Quote of the Day

| Thu Nov. 19, 2009 11:41 AM EST

From Jon Stewart, explaining what it's like to listen to Sarah Palin:

It's just a conservative boiler plate mad lib.

I think that nails it.  Yesterday I was thinking about how everything she says sounds like it's just plucked from the tea party talking points of the day, but Stewart comes closer to the truth.  They aren't just talking points, they're sort of bizarrely, syntactically mashed up talking points.

I wonder what really goes on inside her head?  Lots of politicians have mastered the art of speaking in talking points and never going off message, but mostly they at least try to sound like they know what they're talking about.  Palin doesn't.  She just spouts the sixth grade version of the talking points with an apparently total unawareness that she sounds like a child.

Virtually every political commenter — even the ones who like her! — concluded after the presidential campaign that she needed to study up on the issues, maybe pick one to make into her signature, and use that to increase her gravitas.  But obviously she hasn't.  She just doesn't care.  Or, perhaps, doesn't think there's any reason she needs to know about issues.  I mean, she beat that nerdy issue guy in the Alaska governor's race just by making fun of his book learning, didn't she?  Why change a winning game plan?