Thu
Nov
13
TPMtv: They Couldn’t Have Known
Most of Palin’s shortcomings in knowledge are pretty well documented. Many of her statements express a fairly shocking ignorance about separation of federal, state, and local powers—particularly at a judicial level. But the allegation that “she didn’t understand that Africa was a continent and not a country” struck me as a bit fishy from the first time I heard it. There are a lot of things Palin doesn’t know—but Africa? Come on. It turns out that one may not be accurate. Somebody claiming to be the source of that information turns out to be an elaborate hoax. Now, when somebody claiming to be an anonymous source, turns out to be a hoax, it’s unclear whether we’ve learned anything. Could they also lie about being the source? Still it sounds like Palin is woefully under-prepared for a national campaign—but the worst of the allegations aren’t so well documented.
This is true, I swear. Several years ago I visited Chicago on business. I left the airport in a taxi and on the way into the city the following short conversation took place:-
Taxidriver - “Hi - where ya from?”
Me - “England”
Taxidriver - “England ah? What state is that in?”
It’s true, I promise you.
