Sarah Palin

Gaffes vs. Dumbstupid

Everyone who speaks in front of people many times a day will eventually suffer from occasional gaffes. The smartest, best-spoken people in the world have made unfortunate slips of the tongue, but we overlook them because these people are generally considered to be intelligent and the gaffes are incidental.

But with Sarah Palin, like George W. Bush, her gaffes point to a lack of intellectual curiosity and smarts. In other words, she's a dumbstupid, so when she botches something, it's a big deal.

So it's no wonder that she simply doesn't understand the difference between an innocent gaffe and an idiot gaffe. For example, when President Obama says "57 states" instead of "50 states" it's probably because he's exhausted and multitasked -- not an idiot.

But when Sarah Palin repeatedly and unapologetically fumbles the First Amendment, it's a big deal. President Obama is a constitutional scholar, and Sarah Palin simply doesn't give a rip what the First Amendment means. Even when she confuses "North Korea" and "South Korea" it calls to mind her underlying dumbstupid. There's a big difference, and we shouldn't expect someone as uninformed and unserious as Palin to get the distinction.