Beware of blonde

[nancylebov]

I've seen people assuming Palin is stupid, and of course, people who don't seem to care whether she's got a mind or not.

There are a lot of women who are win beauty contests or are pretty enough to do so. Very few of them have public careers, whether in entertainment or otherwise. Marilyn Monroe and Dolly Parton have said sharp things. Even if she got an advantage from her looks (and that's rather an ambiguous thing, especially if she isn't in entertainment), she's at least well above average on social skills and ambition.

None of this means she'd necessarily be a good choice for president, but I don't think she's a non-entity in this story.

Here's an interesting angle-- McCain likes her, not just because she's a beauty queen (though he seems to have a taste for them) but also because she's a fellow reform politician.

Comments

[avram]

Have you seen the clip of Palin saying she has no idea what the Vice President's job is?

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

OK, that was stupid. Even if she didn't know it going in, she could have found out.

[lightningb.livejournal.com]

I took it as a joke. What *does* the VP do, really? And in particular, what does McCain think his VP *should* do? Hubert Humphrey did essentially nothing as LBJ's VP; Cheney seems to be running the whole show.

From everything I've heard about Palin, stupid she ain't.

There's a tendency to apply every unfavorable adjective we can think of to political opponents. This may be good for propaganda, but it's bad for rational planning. Sooner or later, folks start believing their own propaganda ...

[(Anonymous)]

"I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb, and I also know that I'm not blonde." --Dolly Parton (though I can't find a citation, just an attribution)

This whole thing about her most recent pregnancy is just plain weird. It could turn her into Eagleton.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Eagleton?

Eagleton

[lightningb.livejournal.com]

Thomas Eagleton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eagleton) was George McGovern's VP candidate for a short time, until his history of mental problems came out. McGovern promptly dumped him and got Schriver as his VP candidate. Just one of many gaffes the Dems made in that election.