I noticed this too. . . I suspected she heard the word "Achilles" and thought "strength", and so rambled off into a list of her (supposed) strengths. Maybe that is giving her too much credit. She either didn't understand (or misunderstood) the question, OR was deliberately not answering the question (as you noted, she may be under strict orders to never admit any weaknesses).

My opinion is she didn't understand the question; there are ways to admit "weakness" that endear you to the public and don't actually admit any weakness, a la "my weakness is my love of my country" or "my weakness is doing the right thing even if it alienates people in my own party", in other words portraying a strength as a weakness-- a great political ploy. But of course she probably couldn't think that quickly or be that crafty on her own, nevertheless it still avoids the point of the question: her lack of experience. I'm guessing she heard the "lack of experience" theme and rattled off whatever they had prepared for her to say in such situations, and the rest of the question flew right by her as she tried to remember the prepared statement.

Posted at October 3, 2008 12:06 PM in response to Sarah Palin's Achilles Heel

The flub on McKeirnan/McClellan was obvious, and not very important as far as I'm concerned, but nobody picked up on Gwen's "Achilles Heel" question-- she asked both VP candidates what their Achilles Heel was, and Palin spent the whole time talking about her strengths . . . does she not know the meaning of "Achilles Heel"?

Posted at October 3, 2008 11:42 AM in response to Palin Botches Name Of Afghanistan Top Commander

"Read my lips. . . and not my. . . uhhh lips."

Posted at September 30, 2008 9:32 PM in response to McCain Denies Blaming Obama And Democrats For Bailout Collapse

WEEKS ago I predicted that Palin would be a no-show for the debates (seemed obvious the way they were sequestering her), but I never thought McCain would try to pull it for the presidential debates.

If McCain is using the financial crisis as an excuse for postponing the debates, I wonder what he'd use for an excuse if there were no financial crisis and his poll numbers had dropped as much (or more) right before the debates?

Posted at September 25, 2008 9:46 AM in response to Obama Rejects McCain's Call For Suspension Of Debate; Says He Was Blindsided

I'm giving him a pass on the notion that he thought Spain was part of Latin America-- I don't think for a second he would answer "What is Spain" to a Celebrity Jeopardy question under the category "Latin American Countries."

True-- he claims to be an expert on foreign policy, so it is a mark against him that he was ducking any question regarding foreign policy, and I hope someone in the mainstream media points this out.

As for his insistence that "he meant it", well. . . that's just politics for you, never back down, even when you're wrong. I'm not giving him a pass on that either, but I'm not shocked either.

Posted at September 18, 2008 6:10 PM in response to McCain's Spain-Gaffe Interviewer: McCain Not Confused, Just Ducking Question

For all the dishonorable lies he's thrown at Obama, and for all the cluelessness he has shown regarding the economy, I am still willing to grant McCain the benefit of the doubt regarding his weird ducking-the-question moment with Yoli Cuello. Listening to the interview I can see that he may have been confused by the line of questioning, her accent (especially when she says "Zapatero", and the fact that over a phone line it may have been hard to hear her; these are all mistakes anyone could make in that situation. He may have confused "Zapatero" with "Zapatista", hence his reference to Mexico right after that question, or he may have been trying to change the subject to Mexico in the hope of appealing to Mexican-American voters. The same goes for his references to "this hemisphere"-- there are far more hispanic Americans from central/south America than from Spain.

As clueless as McCain might be, there's no smoking gun here to prove he thought Spain was part of Latin America.

This is a non-issue compared to the far greater sins of lying about Obama's or Palin's (or his own) records, and then denying they are lies when it's pointed out.

Posted at September 18, 2008 1:16 PM in response to McCain's Spain-Gaffe Interviewer: McCain Not Confused, Just Ducking Question

Wow, and to think Bill Clinton could have used this technique during the Kenneth Starr investigations-- simply ignore the subpoenas, the GOP has shown me the light: the law isn't important, loyalty is.

Posted at September 17, 2008 11:24 AM in response to AK AG: Subpoenaed State Employees Will Refuse to Testify

The fact that they are keeping Palin more-or-less sequestered, only allowing what amount to "puff piece" interviews, plus demanding the press give her "deference" (?!) makes me think that she is never actually going to have a debate with Biden. If she is not prepared for a serious interview with difficult, incisive questions, HOW is she going to handle JOE BIDEN? As I see it, there is one VP debate scheduled, and they will find some way to get her out of it: illness, security threat, "lack of deference" or "bias" from the press, etc.

The other option is they are preparing her lots of sound bites and punch lines to diffuse serious questions, or ways to twist any tough questions into "sexist" questions which she won't answer.

It really is odd to me that the press is already giving her so much "deference"-- I recall the microscope Bill Clinton was under for any whiff of a scandal (including one I believe was referred to as "troopergate". . . hmmm, sounds familiar), and how comparatively little attention has been put on her scandals. The media tends to LOVE scandal, as it translates into ratings, but either the media really has been cowed into tacking right to combat the meme of "the liberal media" , or they think that because Palin is such a (suddenly) much-loved public figure that to be too tough with her will make them look bad and hurt ratings.

The press isn't doing it's job. This is a serious matter of public transparency; we should know who we are voting for.

Posted at September 11, 2008 2:03 PM in response to Trooper-Gate: Everything You Need To Know

You can put lipstick on a pig but you can't make it stink.

Posted at September 10, 2008 2:15 PM in response to Obama On Lipstick Controversy: Attacks Media, Says "Enough Is Enough"

Watching Palin's speech last night I was struck with how much she reminded me of actress Edie McClurg (you know her, hit wiki or imdb to remind you): this typical busy-body housewife digging trough everybody's dirty laundry and scolding them for it. I'm not surprised to find that she tried to ban books in the public library, require loyalty oaths and get enemies fired.

Posted at September 4, 2008 2:35 PM in response to Fired Commissioner: Palin Hasn't Been Truthful on Trooper-Gate