Sarah Palin's Undergraduate Odyssey
I really wanted to not write about Sarah Palin today, but my God I just can't help myself. The latest news is that Palin apparently had a somewhat non-traditional college experience. As in, she transferred schools six times…
1. Palin matriculates as a freshman at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She drops out "after a few weeks because of the constant rain there."
2. Palin enrolls at Hawaii Pacific University, a private college in Honolulu, as a Business Administration major. She leaves after a semester.
3. Palin transfers to North Idaho College, a Coeur d'Alene community college. She completes two semesters as a General Studies Major.
4. Palin transfers to the University of Idaho as a sophomore, in the Journalism program
5. Palin transfers to to Matanuska-Susitna College in Alaska and completes one semesters.
6. Palin heads back to the University of Idaho for three more semesters and graduates with a degree in Journalism.
Now, a lot of Americans may be able to identify with Palin's undergraduate odyssey – but not her running mate, John McCain. McCain only attended one college, the United States Naval Academy. But maybe he should have considered transferring – ideally to a school where he wouldn't have finished #894 out of the 899 graduates in his class!
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I have taught at colleges and universities for three decades, and it looks like a familiar pattern, especially going from a university to community college and back again. There might be another pattern, but my question is "How many times did Sarah Palin flunk out of college?"
When I first heard about 6 schools and one degree, I thought it was weird. Then when I heard the Hilo rainout thing, I just about died laughing. Hilo is on the big island, not one of the sexy ones like Maui, Kuaii or Oahu. What I remember from traveling there is that it's got an airport, coffee and macademia nut plantations, lava fields, some native Hawaiian history, and not a whole lot more going for it. Most tourists never see the big island at all because it doesn't have the tourist beaches, US military installations, or other staples of a typical American vacation. Many parts of Hawaii get a lot of rain, too – that's why its so lush and green. Look in a world atlas for a second and she'd know that.
This is like a friend of mine from high school. She grew up in SoCal and hated it. She picked the University of Wyoming based on pictures in its brochure, and hated it too. Unlike Palin, though, she at least gutted it out and got a degree from the school she started at.
Asked in 1996, her first year in office, about her ability to “effectively run” the city, Palin claimed:
“It’s not rocket science,” Palin said, “It’s $6 million and 53 employees.”
Only “$6 million and 53 employees” and yet she managed to bury it $20 mil. in the red in just two-terms. How very Bush-like. And she wants us to trust her to be a heartbeat away from the national budget?
Do you think the majority of this country cares about the education level of our leaders? Get real, we were convinced that a good reason to elect Bush was because he would be more fun to have a beer with. So Palin took six years and six mediocre institutions to get her BA, leave her alone you sexist bastards. So McCain graduated in the bottom 10 of a class of 900 from the Naval Academy, leave him alone he spent 5 years in a Vietnamese prison camp. When are you libs going to realize that being a leader of the free world isn’t rocket science? An established track record of academic accomplishment and intelligence doesn’t mean sh&* to us, as long as the narrative is good. My head hurts, I’m going to the frig for another Bush.
Every time I see Palin and Cindy standing on a stage, I think a Mary Kaye convention is starting; but when I hear Sarah doing her "schtick", I think she sounds like the last, bottom of the barrel choice for a Comedy roast! (hey, couldn't Bush's speech writer come up with something a little better? Maybe it was just that, "Pause, lick my lips" delivery of hers that sucked! No, it just WASN'T FUNNY!)
Palin was interviewed and said, "I don't even know what a Vice President does!"
HEY! She knows how to gut a pregnant moose, and shoot wild animals from a helicopter; what more do you need to know to run the country should McCain kick? Who needs more education than THAT?
She also knows how to look 0 mos pregnant at 7 months! Sarah! Tell us your secret for not being pregnant, but producing a baby!! Criss Angel wants to learn that magic trick!
Give the lady a break. Even assuming that there's some kind of weird correlation between the number of schools she attended and her intelligence, since when did IQ become a prerequisite for public office? So why wasn't Einstein ever leader of some country?
All politicians have an army of advisors to tell them what they need to know. Politics is all about public speaking (including some acting) and the ability to influence others to get what you want. And we (Joe Public) merely needs to figure out what that person really stands for, beyond the rhetoric, and vote for them if they like it. Period.
OK critics, why don't you try getting on a stage in front of 40 million people and giving a speech. Oh and let's have your teleprompter die during the speech. You'd all choke and die like pitiful little worms.
But you're much more comfortable sitting in your dank little room in front of a monitor criticizing her. Makes you feel powerful, smart, and superior, doesn't it? You losers.
Sarah is an excellent VP choice and great potential leader. Plus a lifetime member of the NRA. End of story. This independent switched from Obama to McCain last week.
Politics is all about public speaking? No, that's advertising, that's propaganda, that's "verbal address." Funny how it wasn't okay for Obama to be merely inspiring, but this giant-jawed death-eyed fuckey-mom gets to be an actress playing a VP with no questions asked. Politics is the art and science of government, a mixture of legal and philosophical positioning within the paradigm of government bodies. Obama is a master of both public speaking AND politics, while Sarah Palin is a talented though politically naive and deceptive ultra-conservative church-lady from the sticks with a serious attitude problem. And I say that with the utmost respect for her as an animal-torturing bitch.
Love it Kia. To travel between states to attend the schools of her choosing speaks volumes. Maybe she didn't have to do it all by herself. Cash must be a disposable item in Alaska.
so what alot of people go to fine schools and all they get is
karl marx philosphies and more liberial bull shit. we have choices here
remember. we can attend what school best suites our own needs.
i like her. common sense these days is so hard to fine. so are genuinely fine people.
Please do not let them get away with another lie. Dexter Clark, VP of the AIP, stated at their convention in October that Sarah Palin was a member the this party and join the Republican Party only to get elected mayor.
Hear him in his own words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Re0vmbtHK8