Par for the course (Jack Bog's Blog)

A friend writes:

Sarah Palin spoke in Erie, Pa. yesterday and made a reference to the Philadelphia Phillies winning the World Series. There were quite a few boos from the crowd.
http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/10/31/palin-stumps-in-tom-ridges-hometown/

For someone who is characterized as a populist, common touch type, she really blew this one. When you are invoking the "bread and circuses" of American sports, you better know where you are and who the local teams are. I've visited Pittsburgh a lot in the last five years. I like the area, but western Pennsylvania is not eastern Pennsylvania -- they have their own teams. The Pirates, Steelers, or Penguins could work in Erie. This is not a sophisticated insight.

Some politicians are very good at this type of demagogy. Not Palin. Her knowledge base is weak and her narcissism overwhelms any chance of her really doing the homework that effective politicians do. Palin should had consulted with Joe Sixpack. He could have explained it to her.

Comments (14)

1)http://store.theonion.com/the-sports-team-from-my-area-p-83.html

2) This compares sharply with Rick Reilly's experience picking fantasy football with Obama:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3653401

Posted by ambrown | October 31, 2008 10:32 AM

Erie is in very northwest Pennsylvania, closer to Cleveland than to Pittsburgh. (It's not that far from the Ohio/PA border.) The Indians have more than a few fans there, too.

Posted by rural resident | October 31, 2008 11:43 AM

I'd give her a pass on this. I don't think you can see eastern Pennsylvania from western Pennsylvania.

Posted by Allan L. | October 31, 2008 11:57 AM

Now I'm really confused. I've been relying on James Carville for my Pennsylvania geography... Pittsburg in the west, Philadelphia in the east, and Alabama in the middle.

Posted by PdxMark | October 31, 2008 12:29 PM

That is 1/100th as good as the gem from John Kerry in the 2004 race. Speaking to voters in Michigan:

"I was smart enough not to pick a choice between the Falcons and the, well, you know, all those other teams out there. I just go for Buckeye football, that's where I'm coming from."

Gold, pure gold.

Posted by butch | October 31, 2008 12:57 PM

Not her fault. Handlers do 90% of her wordplay, except paragraph structure. she would be hard pressed to conjure up an original reference to a non-hockey sport, other than snow machine racing.

Posted by tom | October 31, 2008 1:26 PM

"Failin spoke in eerie." What else? It's the patois of poopyheads.

Posted by Tenskwatawa | October 31, 2008 1:29 PM

Thanks for the memory, Butch. If we're bringing up irrelevant mishaps from losers in past elections, don't forget that Bob Dole fell off a stage in 1996.

Posted by Tim | October 31, 2008 1:30 PM

There are going to be some mighty sad faces in stumptown if McPalin pulls out a win.

Posted by Mister Tee | November 1, 2008 7:26 AM

I can't give this DITZ a pass on anything she says. McCain showed America what his level of decision making was when he selected her as VP. In the years past the VP pick was a mood point. In this election it have tremendous weight attached. She is really bad news this hillbilly. Last night on CNN they were interviewing her on the campaign bus as it moved through the night. It was the best HORROR show on Halloween. They reminded me of the Adams Family. Lets pray Obama pulls this one off. I fear for my country. Eight years with this stupid a-hole....we need a brain in the white house not CHARLIE CHAPLIN and a VALLEY GIRL/slash/
HILLBILLY

Posted by realdon | November 1, 2008 8:02 AM

Zogby has McCain ahead for the single day Friday part of his poll. Could that be a Halloween prank?

No doubt it is closer than most D's care to admit, as the closer closes and as Barack tries to run out the clock. He faded in the Primaries against Hillary, remember.

Barack no doubt hopes the conversation does not go deep regarding his illegal campaign contributions from his illegal alien Auntie. I am sure that was the only campaign contribution that was not fully checked out.

Could Barack lose?

Nah... not possible. Everybody I know voted for him, some multiple times.

Posted by Harry | November 1, 2008 9:45 AM

Earth to Tensk: A single line of text? We pray it's newfound brevity and not carpal tunnel?

Posted by genop | November 1, 2008 10:39 AM

My New Year's Resolution: only read Tenske if it's fewer than three run-on sentences.

Harry,

Everybody I know SAY they voted for him (me included, when pollsters call), but not all of them did. It has much less to do with race than it does with risk.

Posted by Mister Tee | November 1, 2008 3:37 PM

I'm not voting for Obama because he's a radical lefty, despite his typical Democratic campaign pretending otherwise,
But I wonder, is it OK to vote FOR Obama because he is black, but NOT OK to vote AGAINT him for the same reason?

Posted by Ben | November 1, 2008 5:05 PM

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Friday, October 31, 2008

Par for the course

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