:D

I think Dan's stupidity was greatly exaggerated. He said dumb stuff sure, but do you think you could graduate from college, law school and pass the Indiana bar if you were actually as dumb as some of his quotes made him seem?

Maybe, but it seems more likely to me that he just didn't think as much as he should have as he was speaking.

I mean, we have a couple of Biden comments that would place him in the running for this kind of stupid too, but I doubt that most people who think that Palin and Quayle are really this stupid would accept that Biden is.

I think I know more lawyers than you, and therefore I am going to say YES. Also, Quayle was from an prominent wealthy family in the area. I think every attorney on GC is going to remember someone from their law school class who perhaps shouldn't have been there. Here's an interesting article on his legal career: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...973683,00.html

I think think we're talking about a different level of stupid in Quayle's publicly repeated comments and any lack of academic or legal achievement.

While I don't assume you have to be really smart to be a lawyer, I don't think if a person were actually as stupid as one would have be if Dan Quayle's quotes were indicative of his or her general intelligence, that he or she could pass the bar, even if he or she got through school based on family influence.

I'm not really making a case that Quayle is some sort of genius; I just don't think the worst of his quotes are indicative of his intelligence generally.

Difference between book smarts and common sense.

The "potatoE" incident is a common mistake for educated and uneducated people to make. It was good for jokes but the media made it a huge deal.

He said other dumb stuff. I felt sorry for Quayle because he couldn't catch a break.

And in the potato incident, he was apparently provided with an incorrectly spelled answer sheet or cue card. Weird that they would provide one, but if you were serving as a spelling judge and were provided with an answer sheet, it would be an awkward moment either way.

I don't really have any feelings about Quayle. I probably wouldn't describe him as book smart. I just don't consider him to be proof that Palin is really dumb, unless the real point is that having your stupid mistaken comments repeated over and over make people assume you're an idiot even if you aren't.

Some of Gov. Palin's comments on/about stories:
Back at work, Palin vents a bit over campaign criticism

OUT OF CONTEXT: Governor says some in national media were unprofessional.
http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/582697.html

Palin denounces critics as cowardly; GOP lawyers try to sort out her RNC-paid for clothing.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/p...,4245268.story

And this story, which I found while reading some of the above, sent a chill down my spin. At first I thought it was about/from a direct report or press release from US Secret Serevice. However it seems to be just a few more details from the Newsweek story. Which would not seem to change all too much.
Sarah Palin blamed by the US Secret Service over death threats against Barack Obama

Sarah Palin's attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...ack-Obama.html

I tend to believe Palin on many of her claims that much of the information leaked to the media was either false or taken out of context.

To hold Palin responsible for the reaction of some crazy people is a little unfair, considering what her comments actually were. If an accusation of "palling around with a terrorist" is supposed to actually equal inciting violence, I can only imagine what the far left is guilty of in their anti-Bush rhetoric.

ETA: As near as I can tell the Secret Service doesn't "blame" Palin. They, more logically, note the correlation of the rallies with the spike. I'd be interested in knowing how many threats there were, how many were regarded as credible, and how the numbers compare to other elections and other rallies. Palin's rhetoric just seems so relatively tame to have "incited" anything.

Benzgirl;
Seems as if some agree with you:
Duprey, Schmidt deny Newsweek report


Two top McCain aides are denying parts of Newsweek’s reconstruction of the 2008 race, a 50,000-word behind-the-scenes view of both campaigns that includes reporting done under the precondition that it wouldn’t be published until after Tuesday.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/michae...ek_report.html

Looks like they're stoking the publicity fires before they publish their book. It's ALL about the money, folks.:cool:

And considering the brilliant campaign McCain's people ran, they won't get jobs in Washington.

While this is a plus for campaigns everywhere, let's be real. They need to write those books cause unemployment is a bitch.

I'm actually looking forward to Palin's interview tomorrow night with Greta van Susteren on Fox. It will be her first real sit down since the election and these little amateurs will be shredded, or so I hope.

It's just ridiculous, regardless of which side of the aisle you're inhabiting.

Wow, what time is the interview? TIVO

This is partially off-topic, but I don't think Bush I had a high opinion of Quayle, and started to regret the pick soon after he made it. Grand Old Party, an excellent book about the history of the Republican party, talks a little about his regret over it.

Had the Democrats actually put forth a decent candidate in '88, it would have been interesting to see what kind of affect Quayle had on the electorate. Fortunately for the Republicans, Dukakis ran one of the 2-3 worst campaigns in history.

I'm not particularly a Quayle fan. I think you just quoted me to reintroduce the topic. But just for the record, I didn't bring him up and am completely unprepared to talk about him on his merits, other than not thinking he was really the complete idiot he was made out to be.

ETA: I started to mention something about Dukakis's lack of charisma, no matter what kind of campaign he ran, and then kind of mentally contrasted him with HW Bush, and it didn't seems so remarkable.