Saturday, July 4, 2009

The Education Governor? You Betcha!


No one was more disappointed than me when Sarah Palin decided to call it quits as governor of Alaska, effectively skewering any chance she had of running for president in 2012. Her candidacy almost ensured a win by the Dems, so I am sorry to see her go.

What interested me most about her resignation, as a teacher and a blogger, was the speech itself. It was rambling and incoherent, yet spattered with enough catch phrases that the terminally stupid might actually believe it had substance. However, to really understand the shallowness of the Wasilla Wonder, you have to read the text of the speech. I ran across a brilliant piece by Paul Begala on HuffPo that dissected the text. He noted some disturbing writing issues displayed by the governor, such as her tendency to use random exclamation marks and to capitalize words inappropriately. The best sentence was this one, taken exactly as written in Palin's speech:

*((Gotta put First Things First))*

Now, I can see someone doing this on their own copy, for emphasis, perhaps. But to publish it on the governor's website for all too see?

Even the first sentence of her speech is riddled with errors that would make a middle schooler blush. Again, here it is, taken exactly as written from the governor's text (italics mine):

Hi Alaska, I appreciate speaking directly to you, the people I serve, as your Governor.

Besides the comma splice, she leaves out a comma and capitalizes Governor when using it as a common noun. Sheesh.

She bemoans having spent millions of the state's dollars defending her many ethics investigations, saying "...that’s money not going to fund teachers...". And in that, I agree with her. One thing she desperately needs is more and better teachers.

The irony is that she is getting paid millions to write a book. Heck, I'd give her 100 bucks just for writing a coherent sentence.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I sure won't disagree with your analysis for I'm not knowledgeable about proper sentence structure. Further, I have no interest in becoming knowledgeable.

Anyway, I remember laughing at the way Dizzy Dean talked on the air. However, he was very good at what he was paid to do.

I think of Mrs. Palin in a similar way.

As an extreme conservative republican, my dollars will go to her if she runs for president.

Now, as far as your article is concerned, I suspect you wrote it only as a way to undermine Mrs. Palin.

If I'm correct, and I don't know that I am, you should have addressed how she handled her official duties while governor.

Your article suggests very strongly, to me, that you are out to undermine her in whatever she chooses to do.

Too, I strongly resent your sarcastic and mean-spirited reference to the “Wasilla Wonder” and your ad hominem statement about me (terminally stupid) because you don’t even know me.

Now, it’s my turn to be sarcastic. Anonymity, Mr. Talk, turns cowards into brave people. Something like they say about guns.

Larry Croft
Snowflake, AZ

Mr. Talk said...

Larry, I have to admit you've made a very important point. Unfortunately for you, the point you've proved is that it would be preferable to vote for Dizzy Dean for president than Sarah Palin. And he's been dead for 35 years.

Palin has no knowledge of the political world. If she was in my English class, she'd fail. Is that who we want for president? Didn't we have enough of that with W?

BTW--I am flattered that someone from AZ would take the time out to comment on a teacher blog in NYC. There must be millions of blogs trashing Sarah Palin, and that you chose mine to comment on is truly humbling.

I choose to be anonymous here because NYC is vindictive towards outspoken teachers, not because I am afraid you would come to NY and kick my ass. I think you'd find me up to the challenge, although you did look pretty tough in Tomb Raider.