The XX Factor: What women really think.

All Style, No Substance

Posted on behalf of XX Factor contributor Marjorie Valbrun, who's experiencing technical difficulties:

Sarah Palin pandering to Jewish voters while simultaneously being hyperbolic about the threat that Iran poses to Israel: We can't allow "a second Holocaust" against "this peace-seeking nation" where we'd one day like to place our "embassy in Jerusalem."

Sarah Palin trying to compensate for being less than worldly, unknowledgeable about foreign and domestic policy issues, and inarticulate during one-on-one interviews: "It's so obvious I'm not a Washington insider." "I may not answer the questions the way you want me to."

Sarah Palin being annoyingly and disingenuously "folksy" and "real" while trying to take the focus off McCain's record in Congress: "Now Joe there ya go again looking at the past, now. Doggone it, let's look ahead." "Can wait to get there and get with ya." "I want to send a shout out to all those third-graders at Gladys Elementary School."

Sarah Palin being geographically challenged: Referring to Alaska to describe her "connection to the heartland of America." (Since when did Alaska become the heartland of the United States?)

Sarah Palin communicating in a language other than English: "We have got not to allow ..."

I don't believe she is purposely displaying a streak of anti-intellectualism to appeal to the Republican base, as some have suggested, I think she just is really not that smart or quick on her feet. When she couldn't answer a question, she went back to her talking points and repeated the same lines over and over like a malfunctioning robot. Her small town girl witticisms aside, I heard nothing from her to reassure me that she has one iota of the emotional intelligence needed to be vice president (and possibly president) or the necessary intellectual heft.