HOAX: “Palin Doesn’t Know Africa Is A Continent” Leaker Outs Himself
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Foreign Policy, Palin, Partisan Nonsense, Republicans
Well, I got duped. But then again, so did MSNBC.
And not only that, Martin Eisenstadt does it in the blogosphere.
As you know, I was one of the foreign policy advisers on the McCain campaign who worked with Randy Scheunemann to help prep Sarah on her debate with Joe Biden.Did we outright give her a geography quiz when we started the prep? No, of course not.
But yes, in the context of the prep, it slowly became apparent that her grasp of basic geo-political knowledge had major gaps. Could she have passed a multiple choice test about South Africa or NAFTA. Probably. But it was clear that she simply didn’t have the ease of knowledge that we come to expect from a major party political candidate.
Other slights came up, too: Not knowing the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas. Or the difference between the Shiites and Suni. Or when it came to international terrorist organizations, knowing that the IRA was in Northern Ireland, and ETA in Spain.
So what does this tell me?
Since Eisenstadt doesn’t back up his previous claims, I think it’s pretty clear he was feeding Fox News’ Carl Cameron a load of nonsense to embarrass Palin and make her seem like a moron…which she clearly isn’t.
The ironic part of all this is that I believe he’s probably telling the truth about Palin not knowing the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas. But instead of simply sticking to foreign policy areas where she lacked knowledge that many still would have found disturbing, he went for the cheap shot.
And then more threats of Republican on Republican violence…
But Sarah… careful what you ask for: some of us may have more to reveal.
Martin, unless you have it on tape, nobody will trust you. How do you not get this?
What a petty, sad hack.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Foreign Policy, Palin, Partisan Nonsense, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 10th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I do believe there’s some question as to M. Eisenstadt’s authenticity. Huffpo believes that this is some elaborate ruse. It remains unclear whether he was the source or whether Cameron had other sources.
November 10th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Just by observation, 65% of the country thought Palin was an idiot. Everyone in that group will believe every word Eisenstadt says.
Whether Eisenstadt is a hack or not, Palin was a fraud of a candidate and the Republicans should be punished for risking our national security by allowing her on the ticket. So any information about Palin that destroys her reputation and credibility and prevents her from every seeking national office again is fine with me and the rest of the 65%.
November 10th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I think Palin is an idiot, but I don’t need this GOP smear campaign of questionable truth to validate it. The RNC/GOP should realize that people figured out that she was an idiot a long, long time ago (broadcast of the Gibson/Couric interviews), and that people stopped caring about her altogether after Obama was elected.
Let’s give it a rest, people.
November 10th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
“Just by observation, 65% of the country thought Palin was an idiot.”
You seem to have a different set of election results than we Earth beings.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
It’s not fine with me.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Wow, the level of plain meanness is impressive in some of these posts. While someone’s political views often colors our perception of them (”She’s pro-life? I’m pro-choice and I’m smart, so she must be an idiot!”), she is the governor of one of our 50 states. Like it or not, she knows enough to be elected to an executive office and at least passably manage the responsibilities associated with it. I’m totally cool with people disagreeing with her world view, and I’ll even agree that her knowledge needs to be broader if she wants to play on a national stage. But an idiot? Sounds like a opinion driven by ideology.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:30 am
Read his statement before you bash him.
http://www.eisenstadtgroup.com/2008/11/10/eisenstadt-the-source-for-sarah-palin-africa-leak-and-proud-of-it/
November 11th, 2008 at 1:36 am
“passably manage the responsibilities”
80% approval rating (highest in the country) is significantly more than your assertion. Don’t be afraid to give her all the credit she deserves.
November 11th, 2008 at 4:15 am
I won’t say that the Africa claim is actually a legit one. i think that is a far move, even for Palin, but I definitely can believe that her foreign policy experience is weak, which is what I am assuming the point of leaking this statement was. Palin is just an all and all bad choice for the Republican party, because while she did what she needed to do to be elected to Alaskan governorship, that was like a total of 155,000 people that voted for her? Being ready and qualified to govern Alaska is one thing, but I do not feel she brought anything to the ticket, and her unease when it came to talking about facts, especially when it dealt with foreign policy, has created this persona of her. I don’t think its a feeling of thinking she is stupid for believing something different than me, but I think it is more that she was not ready to handle policy which had global implications, and she shouldn’t have tried to pretend that she could handle that – it didn’t work for her. She wasn’t convincing.
November 11th, 2008 at 7:09 am
[...] jumped all over the name Martin Eisenstadt after he “admitted” that he was the leak that came out with [...]
November 11th, 2008 at 9:13 am
[...] Justin Gardner, Donklephant: HOAX: Palin “Doesn’t know Africa is a continent leaker outs himself [...]
November 11th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I wish everyone would stop using Palin’s statement to Chuckie G at ABC as an example of Palin’s ignorance. I understand what she meant and so would you if you thought about it.
If someone lives next to San Quentin and they keep aware of California’s Parole policies, I’ll understand what they are saying when they state “I can see the guard towers from my backyard, of course I’m aware of Parole policies.” You see, she gave her reason to be aware of foreign policy, not the source of her foreign policy knowledge.
From “Trooper-gate” (I’d question the executive skills of someone who couldn’t explain why he allowed an employee to carry a badge and a gun when that person was disciplined numerous times, and one of those times was child abuse; regardless of how I became aware of that information) to clothing bills (I’ll bet one of Obama’s suits could pay my rent for half a year) Palin has been unfairly trashed.
By the way, I was among the first to argue that context and background was important when Obama’s “lipstick on a pig” comment was being spun as a personal attack. No matter who you support…or hate…you cannot accurately evaluate consequences without accurate information.
November 12th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Journalism’s not dead! It just smells funny.
Don’t you folks get it?! The main story here is not a hoax. I, Sarah Palin really didn’t know what NAFTA is. I kinda still don’t. And I didn’t know that Africa is a continent and not a country. The truth, it seems, is stanger than fiction.
The only hoax is that Marty’s not the true source of the leak. MSNBC ran with the story that he was the leaker, and they were wrong.
However, the truth remains that I, Sarah Palin, did not know that the NAFTA is a trade agreement between our country and Canada and Mexico. And let me just say that running for Vice President has humbled me greatly. I now know just what the VP does every day: deal with complicated things which I know nothing about.
While Marty’ll never work on any of my campaigns ever again, I sure hope that I don’t have to run against the next person who hires him.
For more information about the insights and knowledge that I have regarding foreign policy matters, just go to my website:
http://www.SarahPalin.com
and remember:
Sarah Palin TwentyTwelve!
You betcha.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Creating false stories to make their candidates look better is a standard republican tactic. Remember what got Dan Rather ousted from CBS news? Even though the allegations about Bush not fulfilling his military service was true, the taint of having a “false allegation” was enough to quash further inquiry.