Pessimism

I have been hoping that Palin's comments regarding "blood libel" (not to mention the Washington Times "pogrom against conservative thinkers") would finally tip the balance in favor of "stupid." She's even getting flack from those on the right. David Frum, for example, said, "She should stop talking now, really." And:

Newt Gingrich, another likely contender for the 2012 presidential nomination, had barbed advice for Palin on ABC's Good Morning America breakfast show. "I think that she's got to slow down and be more careful and think through what she's saying and how's she's saying it," he said.

Granted, Palin's favorability ratings are at their lowest since she entered the national consciousness, but how dumb does one have to be to be unacceptable as a presidential candidate?

Pretty goddamned dumb, I guess. I was reminded of this quote from Gingritch- reported 16 years ago today:

While teaching his history course at Reinhardt College in Georgia a couple of weeks ago, Ms. Schroeder noted, Mr. Gingrich had expressed some thoughts on the subject.

If combat means being in a ditch, he told his class, "females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections, and they don't have upper body strength."

Men, he said, "are basically little piglets; you drop them in the ditch, they roll around in it."

And yet, he went on, if being in combat "means being on an Aegis class cruiser managing the computer controls for 12 ships and their rockets, a female again may be dramatically better than a male who gets very, very frustrated sitting in a chair all the time because males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes."

Oh yeah, Newtie is considered a potential 2012 Republican contender too.
(Savage Chickens) So 'scuse me; I gotta go kill a giraffe.

Followup: I meant to include a link to Tomasky's comments on Hannity's interview of Palin. Now I have.

...the interview was a predictable exercise in self-justification. She still doesn't know what "blood libel" actually means historically, saying that "blood libel obviously means being falsely accused of having blood on your hands." Maybe Randy Scheunemann can work on that with her one of these days, after she sorts out the difference between South and North Korea.