I would like to apologize in advance for my bias, but this
is a topic in which I am very biased. Therefore, if you like Sarah Palin, I
suggest that you do not read my following post.
Video referenced in my post:
In a recent video
that I watched on the news, Sarah Palin made a few comments about religion and
speaking during politics. While she was trying to use the rhetorical situation
(Obama had recently made a speech at a conference), she did not delve into the
details of the place where he was giving the speech enough to make a truthful
argument. She decided to say that he was being hypocritical by talking about
how the republicans should not talk about religion at places that did not
involve it, such as during public speeches or other such events. She then
stated that he had used just such a tactic at the conference that he had
attended- which seems like it would be a reasonable argument. After all, she
was able to look at the rhetorical situation that he created and make an
effective argument as a response, right?
Wrong. The one thing about Sarah Palin that I have noticed
when I have seen her on the media (I try to watch her as little as necessary,
because it hurts my ears and makes me sad about the state of politics when I hear
what comes out of her mouth…but I digress) is that she either does not do all
of her homework, or she “accidentally” leaves out part of the background
information so that her statement seems to be a valid argument. After all, if
you do not provide all of the facts about the rhetorical situation and use that
information to form a good remark based on that, then it works.
That is, until someone takes a look at the situation and
realizes just how stupid… I mean, incorrect… that argument is. After all, she
forgot to mention the fact that Obama spoke words regarding religion at the
national prayer breakfast. Yes, because quoting the book of Luke is definitely
taboo here. Obviously he is a hypocrite for trying to talk religion with
Christians, right? I think that while the statement would have been alright if
he had done this at any other sort of political place, but he was completely
justified in making these quotes at the prayer breakfast. She shows that if you
do not take the entire rhetorical situation into account, your words and
response to the situation become meaningless (along with making people question
your intelligence, but that is a story for another day).
Like a lot of today's Republicans, what Palin is doing is nothing new. They distort the facts for their own benefit and to make the opponent seem like the bad guy. Palin is ridiculous anyway and I can't understand how she ever became a popular politician, so, like you, I try to avoid her.
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