3 thoughts on “Palin Didn’t Know Africa Was a Continent”

  1. I was just looking at the Wikipedia article on Randy Scheunemann, which led me to the following two articles.

    Sources: McCain aide fired for ‘trashing’ staff

    McCain aide disputes sources, denies firing


    It’s hard to make out exactly what happened between Scheunemann and the other staffers (was he fired or not?), but I think it may cast some light on the Africa story. The stories say that Scheneumann was “senior foreign policy advisor” to the McCain campaign and that he “became close with Palin during her debate prep process” and criticized McCain staffers by name to reporters for their handling of Palin. I’d suggest that those two facts make it very unlikely that the Africa story is true–if she were really such a hopeless dunce about foreign affairs, would he be likely to become close friends with her and endanger his own career in defending her to the press?

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  2. “-if she were really such a hopeless dunce about foreign affairs, would he be likely to become close friends with her and endanger his own career in defending her to the press”
    Sure, if he prefers her ideology enough to overlook her dunce-ness.

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  3. There was a really bizarre story in the NYT yesterday–apparently the Africa story was part of an elaborate hoax.

    “It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.
    “Who would say such a thing? On Monday the answer popped up on a blog and popped out of the mouth of David Shuster, an MSNBC anchor. “Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks,” Mr. Shuster said.
    “Trouble is, Martin Eisenstadt doesn’t exist. His blog does, but it’s a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow — the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy — is just a Web site. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.”

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