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Spare Me

I resent the reverse classism that Palin uses to justify her lack of experience in traveling abroad, as if only the children of the wealthy go to other countries in their youth.  Yes, those of us who have been privileged to come from families that could afford for us to travel overseas several times before the age of 43 are fortunate, but if she has spent so much time with book-learning about the rest of the world why is it that she doesn’t seem to know anything?  It should not necessarily be a problem that she has not traveled abroad, provided that she does know something about international affairs, but she manages to combine a lack of personal experience with a lack of knowledge about other countries.

Her answer in response to Couric’s question on Hamas and democracy in the Near East was simply pathetic.  There is no other way to put it.

about the author

Daniel Larison is a senior editor at TAC, where he also keeps a solo blog. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.

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