It now appears the story about Palin believing Africa was a country and not a continent may have been a hoax. It's hard to tell because 1) some of the same people that were involved in the hoaxing are involved in the de-hoaxing, and because 2) Palin is as dumb as a sack of rocks.The right-wing bloggers are bloviating all over the place about the left-wing bloggers who went with the story.
Hoax or no hoax, does not, in the least, mitigate the fact that Palin is an idiot. One hoax doth not a genius make. All one has to do is listen to her varied and increasingly numerous statements in varied and increasingly numerous interviews - she is a religious freak, a liar, a truly nasty person, and is pretty much ignorant about the real world.
The evidence keeps accumulating!
For example, see if you can decompress this: (from Daniel Larison)
Palin: Sitting here in these chairs that I'm going to be proposing but in working with these governors who again on the front lines are forced to and it's our privileged obligation to find solutions to the challenges facing our own states every day being held accountable, not being just one of many just cansting votes or voting present every once in a while, we don't get away with that. We have to balance budgets and we're dealing with multibillion dollar budgets and tens of thousands of employees in our organizations.
Or this: (from Alaska Dispatch)
Palin (to Van Susteren): It [Alaska] is not like other states where perhaps the oil company actually owns all the resources underground and they're the ones that solely benefit from development. Here in Alaska we partner with the oil industry. Alaskans own the resources and the oil companies lease the ground and lease the rights to develop, and ..."
Actually, Palin again proves she knoweth not whereof she speaketh. There are no "other states" where the oil companies own all the resources underground and there are many states that generate revenue from issuing leases to develop oil and gas on state land.
Even worse, though, is this incessant bragging about Alaska's addiction to oil. As Alaska Dispatch says, "...[B]eing addicted to oil isn't something we should be proud of. Since Prudhoe Bay was discovered in 1968, we've had 40 years to develop new economies not tethered to our natural resources. We've failed miserably..."
Furthermore, "O]ur proven oil reserves are running dry. What about ANWR and offshore oil, you say? Keep dreaming. Those ideas have been around forever, just like the gas pipeline that governor after governor has championed (Besides, the Feds would take the majority of the oil royalties if ANWR or federal offshore leases were ever developed.)"
McCain's pick of Palin might have been a hoax on the American people. He has been said to sometimes play dirty tricks.
For certain, it has been a nightmare.
h/t to Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish
