for McCain.

"LondonLad: why the post?

AnnieW said interesting things. Why mock her for misspellings, when lots of people here and elsewhere make them? Elitism vs. populism or lack of intelligence is to be found elewhere."

Asehpe

I of course meant no insult at all to AnnieW. But gosh and golly gumdrops if it didn't seem like one when I read it through your eyes Asehpe. (Mind you the conjoined moose and the Jimmy Choo shoes I would have hoped gave the game away).

AnnieW & London Lad

"If I'm not mistaken

London lad was being sarcastic, and not insulting to AnnieW.

-- General Zod"

Thanks General I owe you one.

"That was my take, too. I thought LL was paying a compliment. Hope so, anyway."

gehgoeson

Indeed you are right sir. The insult was aimed squarely at Palin and certainly not at any of Salon.com's esteemed and cultured posters. I have just read in a British newspaper article by Christopher Hitchens that Palin apparently has trouble pronouncing the word 'nuclear'. This he believes is because she probably thinks the original word is 'nuke.'

(Sometimes mocking the afflicted is fun and in fact with regards this specimen called Palin should be encouraged in all fashionable salons where the 'elite' gather to mock the mob whilst languidly languishing on chaise lounge sipping mint julips.)

By the way, did any of you Americans appreciate the title of my offending post 'The Lament of AnnieW'? I thought it had a ring about it that made it seem like a title of a John Fahey song. A great guitarist and great American who had the good taste to die on Feb 22 2001 just when Bush was taking over the White House.