This may come as a surprise to a lot of people, but I like Bill O’Reilly. Well, I used to. Until about three hours ago.
I know, I know, Bill O’Reilly is the devil. He’s loud, he’s abrasive, he’s brash, he’s larger than life. He often speaks without thinking, substantiates arguments with dubious facts, cuts people off in conversation and intimidates people by sending camera crews to their homes and accosting them on their front porches to ask them questions they obviously have no desire to answer. Yes, there are so many things not to like about the man. But I’ve always respected a man who means what he says, and says what he means. Regardless of what you think about O’Reilly, you always know what he’s thinking. There’s nothing phony about the guy. What you see is what you get. Unfortunately, what you see isn’t always pretty.
Which brings me to this. I was trolling Politico.com for amusement this evening when I came across a clip from last night’s edition of the O’Reilly Factor. No need to watch the whole thing, the first couple minutes will suffice.
Let’s get this part out of the way first. If any of those leaks about Sarah Palin are true; that she didn’t know which countries signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, that she thought Africa was a country and not a continent, or that she refused to be prepped for the Katie Couric interview, then blamed he aides for not prepping her when the interview went... sour, thank God in Heaven she was not elected vice-president of the United States. At least Joe Biden only says stupid things.
But this is less about Sarah Palin and more about Bill O’Reilly. Although I can’t understand why Republican operatives would lie to the senior political correspondent of Fox News, I can’t verify whether or not the allegations made by nameless campaign sources are true. But in the following respect, it doesn’t really matter. When O’Reilly heard the anecdotes Carl Cameron was relaying to him, the correct response would have been, “...come on Carl, do you have any hard evidence for those allegations,” or perhaps, “...wow Carl, I had no idea Sarah Palin was so incredibly unprepared to even wake up in the morning,” or maybe even, “you know what Carl, I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear you say any of those things and continue with my pre-determined line of questioning.” But no. What did Bill say? “...Well, she could be tutored on those things... there must be something more here...”
Excuse me? She could be tutored on those things? WHAT?!? Is Bill O’Reilly seriously trying to tell me that it’s not a big deal that the potential vice president doesn’t know which countries are involved in NAFTA and that Africa is actually a continent because she can learn that sort of thing on the job? I’ll check with my mom tomorrow, but I’m pretty sure I was about three years old when I learned that Africa was a continent and South Africa a country within it! I’d be willing to bet that the fifth graders she gave a “shout out” to during the vice presidential debate know which countries signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, seeing as how there are only three countries in North America! I’m sorry, but it is not okay that the V.P candidate the Republican Party tried to foist upon this nation may not be smarter than a fifth grader! And the fact that a man like O’Reilly would help perpetrate this fraud on the American people by espousing his sincere belief that deficiencies such as those just aren’t a big deal, is nothing short of ludicrous!
Bill, I feel sorry for you. And that’s no small feat considering you are about 6 inches taller and a hundred million dollars richer than I am. Obviously things didn’t turn out the way you would have preferred them to. But you have to accept the fact that the Republican Party was complicit in its own demise. Contrary to what you seem to believe, it does matter that a 44-year-old state governor may not know the difference between a continent and a country. It is evidence that the Republican leadership thought so little of the rest of us that they felt they could throw any old “real American” small town Joe six-pack pit-bull hockey mom on the ticket, tell us she was more qualified than the opposition and have us buy into it. Unfortunately, you did. I expected more of you. Maybe I shouldn’t have.
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Sometimes There Are No Words15 years ago
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About Me
- Mark
- i'm a transplanted Canadian (going on twelve years now), living in the crossroads of America. i'm older than i'd like to be and think too much for my own good. my posts typically contain thoughts on current events, politics, sports, and every now and then, something completely unrelated.
8 comments:
After reading your blog post, I did my own experiment. I wrote down the questions that Palin allegedly did not know the answer to. Then I spoke with my nine year-old goddaughter who pulls solid Bs in school. I asked her every single one of those questions. She knew the answer to all of those questions except the one about the exceptionalist doctrine (which, to be fair, I didn't learn until my sophomore year of my PoliSci undergrad program). When I told my goddaughter that people are saying that the almost Vice-President of America didn't know the answers to those questions, she said, and I quote, "Well, maybe they should just make any teacher in the 4th grade Vice-President. Bet they'd be smarter."
Nuff said.
HAHAHAHA i agree with Gails goddaughter ! I have encountered toooo many Americans who think it is not necessary to know about the rest of the world...probably trying to make themselves feel better about their deficencies. How can they expect to be effective in their dealings with other nations when they know NOTHING about them? A serious overhauling of the American educational system/attitude is needed...then MAYBE things will start looking up...
hmm, this isn't the profound article that i was expecting.
i don't know what the exceptionalist doctrine was by that name, but i think that a decent guess would be, that we (americans) are exceptional.
but you know, whether or not it's true, the point is, bill assumed it was true, but thought it wasn't important. i think there's more i want to say, but i'm tired, and i need to pack.
My cousin=-in-law, a journalism major in Toronto, wrote such inspiring words last week. Thought you'd like them.
Harriet waded so Rosa could sit.
Rosa sat so Martin could walk.
Martin walked so Barack could run.
Barack is running so our children can fly...
Hmmm...well thank god we have a president who is going to annex more states into our country, and bring the number of stars on the flag to 57. Because, of course, we know he wasn't lying when he said he had campaigned in 57 states. He had just been campaigning in 7 territories that are soon to be states...right?
I'm pretty sure that we all learned before 1st grade that there are 50 states in the US. But hey, I suppose geography isn't THAT important.
dj, mis-speaking, and correcting yourself, simply isn't the same as a complete lack of interest and knowledge, you know that, don't you? i didn't assault mccain for referring to the crowd at his rally as his fellow "prisoners", obviously a mis-statement due to 20 months of non-stop campaigning. but believing one is qualified in foreign policy because he/she can see another country from his/her window, for example, is just stupid. every crack dealer in Detroit can see Windsor from the parking lot of Joe Louis Arena, you wouldn't declare them qualified to be vice-president, would you?
Heh I was pointing out that everyone says stupid stuff. Especially on the campaign trail. But a lot of the stuff that Palin has been accused of saying hasn't really been proven. Like the Africa thing. We just have the “he said she said” deal going without knowing sources. So while I appreciate the fact that you said shame on O'reily, It's just annoying that we have this deeply entrenched belief that Palin is under qualified for the job of presidency even though she wasn't running for that office.
Allow me to put forth a list of presidents with no prior executive qualifications including foreign relations.
James Madison, John Quincy Adams, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Barrack Obama.
Of course then there are the presidents in by assassination which I don't include.
So Sarah Palin makes it to Governer of a state, and Barrack doesn't. Yet we criticize Palin for lack of experience...hmmmmm
What is it that we fear about Palin? After all, she has a record of cutting corruption does she not? Not a perfect record, but god who does have a perfect one?
And still, what foreign experience does Barrack have?
I'm just irked that the ministry of propaganda is now driving the knife wound deeper as they continue the rather slow political assassination of a relatively clean political figure. Yes yes, silence the critics.
So here’s the long awaited point. If Barrack can get in without any executive experience, and/or foreign experience, then what is there to stop Sarah Palin?
You don’t really think that Palin had the same views and beliefs that John McCain had do you? If it hadn’t been for his ticket holding Palin back, I think there was a larger chance that they could’ve beaten the odds, but that’s a lot of whoop dee doo. Instead she had to promote his ideals which were…well liberal.
So you say that you’re relieved that Palin no longer has a chance at being president…but why? I mean, everyone’s acting like they dodged a bullet, but why? We’re not sexist, but we’re racist? Or are we not racist but sexist.
Anyways…Obama continues to baffle me at every turn. He has this transitional economic advisory committee to help him adjust over the next few months. On this committee are several advisors like Warren Buffet. That’s fine and cool, but wait… Jennifer Granholm? Oh yes, she made it on that committee. Have we seen Michigan? Sky high unemployment rate, single state recession for a couple of years now, high taxes etc… etc…
I’m sorry, but Granholm is one of the contributing factors that led to my exodus from Michigan. And now she’s advising Barrack on how to fix our economy. *sigh* This is just a continuation of Obama’s abysmal record of associations. Not that Granholm is criminal, though considering the amount of waste she’s left in her path, she might as well be.
BTW, did anyone ever stop to think before electing into office a man who can’t even pass a security background check at an American defense company? In about two months, he’s going to be given our nuclear codes, and he can’t even work at the facility that makes them.
I’ll tell you what, the only thing I expect from Barrack is to repeal patriot acts 1 & 2, and end this stupid “war on terror”. Of course sticking to the “give everybody a tax break” thing would be fine too. After all, more money in my pocket is fine with me. If he can pull off those 3 things, then I’ll be mollified. At least until 2011. Other than those 3 things, I would really rather him not do anything else to improve the US. Especially when it comes to creating bigger government. If he goes through and slashes wasteful spending that's fine with me. He can start with medicare, medicaid, Social Security, and welfare. All of those programs are in debt on the order of trillions of dollars, and costing americans hundreds of billions every year.
okay. what is the job of the vice-president? to be ready to assume the presidency. i would argue that palin was not "qualified" to assume the presidency. i am well aware that the only two "qualifications" required of her were that she be 35 years old and a natural born american citizen, but we as a society demand a little more than that in practice. i'm relieved she isn't one step away from the white house because in addition to my disagreement with her policy platform, i don't believe she has the intellectual acumen for the job. i don't think that's particularly racist or sexist.
the reason palin is attacked for her inexperience is that experience was the entire initial basis for mccain's ticket. he spent months attacking obama's lack of experience, then selected someone equally inexperienced and tried to pass her off - with her assistance - as more qualified than his opponent. she was sold as something she wasn't. nobody would have cared that elliot spitzer frequented a prostitute if he hadn't spent his whole career shutting down prostitution. nobody would have cared that bill bennett had a gambling problem if he hadn't devoted several book to chastising gambling as a vice. sarah palin would not have received the level of criticism she has received if she hadn't tried to portray herself as something she wasn't/isn't. obama's argument for the presidency was NEVER based on his experience. therefore, i, and the "liberal media" didn't criticize him for lacking it.
i wouldn't put too much stock in becoming governor of alaska. apparently alaskans would vote for a drunken chipmunk if it could bring home the pork-barrel spending. over half of them voted to return a convicted felon to the u.s. senate. no difference between those voters and the idiots who returned marion barry to mayor of washington d.c. after catching him smoking crack on videotape.
we're going to have to agree to disagree on palin's "value" to the ticket. you think mccain held her back, i think she held mccain back. i suppose an argument could be made for both. but allow me to point out the following; far fewer people than ever before identify themselves as republicans, more people than ever before identify themselves as independents. palin did well with republicans, but completely tanked with independents. independents won the election for obama. ultra-conservatives who run as ultra-conservatives do not win national office in this country. not anymore. (even bush had to disguise his conservatism with so-called "compassion".) there is a reason guys like ron paul cannot get elected to anything higher than congress. most people don't want to live in the bare bones tortoise shell of ron paul's america.
yes, michigan is a mess. not entirely graholm's fault. michigan goes as detroit goes, and detroit simply hasn't been going for about a decade. you might argue that is because the capital gains taxes of the big three have been to high, i might argue it's because they've been peddling garbage disguised as vehicles and their business practices were awful, but fair is fair. the party in power owns the economy, whether it's in good or bad shape. my guess is that she is on the advisory team because she is an advocate for the auto industry, and not because she's some economic wizard. but maybe obama knows something i don't. i can at least appreciate his willingness to listen to all interested parties, a refreshing break from the current administration.
you do realize that obama had to obtain security clearances to work both in the illinois senate and the u.s. senate, right? george w. bush wasn't denied security clearance due to the "business connections" between his family and the bin laden family, was he? be suspicious of rumors that originate on the internet.
i'm glad you're willing to give obama a chance. that's probably more than i would be willing to do under a palin administration. but that's why we have elections every four years. if it turns out you don't like him, vote him out in 2012. isn't america wonderful?
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