I as an educated person recognize the difference between typos, etc., and actual dumbness when it comes to academic mistakes. We all make typos or simple spelling errors in the course of quick conversation (my own spelling can be attrocious in private emails). However, in other cases, the mistakes are glowing errors of fact or performance. For instance, there is a difference between saying "did'nt" in a quick email to a few people, and putting "did'nt" on a sign for a Tea Party event for all the world to see (not to mention all the Tea Partiers around the guy who didn't say anything).
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Below is the very first thing I ever said about Obama's famed "57 states" comment. See my highlighted comment. Note that even in mid-2008 I was objective in analyzing it--certainly a bit more objective than the writer of the article about it. Note also that the writer, no doubt far more sympathetic to Tea Partiers than yours truly, actually compared the gaffe to the ill-informed "Jaywalkers" interviewed by Leno and, you got it, "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?"! Yet I take heat for my "Teabrainer" term and my brilliant three-part series on "Bubba down at da Tea Party meetin's" experience with the same game show. If Obama's obviously misspeak--possibly a Freudian slip about the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference/Cooperation--warrants such comparison, how much more is the sheer dumbness of the a wide sweep of Tea Partiers, who believe that Congress passing the "Roe V. Wade law" violates the Constitution's "all men are created equal" statement (and then joke about what the "V" in that slut Roe Wade's name stands for), or who probably think that "14th Amendment incorporation" refers to a business setup, or who are just sure that "Libya" is a female body part?
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As you can see, I don't jump on little slips or mistakes. I don't find a few outliers and declare them the rule. And I don't slam them--at least in this context--simply because I disagree with the movement's econo-centric selling of their social-conservative soul. No, I fire my Teabrainer shots because I discern a clear pattern and overriding condition--ignorance and lack of sophistication in understanding. I call them "Teabrainers" because they exhibit behavior consistent with the implication of that term, not simply because it's a clever slam without the disgusting implication of "teabaggers." I make "5th Grader" jokes because their academics are so often consistent with a student who hasn't yet taken a state-mandated Constitution class, not because of one misspelling of a "big" word. And I disparage their movement because it brags--literally BRAGS--about its intellectual shortcomings (compare this chorus from a pre-Tea Party song that those same people no doubt loved at the time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvj6zdWLUuk&feature=player_detailpage#t=85s -- link should go directly to the chorus at the 1:25 point), not because I have more degrees after my name than most of them.
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Getting facts correct is good. It's not "elitist." Spelling things correctly is good. It's not "high and mighty." And most of all, deferring in one's expressions to people more educated on given matters, as well as the entire situation, than they have become in their pursuit of their individual lives is good. It's not... Honestly, I never really understood the Teabrainer refusal to do this. I know they want to blab out whatever is in their tea-soaked brains "just 'cause they wanna say it." But is that it? Is that the entire reason they put themselves out to sound like morons, when they could just Google, "constitution all men are created equal" or "14th amendment incorporation" (or "libya female body part," for that matter) and get the information they need?
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But I digress. And with that, I will respectfully leave you, my faithful readers, to examine what I have said here, and my personal history (and obvious defense) laid out below.
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Happy analyzing!
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----- Forwarded Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 11:04 AM
Subject: Fuller need to factor the other 8 (or is it 9) states into his Electoral equations
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 11:04 AM
Subject: Fuller need to factor the other 8 (or is it 9) states into his Electoral equations
Obama Claims He's Visited 57 States, and then some! (Now, to Hussein's credit, he studders a bit here, and very likely may have been thinking, "47." He still screws up his math. I offer this less as in indictment of his intellect than as a study of media bias, and simply because I enjoy making the boy look like a dumbass.)
Is Obama Smarter Than A 5th Grade Jaywalker?
By Doug Patton
May 13, 2008
By Doug Patton
May 13, 2008
Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has an indicted, Syrian-born Chicago shyster named Tony Rezko for a financial mentor. He has a screwball, race-baiting, America-hating pastor named Jeremiah Wright for a spiritual mentor. He has an unrepentant domestic terrorist named William Ayers for a political mentor. And he has one of the angriest wives ever to aspire to the position of First Lady.
Obama refuses to wear a flag lapel pin because he thinks it is more patriotic to criticize his country than to support it, or even to wear a symbol of its support.
Obama thinks those of us out here in flyover country are all a bunch of bitter, gun-toting, Bible-thumping bigots furious at "those who don't look like us."
That really should be enough to sink this lightweight candidacy filled with vague language about "hope" and "change" -- what George Will has called "rhetorical cotton candy."
But wait. There's more. Just when we thought Obama had shot himself in the last foot he had available, he presents us with another gift.
On top lapelgate and pastorgate and bittergate, now comes stategate. It seems that the brilliant Barack Obama doesn't know how many states there are in our union. In an off-the-cuff statement you will not hear about on the nightly news, Obama declared that during his presidential campaign, he has visited 57 states. He also said that he has one more to visit: Alaska and Hawaii. I swear to you, that's what the man said.
Here are his exact words: "I've now been to 57 states...I have one more to go...they wouldn't let me go to Alaska and Hawaii."
Now, try to imagine if John McCain - or any other Republican - had uttered such a stupid statement in public. Is there any doubt that person would have been pilloried and Dan Quayled for the remainder of this campaign? (At least when Quayle questioned the spelling of potato, he had some basis in fact for his inquiry: the plural of the word is "potatoes" - with an "e.")
McCain is still being vilified for referring to Iran-supported terrorists in Iraq as al Qaida, as if the vast majority of Americans care about the distinction between a Sunni and a Shiite terrorist.
Entire books have been written about the gaffes of George W. Bush. He has been castigated for everything from his mispronunciation of the word "nuclear" (he always says "nucular") to his inability to communicate with the press. His mangled syntax has been regular fodder for the crew at "Saturday Night Live" for his entire two terms in office. "Misunderestimated" was always one of my personal favorites.
But even the most misinformed American can tell you this country has 50 states, having learned that information in what? Kindergarten?
But fear not, Obama supporters; excuses will be made by the mainstream media. "He was tired," we will be told, or "he misspoke." And they will only tell you that if they are forced to report on the matter at all. The New York Times (and most other major newspapers), CNN, ABC, CBS, tax-supported PBS and especially NBC are so pro-Obama it is downright embarrassing, and make no mistake, they will continue to circle the wagons around this guy, just as they have done throughout this campaign.
Perhaps Obama should be a contestant on Fox's "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" Or maybe Jay Leno could interview him out on Hollywood Boulevard as part of his Tonight Show "Jay Walking" segment.
How many of our states have you been to, Senator Obama? Fifty-seven? That's very impressive. I hope you get the chance to see the other one. Or is it two?
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Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and public policy advisor. His weekly columns are published in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including Human Events Online, TheConservativeVoice.com and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor. Readers may e-mail him at dougpatton@cox.net.
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.
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Heinlein Quotes: "Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty." -- John Joseph Bonforte,"Double Star." By Robert Heinlein
DESTRUCTION TO THE ENEMIES OF AMERICA!
Cf. The "Soldiers Creed" of the U.S. Army (http://www.gordon.army.mil/m-vic/webgraphics/Creeds/pages/Soldiers%20Creed%208x10%2002.htm)
