Sarah Palin - seriously?

In all fairness, I get it when some conservatives say that Palin is getting more flack than she deserves. I don't really agree, but I don't think that's a crazy thing to say. I also get it when people say that they like her because her political views align with theirs. Again, I have a hard time relating to those particular political views, but okay, I can dig it.

What I do not get are the die-hards - the big-time fans - the ones who say that they love her. The "Soccer Moms for Palin", if you will. These people, they boggle my mind, and I've heard from a few of them.

What exactly is it that's so great about her? Is it how she can't name a magazine or newspaper that she reads? Is it that she can't name a Supreme Court decision? (In all fairness, I can't either, except for Roe V. Wade, but if I was running for Vice President, that would be one of the first things I'd research.) Is it how she's being hidden from the media and giving only a limited amount of interviews? Are these the things that are impressive?

On that one video that I posted a little while back, some of the things being said about her was that she was a "regular person". Ummm...what the hell does that even mean? Hey! I'm a regular person! Can I be Vice President? I mean, do we really want a "regular person" a heartbeat away from the highest office in the land? Call me crazy, but I want somebody who's a hell of a lot smarter than the average person.

Is it all this folksy crap that she spouts? Is it that she drops her G's? Call me crazy, but I think that speaking correctly shows respect for the audience. That kind of thing is just pandering. Is i the hockey mom/pitbull/lipstick joke? What kind of a hayseed do you gotta be to find that stuff funny? (I think that I'm starting to embrace my inner elitism.)

The thing is, I recall my mom recently saying that she was "ugly". By that, she wasn't referring to her physical appearance. She was referring more to her personality. I tend to agree. This whole, "Obama's been palling around with terrorists" is the worst kind of ugly propaganda. I wrote before about this - she knows exactly how all the rubes in her audience are going to take that. It's like Bill Maher has been saying lately - things like that are cynical. She knows that dumb people will take it the way that she wants them to take it, but she's smart enough to know better.

So yeah, I don't get it. I think that this is becoming one of my intelligence barometers. I honestly can't see how the gung-ho Palin types can possibly be intelligent. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just don't see how.