The Atlantic - Latest Comments in Africa Dumbatta

Re: Africa Dumbatta

FGS — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:08:27 -0000

Good. To all you downballot Republicans who ran out of cash and lost by a hundred votes, I say the GOP should've sprung for matching handbags.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

rikyrah — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:33:13 -0000

This is my favorite piece of dirt from the Newsweek article:

"At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys' club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. "I'll be just a minute," she said."

As Mama would say,

She has no home-training.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

whalt — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:51:02 -0000

I have to agree with the teacher above, I have heard this same confusion about Africa being a country from more than one person in my lifetime who really should have known better. I have a large 9'x4' map of the world in my office that is right at eye height and coworkers often peruse it when they stop in for something else. The number for times someone has made a cringe-worthy, "I never knew..." type statement about the location of countries and continents is alarmingly high.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

Thomas R — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:31:25 -0000

"I think she was just talking about the 'real' Africa -- you know -- where the 'real Africans' live. The ones that believe in Africa, that love what it stands for, not the ones that sip lattes and just hate Africa in their hearts. The blame-Africa-first types."

That struck my funny bone for some reason and I voted for McCain/Palin.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

renegademom3 — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:18:12 -0000

My 10 and 11 year olds both have ADHD and learning disabilities.....i just asked each of them to name the continents (and must admit to a little trepidation....), but they both rattled them off like pros.................

she a big fat dumbbell.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

rikyrah — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:57:13 -0000

I believe it. I said it before - I don't think she has a college degree. I just don't. Dubya was shocked when he saw so many Black people in BRAZIL...so, you think the Africa thing smells fishy with Caribou Barbie? It just doesn't to me.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

Roger Moore — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:28:55 -0000

Very few of us speak in complete, grammatically correct sentences. @hubcap

That's true, but Palin goes way, way beyond the norm. It's simply impossible to clean up some of her statements because there's no way to figure out what she meant. There simply isn't a coherent point buried in the verbiage. Try reading some of the transcripts.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

Kris — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:37:58 -0000

socratic_me: Having read all these comments, I think it's obvious she is being pilloried unfairly by people who have their careers to look after. Nevertheless, based on reports out of AK about the costs of having her office updated (to her taste?) and her claims for per diem costs when not in Juneau, etc., her near-grifter characterization seems to be based on habitual behavior. AK politicians seem to be overwhelmingly corrupt, and she probably learned from the best. But $20,000 worth of new clothes for Todd Palin was inappropriate under any circumstances. For a so-called maverick reformer who was trumpeting the virtues of fiscal convervatism, why did she passively go along? She certainly didn't passively go along with the political guidelines and/or campaign talkingpoints of the McCain advisors. So it's a bit hard to swallow that she was the innocent miss who just sat back and dutifully allowed the McCain aides to wheel in THEIR exorbitant wardrobe additions. She objected and acted against the wishes of the McCain campaign when it was politically expedient for her to do so. Free clothes were clearly not rejected until it became politically embarrassing.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

Richardson — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:38:13 -0000

As totally uneducated and vile as Sarah Palin is I still find it hard to believe she is that clueless. It seems over the top, lost in outerspace, flat earth, moon is made of green cheese, clueless.

Maybe a reference was made to the nation of South Africa and she confused it with southern Africa generally? Or maybe confused South Africa with sub-Saharan Africa? Or something along those lines.

Of course if it's true - the nation owes Barack big time for making sure she never got anywhere near the levers of power in Washington.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

evets — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:08:28 -0000

I think she was just talking about the 'real' Africa -- you know -- where the 'real Africans' live. The ones that believe in Africa, that love what it stands for, not the ones that sip lattes and just hate Africa in their hearts. The blame-Africa-first types.

The whole thing was just a liberal media misunderstanding.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

socratic_me — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:57:33 -0000

Not that anyone will likely believe me when I say this, but I live in Alaska and was talking to a contact that would be in a position to know that said basically that:

a)Palin hates shopping for clothes

and

b)she and her kids weren't really allowed out of her hotel room before these events.

Basically, she claims that they rolled a clothes rack into her room with a bunch of options to pick from.

Seems reasonable to me and comes from a source that I trust and who would know. With that in mind, I encourage people to keep in mind that those who were in charge of getting her clothes would have every incentive to lie. Moreover, it isn't like these guys haven't shown an unwillingness in the past. Lastly, it would explain stories about people not seeing her or her family in the stores at which these costs were run up.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

Betty Chambers — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:18:44 -0000

I don't consider Palin to be that stupid or dumb. Just ignorant. She's the average college educated white American today. She grew up in a very white environment (which can be defined as a ghetto), and she is the product of that.

I've met people like her throughout corporate America, she's commonplace. Meritocracy exists in very few places. She benefits from being an above-average looking white woman. She does what works.

Based on her political ascendancy and jobs, she didn't need to know more. Her arrogance in not preparing for her Couric interview sounds about right. She relied on lying her entire life and felt she could wing-it.

It's worked before.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

Steve M. — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:36:46 -0000

Reagan didn't know Latin America consisted of many different countries.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

laborlibert — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:33:53 -0000

Hob:

I don't think TNC's usage is offensive, and I get the joke. I'm just not sure why it is not offensive when it seems more offensive then many other words that are often considered offensive.

Did I say "offensive" too many times?

Re: Africa Dumbatta

Siryn — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:16:07 -0000

"Africa Dumbatta" - This post title wins the Internet today. I can't stop laughing.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

Lemmy Caution — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:00:23 -0000

Apparently, this is actually a relatively common misunderstanding:

I’ve talked before about the fact that it’s more or less impossible to teach even very smart, capable, theoretically-savvy undergraduates that Africa is a continent, not a country. I’m sure it’s hard for medievalists to shake some similar understandings of their subject matter. Certain kinds of “facts” are mapped very deep into our collective unconscious, often precisely by these kinds of everyday reinforcements.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

KCN — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:21:23 -0000

I watched this interview on Huff Post yesterday and besides the Africa thing she apparently did not know which three countries were part of NAFTA, which is just as sad as not knowing that South Africa is a country not a region....again, not sure whether to believe it or not but the fact that she did not know what the Bush Doctrine was made me inclined to believe it.

On another note it is somewhat amazing that Alaskasn would rather have a convicted felon than a Democrat as their senator.....

Re: Africa Dumbatta

sv — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:20:36 -0000

Thomas R,

Possibly she's a symptom, but she's not the disease.

That is absolutely the case. The base wanted this. Even if "the old John McCain" had run with, say, someone of Romney's experience, and had been high-minded and on-message with a coherent and fleshed-out set of ideas, they would have probably lost because Obama has all of those things in spades, and at a time when Americans are not only pissed at Republicans but find they don't agree with them on very much anymore.

That having been said, the GOP is truly diseased right now. Look at the people who have come out of the woodwork over the past couple of months, fools with monkey-dolls and theocrats and all - and marvel in dismay that these people are ascending in a party where many of the most reasonable people have already decamped. They are done for a decade; they're fresh out of good ideas, and the cancers of fear and rage have completely replaced the intelligence and coherence and genuine principles that once lived in the GOP. I guess if we truly want a new and better politics here, something has to die and nourish the roots. I eagerly await the emergence of new and robust ideas over the next generation in the USA.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

Hob — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:59:05 -0000

Laborlibert: I agree about the connotation, but if you're saying TNC's usage was offensive somehow, I don't get it. I took it like this: "If Sarah Palin were a black woman who got a lot of money and behaved this way, she'd be called 'ghetto' as if her behavior said something about black people in general. But this is a wealthy, politically connected white woman, so maybe there's something wrong with that concept?"

TNC, sorry if I killed your joke by explaining it.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

Galleymac — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:34:04 -0000

I'm ecstatic to see the back of her, hopefully for good, but I think these aides are just being petty now.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

laborlibert — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:18:23 -0000

Thanks for the responses on the "ghetto" point.

GKM asks what I would call a primarily white, poor, inner-city neighborhood. Since I live in NYC, I'd call it history (not really since there are some Russian/former republic neighborhoods that could fit). But seriously, to the extent that the neighborhood was ethnically homogenous, I would probably call it a ghetto.

All that being said, I still think that the term is almost exclusively associated with black ghettos, whether used by whites (as in Davey's example above) or by blacks (as in "Ghetto Bastard" by NbN).

Re: Africa Dumbatta

Stacy — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:17:25 -0000

"This allegation true or not does not really change that substantially."

I don't agree. If this is true, this is a whole other level. This would put her in the lower 20 percentile for intelligence in this country. This would be proof that she shouldn't even be running Alaska. This is the kind of thing that could prevent her from being re-elected in Alaska.

That being said, I'm not convinced its true. Not being sure whether South Africa refers to a country or a region seems much more believable to me. Which makes me wonder...do you think Sarah Palin has any idea what apartheid is? I can't help but giggle just thinking of her trying to explain it. And I'm not a big giggler.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

roselin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:10:59 -0000

Palin is so ghetto she probably pronounces Chanel "channel."

Palin is so ghetto her baby has a baby.

Palin is so ghetto she lives in public housing.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

John Henry — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:03:49 -0000

Re: Shopping

Just as I expected. She's so the type to take advantage of people's kindness and generosity.

Re: Africa

"She might have meant "countries in Africa" but said "the country of Africa", caught her verbal fumble with a nano-second's worth of facial expression that anyone who knew her would have seen as part of the conversation and recognized made the mis-step not worth correcting, then moved on. But the harshness of this sorta crap -- 57 states ring a bell? -- magnifies into not only her error, but exponentially increases the brain/speech mismatch that really wastes everybody's time."

I think if she didnt just try to bs 100 million people into voting her into the VP slot, she'd get the benefit of the doubt. I kind of believe the Africa is a country allegation. Not that it really matters. We already knew she's not very bright. This allegation true or not does not really change that substantially.

Re: Africa Dumbatta

JordanT — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:00:22 -0000

How is $25,000 more acceptable than $150,000?

25K is a lot of money, but doesn't seem all the unreasonable for somebody who's been thrust onto the national scene. She probably didn't have near enough clothes for a national campaign, and most people don't have the money to purchase them off-hand. I remember people being able to justify in the 25K-50K range, with the thought if they were put into the same situation they would need to spend a similar amount. It's the completely over the top 150K+ that made people wonder what she spent the money on.