Being a Maverick Isn’t Enough
Sarah Palin displays her maverickiness once again, attacking pet projects that take away money from her personal pet project, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). She attacked what she considers pointless research:
Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You’ve heard about some of these pet projects they really don’t make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not. (full speech)
Palin, of course, has a vested interest in IDEA, as she has an infant son with Down syndrome, and a nephew with autism. However, it appears someone forgot to tell her that fruit fly research has vastly increased our knowledge of genetics, birth defects, and now autism:
Now scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that a protein called neurexin is required for these nerve cell connections to form and function correctly.
The discovery, made in Drosophila fruit flies may lead to advances in understanding autism spectrum disorders, as recently, human neurexins have been identified as a genetic risk factor for autism.
Furthermore, the specific research she was referring to was, in fact, for the public good.
The studies, actually carried out at a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) laboratory near Montpellier, 750 kilometers south of Paris, may help protect California olive trees from a serious pest […]
California had been blissfully free of major olive pests until the olive fruit fly turned up near Los Angeles in 1998. Today, it’s a “huge economic problem” around the state, says entomologist Frank Zalom of the University of California, Davis.
Being a maverick can be a good thing, but not when you’re as ignorant as Sarah Palin.
(thanks Jamie)
October 29th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Around here we call that type of deeper thinking ‘nuance.’ It’s for hippies and communists only.
October 29th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Man, are we going to analyze and argue about all of the rhetoric employed by the candidates. Sigh…..so boring.
I’m sure Barack has uttered some rhetoric that makes him look ignorant on the economy. So what? Barack represents the party that is ignorant of economics and Palin represents the party that is ignorant of science. Surprise, surprise, when they are using this kind of rhetoric to pander to the base they look stupid. Wow that’s really interesting.
I can only imagine the utterly stupid shit Biden has said. I will leave it up to one of you guys to dig up the evidence that Biden is stupid.
Most of you are going to vote for Barack whose ignorance of economics is matched only by Palin’s ignorance of scientific matters. Odd how Palin’s ignorance bothers my readers and yet Barack’s does not.
October 29th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
This is simply another example of how little she knows about anything. Is it so much to ask for a president or vice president who knows MORE than I do? When are you going to stop defending her and realize a (possible) Palin presidency would be dangerously uninformed?
Oh, and if Obama knows nothing about economics then McCain knows even less. And Palin even less than that.
But embedded in my first paragraph is an argument that might be up to Steve’s high standards: Palin disparages scientific and technological research because she wants more federal money to help developmentally challenged individuals. Rather than invest in science and technology, Palin would give that money to people who are largely an economic drain on society (I know that sounds cold, but it’s true). So not only is she ignorant, she has poor judgement. Now THAT’s a maverick I can believe in.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Michael writes:
Are you serious?
October 29th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Are you?
October 29th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
From Volokh:
So do you argue that many Alaskan are stupid?
October 29th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Obviously, they live in Alaska don’t they?
Put another way, how much do you honestly know about the governor of the state you live in? Not much, right? I don’t know much either, and I would consider us very informed members of the electorate. But if our governor was a former beauty queen who made a couple of high profile stories cutting spending in our state I bet we’d like her a lot too, despite not knowing much else.
Oh, and due to high fuel prices, Alaska’s state revenues doubled in 2008. This was not due to anything Palin did, but I’m sure that helped her approval ratings.
October 29th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Oh, and after being a Texas oil man, I’m sure our current president understands energy policy quite well too. Sadly, this knowledge did not translate well into other domains.
October 29th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Let be clear here. You are agreeing to the claim that the majority of Alaskans are stupid. You make this claim based solely on the fact that the majority of them approve of the way Palin ran the state.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Really Steve? That’s the best you got? I’m disappointed.
(btw, a majority of Alaskans are stupid because they choose to live in Alaska, the coldest state in the union, where it’s dark like half the year. There is clearly something wrong with people in Alaska. Also, due to oil revenue sharing, Alaska is arguably the most socialist state. And socialism = stupid, right?)
October 30th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Now I’m just confused. You seem to be using sarcasm to mock me for not realizing that you don’t think people in Alaska are stupid and yet at the same time seem comfortable with maintaining the position that Palin is stupid. I have no freaking clue what you are talking about.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:42 am
And you seem to be avoiding a real argument with this “stupid Alaskans” tangent, but if that’s all you want to talk about, fine.
You can be stupid and still be elected governor of a state. See George W. Bush. You can also be stupid and be elected president. We both agree that Bush has been the opposite of a fiscal conservative, his initial execution of the war in Iraq was dreadful, his lack of leadership has allowed our economy to reach a crisis, and to save us he supported a $700 billion “rescue” package for our financial sector. But according to you he is smart because he was a state governor.
You have yet to offer any evidence supporting Palin’s alleged intelligence other than “people in Alaska like her.” If that’s the best you can do then I win.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Wow…. Look at the spin…. Now I know what it must be like to be working the GOP campaign… Palin says something stupid. People point out that what she said was stupid. Now as GOP defenders we must attack those that pointed out she was stupid. First it was the big bad media being mean to little old Beracuda… Now it’s the general population disrespecting Alaskans just because we find their governer less than educated on national issues.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
So you argument is that Palin winning several close elections and running a state government indicates nothing about her intelligence. However, one botched interview with an arguably hostile reporter gives you direct access to how intelligent she is?
Is that the proper characterization of your position?
October 30th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
My position is that she is not intelligent or informed enough to be president of these United States, and should not be put in a position where that situation is a distinct possibility.
October 30th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
And what evidence do you have to support those claims.
October 30th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Sarah Palin is ignorant of hard facts about the project she is talking about.
This is not to be confused with Obama’s ‘ignorance’ on the economy that Steve alludes to, because the only evidence Steve has so far presented of that ‘ignorance’ is the fact Obama has a different opinion than Steve.
Also, if we are to believe that Sarah Palin is smart because she has won elections, we will have to conclude that Obama/Biden is smarter than McCain/Palin because Obama/Biden is winning and McCain/Palin is losing.