While many of you may scoff at Palin's blunders, I find it to be yet another example of her fine character and potential to be a great leader. First of all, the members of the New Oxford American Dictionary defended Palin for her word usage, and whatever they say is obviously scripture. More importantly, it shines light on Palin's creativity and willingness to take bold action. She is not bound by trivial conventions such as grammar, vocabulary, or intelligence. Palin does what her gut tells her to do, and this is how a leader should be.
While Sarah Palin, if elected to be Vice President, may have run this country to the ground, she would undoubtedly have a clever word to describe the hopeless situation we'd be in. And isn't that the most important thing?
If anyone disagrees with my statements, please comment and I will be glad to refudiate.
14 comments:
I would like to commend Mr. Chandy on his excellently written and insightful post. I feel slightly off-put by the liberal media's eagerness for attacking the former Vice Presidential candidate, an attack which reveals the underlying elitism of our current times where only educated, higher-up people can hope to run for office.
Let us remember that our great country America was founded on the principal that anyone could forge their own American dream, anyone, not just the above described. Unfortunately, it appears the liberal media does not see it this way.
I would also like to agree that Palin's blunders are a sign of her readiness to be a leader. Imagine yourself in her position, being attacked on all sides raving dogs, chewing on any slightly exposed part. Instead of caving in to mounting pressure, Palin has shown the integrity necessary to stand up and fight back against the rabid masses bent on the destruction of anything out of the norm.
Please . . . people need to recognize that what we need in a leader is creativity and guts, something Palin represents perfectly.
While I do agree that a leader should be creative and willing to "take bold action," the incorrect usage and/or the invention of words can hardly be classified as "bold action." Sure it's creative, Shakespeare invented many words and became a leader in literature, but being able to invent words does not indicate readiness to become a great leader. There is already a word that means "refudiate," and I am not against synonyms. The most important thing is a leader's ability to articulate ideas and communicate with the public. By using words that are already used and known by the public, a leader can communicate with the public more easily. Inventing words will only hinder a leader's ability to communicate with the public.
I commend Jesvin for this subtle, yet quite witty and intelligent, sarcasm. Haha. Believe me, I am quite amused.
Nonetheless, I'm not a super big fan of the media promoting incorrect word usage. Politicians can't be compared to gods and then be expected to perform flawlessly all the time (although they should probably run their Twitter posts by a couple others before posting questionable words). It's as if the media has nothing better to do than to make known trivial information than actually informing us with, say, news about what's going on in other parts of the world? Before they decide to publicize this pretty irrelevant fact, the media needs to consider the importance of news that will actually allow citizens to gain knowledge, unlike the word "refudiate," which, by looking at Urban Dictionary's definitions, doesn't really mean anything anyway. News stations shouldn't need to dig into the past to bring up a slightly sensational happening.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Refudiate
@Andrea
I believe you're not looking at the big picture. You stated that "The most important thing is a leader's ability to articulate ideas and communicate with the public," but I cannot say I agree. The most important thing is, in fact, a leader's ability to formulate policy that accurately represents the will of the people that elected him or her. Being able to communicate with the public has little to no relation with the aforementioned.
Even so, Palin's "blunder" was minimal at best. And the media blew it up. How does a candidate's tiny mistake reflect on his or her ability to represent the people? We're looking at the wrong things.
And "inventing words will only hinder a leader's ability to communicate with the public?" Were any of you not able to comprehend what Palin was trying to get across? ...I hope not.
That is all.
@ Andrea, to add on to Ryan's point, "bold" is defined as being not only daring, but also being distinct and clear. We must remember that the invention of words in a public statement with the for knowledge that many people will view it is very bold indeed, and it also clearly and distinctly emphasizes Palin as a person who is willing to defy the norm.
Indeed.
Hahaha, yes Jesvin. We do need a maverick. Just kidding. Dan and Ryan, I would say that communication skills are pretty important, especially if you want respect and the ability to pass bills through Congress. Anyway, Palin's "blunder" was not just one or two or ten or fifty... I just don't feel confident in having our country governed by the gut feeling of one maverick. What if she gets indigestion?
@Nichole
I love your "indigestion" joke
@Ryan
Indeed, "a leader's ability to formulate policy that accurately represents the will of the people that elected him or her" is extremely important, but I would like point out that you need still need communication to do so. In order for a leader to "formulate policy that accurately represents the will of the people," that leader must articulate the policy clearly and precisely for the policy to be followed, lest confusion arise.
I sort of understand your point, but again, I do not believe that a few negligible blunders by Palin are enough to categorize her as "not being able to articulate her policies". She's pretty clear to me.
I think Palin's word mishap may just be a clue as to why so many people like her. Something like this shows that Palin isn't perfect, she is human, she is someone a typical American can relate to. I bet many people reading her tweet didn't even realize "refudiate" wasn't a word. (Even just now my heart skipped when I saw that "refudiate" had a red underline under it and it took me a second to realize that it is spelled wrong because it doesn't exist...and I had just written a sentence talking about how it doesn't exist!) We all make small mistakes and sometimes it is nice to see that others make mistakes too.
-Sandy Frank
P.S.
Who else is excited to watch her new reality show??!!
If anything, this shows how worthless the media can be sometimes. All this buzz just because a politician used a word that doesn't exist, and then relevant issues go unnoticed.
Despiteless, I'm not opposed to using invented words.
@Dan, Ryan
Sarah Palin more likely had no idea she was making up a word. This also doesn't have that much of an impact. What I am more concerned about is that very same issue you believe in: that a leader has the ability to formulate proper public policy. It doesn't seem that she has a very good ability to do so, as evidenced by her rather poor performance (by focusing on a "maverick" theme for herself and McCain) in the 2008 Presidential election. America doesn't need a maverick, America needs a leader that is intelligent and has the proper experience and background to form public policy. And although I am willing to believe that she has these qualities given proper evidence, I haven't seen any yet. Remember that she wanted to cut funding for fruit fly research since it apparently wasn't important? Yeah.
Leave it to Palin to make that error...seriously I think she should know that all her popularity sprouts from the fact that everyone is laughing at her and not laughing with her...she makes women politicians look...let's just say...not great.
I must agree with Dan and Ryan here. A simple mistake cannot be used to define a person. Like come on, GWB always pronounced "Nuclear" wrong and he was elected president. It's not like you don't mistakes everyday, but because she is a public figure the media blows it out of proportion.
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