Palin Didn't Know Africa Is A Continent, Says Fox News Reporter

[UpInArms]

Source: Huffington Post

Now that the 2008 election is over, reporters are spilling all the juciest, and previously off the record, gossip from the campaign trail. Much of it is about the infighting between Palin and McCain's staff, as Newsweek's treasure trove of post-election gossip reveals.

However, perhaps one of the most astounding and previously unknown tidbits about Sarah Palin has to do with her already dubious grasp of geography. According to Fox News Chief Political Correspondent Carl Cameron, there was great concern within the McCain campaign that Palin lacked "a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency," in part because she didn't know which countries were in NAFTA, and she "didn't understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series, a country just in itself."

Palin was apparently a nightmare for her campaign staff to deal with. She refused preparation help for her interview with Katie Couric and then blamed her staff, specifically Nicole Wallace, when the interview was panned as a disaster. After the Couric interview, Fox News reported, Palin turned nasty with her staff and began to accuse them of mishandling her. Palin would view press clippings of herself in the morning and throw "tantrums" over the negative coverage. There were times when she would be so nasty and angry that her staff was reduced to tears.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/palin-didnt-know-africa-i_n_141653.html

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I cannot believe that anyone would allow this woman anywhere near the presidency.

[struggle4progress]

1. "Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease" GWB 6/14/01

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405E7DB1731F936A25755C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

If she'd won, Fox would have ignored this story, just as they always ignored Bush's idiocies

[Raine]

2. She'll go down as the DUMBEST pick ever

just when I think we've seen the depths of her stupidity she always shocks me by being even dumber. :silly:

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Probably Tied For First

It's not like Silverspoon is any prize.
The Professor

[Adsos Letter]

3. I wouldn't really expect her to know much about Africa...

...after all, she can't see it from Alaska... :crazy:

[olddad56]

23. I'm surprised that she knew she couldn't see it from Alaska.

[superconnected]

4. I'm stunned by both her and Mccain's geography. He did say Spain was

a hostile country in central America, only a few weeks ago.

And yes, that she didn't know Africa was a continent is scary with how ill educated and informed she is.

[Control-Z]

26. I'd heard about his

conflict with Spain, but I hadn't heard about it being in central America. He didn't really, did he? Am I being gullible again?

[pitohui]

30. he did and this a man who was born in panama (central america)

it is my belief that while we have academic evidence that mccain was always shockingly stupid, i'm still convinced that he had something else wrong awhile back, my guess is a mini stroke

[superconnected]

35. He did, really. Only a few weeks ago during a debate, he said Spain was a hostile

country in Central America.

[JohnnyRingo]

5. Though I thrive on this...

What we're seeing is that McCain is returning to the senate spotlight, while Palin is headed to the land of 20 hours of darkness. Within the party, there's still a winner and a loser.

"Excuse the tire marks up and down your back"

[cartach]

6. A basic IQ test

as a requirement for all candidates for higher office might be a good thing for both parties to consider. If George W. Bush had been given one the country would have avoided a lot of problems. I don't believe for one minute that Bush made any real presidential decisions on his own but they could'nt stop him from acting stupid in all kinds of ways in public. An intelligent candidate who agreed in advance to be a front man/woman would have been the way to go. By the time 2012 rolls around however, the Republican party may have figured this out and will spend more time on the basic groundwork to determine fitness for office. It's hard to believe that they let Palin slip through the cracks,imagine what she would have been like on her own if elected? Another thing I can't accept is why information like this is considered "off the record" by reporters. It's certainly not cheap tabloid journalism to report facts about the intelligence level of people running for high office but a journalist's main priority nowadays seems to be ensuring that the candidates or their handlers don't get pissed off at them. After all they might lose a seat on the plane.

[onager]

36. I agree completely.

I've been thinking about that a lot lately. It seems like a test could be put together and administered by a neutral agency.

We could call it the "Test Of Really Important Stuff For A President" or something.

The nation's leading academics and former government staffers could come up with the questions.

More importantly, the test results would be made public. Absolutely no haggling about this, the way the pols try to do with debate formats and such to cover up their Dumbassery.

If you're a dumbass, it's going to be public knowledge and the candidate will have to deal with it. He or she might stil try to run as "the person you'd most like to have a beer with," but at least the voters would have full knowledge about the Dumbassery beforehand.

Maybe the prospect of being revealed as an ignoramus would even keep some of stupider candidates from running in the first place. Especially those in the Fundie camp.

[JohnyCanuck]

7. Instead of tearing up, shouldn't they have said, "Go fuck yourself, Sarah,"

and walked their asses right out the door, rather than knowingly and willingly assist in inflicting another under-educated, ignorant, unqualified buffoon and loose cannon on the US electorate?

".....There were times when she would be so nasty and angry that her staff was reduced to tears."

[Inspired]

8. This is really more about McCain than Palin.

He showed an incredible lack of judgement with this choice. I bet he is soooooo pissed right now.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. If the governor of Alaska can't name the countries in NAFTA, then Alaska is fucked

Hell, you can see Canada from Alaska, can't you?

[ejbrush]

10. Palin: The Redemption of Daniel Quayle

NT

[Sherman A1]

11. And there Ya, go....

You Betcha.....

[JTFrog]

12. In what respect, Charlie? n/t

[BootinUp]

13. lol

[DeeDeeNY]

15. Will she get re-elected as Alaska governor?

Amazing she has gotten as far as she has, but she does have the necessary character traits to go far in her party: Stupidity, nastiness, greed and overconfidence. True ignorance is when you are too stupid to know that you need preparation for something.

[Mike Daniels]

16. The FReeps have turned against FOX and are rallying around Palin (makes sense in a way)

Palin represents the non-intellectually inclined / culture war part of the Republican party and I'd say 95% of the people on FR fall within that camp.

There are occasional flashes of thought and insight that appear on the site and I'm not geared to attribute all of those to infiltrators. That said, it's people like those from FR the will allow Palin to think that he has another run for the White House in her future.

[eek MD]

17. Is anyone actually surprised by this?

The only thing that actually surprises me about any of this is the fact that it's actually being REPORTED. I expected it would be swept under the rug, never to see the light of day.

I have to say, it makes me smile a bit. :)

[curse of greyface]

18. Would Fox have reported this if McCain won?

Somehow I think not....

[electron_blue]

19. World Map according to Palin (pic)

I know you've all probably seen this before!

I'll run this map up the flagpole one more time for old time's sake. It somehow seems especially fitting now, as Africa is completely missing from this map.

[Javaman]

20. Heck, I wouldn't allow her near sharp objects. nt

[davsand]

21. I would probably suggest the round tipped fiskers.

[olddad56]

22. I think that Palin was part of the grand plan to throw the election.

I love Obama, and I'm thrilled that he is our next President. That being said, had the GOP chosen a credible running mate, and had McCain spoken from the heart as he did in his concession speech, I don't think Obama could have turned some of those red states blue. Still too much racism in those states for that. I think the GOP knows what lies ahead with the economy and they wanted out before the shit hits the fan. We have barely seen the tip of the iceberg on the financial crisis. That 700 Billion dollar bailout was just Bush's last give away to the wealthy before he leaves. The corporate credit derivative market will be several hundred TRILLION in bad debt. All of the real wealth has been systematically siphoned out of the global economy. We are fucked.

[Devil_Fish]

24. Thats because she can't see it out her back window like Russa. EOM

[Stinky The Clown]

25. I actually believe that's true.

[hvn_nbr_2]

27. Why Fox is reporting this stuff: It's the Republican intra-party civil war

There are four main factions, somewhat overlapping, in the Puke party:
1. the uber-rich Wall Street gang (the greed faction)
2. the religious wackos (the screed faction)
3. the racists
4. old-time Goldwater/Eisenhower conservatives

The 4 faction is largely gone, pushed out by the freaks. The ones that are left are ignored by the others.

The 3 faction is largely out of sight, below the radar. They know the rest of the party can't and won't openly support them, but they get a lot of what they want, done with enough discretion to allow a degree of plausible deniability.

The 1 and 2 factions are now in a civil war because their unholy coalition is coming apart. The 1 faction has used the 2 faction for decades, without giving them much but lip service. This time, the 2 faction forced McCain to pick the utterly unqualified ticket anchor Palin. The 1 faction is pissed at the 2 faction, the 2 faction is pissed at everybody in the world, and they're all at war for control of the party.

Fox is owned by Murdoch, of the uber-rich faction, and all their on-air people are also part of the same faction because, well, they're uber-rich. They give lip service to the wackos, as the rest of the party has done for a long time, but they're part of the uber-rich faction. Now that the war for control of the party is underway, the 1 faction is throwing Palin, queen bee of the religious wacko faction, under the bus. It's part of the war. That's why it's Fox doing this.

[pitohui]

28. sounds like she went to school with george bush

seriously where do they find these people?

my parrot is better qualified to serve as president

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[StatGirl]

31. A lot of Fox viewers learned something from this report . . .

. . . They didn't know that Africa wasn't a country, either.

[onager]

37. Ha! I live near the biggest city in Africa...

...and a lot of Freepers wouldn't know what that is, either: Cairo, Egypt. (I live in Alexandria, about 200km from Cairo.)

In fact, I've learned that even many normal, non-Freeper people don't think of Egypt as being in Africa. Some people seem to think "the Middle East" is sort of a continent itself, containing Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and a few other Weird Little Sandy Countries That Hate America.

The residents themselves call this region "MENA"--Middle East/North Africa. You see that acronym all over the place, e.g., the MENA Press Agency.

It covers the Usual Suspects known collectively as "the Middle East," plus Egypt's western neighbors--Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, etc.

[Strawman]

32. Maybe that's why Palin's staff let her get pranked

They couldn't stand her.

[Obamarama]

33. Why should this surprise us so? We all knew she was this stupid all along.

I'm just glad its all coming out now so I can tell assholes who supported her "See...TOLD YA SO!"

[armodem08]

34. Country first, my ass! n/t

[No Elephants]

38. So, where were all these admissions when America was in danger of putting her a 72 year old

heartbeat away from the Presidency. And why are they coming out now? Do the McCain people really think they are going to redeem their own sorry performances by throwing Palin under the bus? This just adds disloyalty and lack of discretion to the long list of their undesirable qualities.