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Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo
She just wanted some creampuff "I read the New York Times over coffee on the plane or in the hotel every morning" type answer.
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This is an area I think Palin is actually smarter than a lot of people give her credit for. No matter what answer she gives to the question, it's a losing proposition to the majority of people since there's no publication that gets the endorsement of the majority. In short, it was a no-win question & even if it was more instinct than planning or preparation, I believe there's a very good chance that she knew that at some level.
Let's be honest, if she says something the
NYT then she loses credibility with some potential voters. If she says some publication from The Cato Institute she gets vilified by highly unlikely voters same as she got anyway.
For as dumb as she is alleged to be, she's sitting a hell of a lot closer to the WH than a lot of alleged geniuses.
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As far as your comments about "ISSUE X," this is where I think the disagreement comes in. Me personally, if I see an educated person come to a conclusion different than my own I don't immediately go "man that person is so stupid, their decision was wrong...how can intellectuals be so stupid!" I might disagree with it from a policy level, or believe that they didn't weigh all the factors correctly, but if they're reasonably well-educated then I am at least open to considering the possibility that they might in fact be smarter than me, or have access to more information than I have, or be considering additional follow-on actions, or factors that I didn't consider.
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Let's take those possibilities at the end one by one:
-- Smarter? First, that doesn't always equate to "right" or even "better". The much-maligned financial bigwigs are definitely "smarter" or "wiser to the ways of" uber-money than I am. But I haven't bankrupted a company (not yet anyway).
-- More info? I think it's reasonable to believe that a President can pretty much get whatever info they want and in whatever format they want it.
I believe that point gets rendered largely moot once you're in the office and ultimately it matters not one iota whether I've got most of it sitting here in Athens nor whether she had a lot of it sitting in Alaska or even on the campaign trail. Neither of us were going to be able to do a damned thing with most of that information until we get to that seat, otherwise it's a ultimately the equivalent of an intellectual (or more base, information junkie) sex toy for mental masturbation.
-- Other/unintended consequences -- That last one might just come down to a matter of trust. Whether you believe a person is capable of consistently considering those factors before setting a final course. Goes back to what I said earlier about basic principles + relevant info --> best available course.