The circumstantial evidence that there is a tape floating around of Sarah Palin mistaking Africa for a country is mounting.
I'll cite two main reasons:
- Campaigns usually film debate prep sessions.
- Sarah Pailn hasn't actually denied not knowing that Africa is a continent and not a country!!!
Follow me after the jump...
First Quote:
"If there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about NAFTA, and about the continent vs. the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context," she said. "That's cruel, It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It's not fair, and it's not right."
Uh, that's not a denial! Furthermore, it's fairly comical that she thinks there is some sort of debate over Africa "the continent vs. the country."
Second non-denial:
Meg Stapleton, a former McCain-Palin spokeswoman, said the Africa gossip was most upsetting to those who know the Alaska governor. "She certainly does know that Africa is a continent," Stapleton told John King on "Larry King Live."
Again, not a denial of the accusation. Notice that she uses the present tense. I know that the Phillies won the World Series. However, I cannot say I knew that in early October, when Palin was preparing her debate (of course, I couldn't have known that then).
Last non-denial:
And never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or is it a continent? I just don’t know about this issue. So I don’t know how they took our one discussion on Africa and turned that into what they turned it into ... Along those same lines, of course, was the criticism that supposedly I didn’t know who the participants in NAFTA were."
It's perhaps true that if she thought Africa was a country, she did not ask whether it was a continent or a country. However, once again, she did not flatly deny the accusation that she didn't know it was a continent at the time.
Just in case you don't think she knows how to lie and deny:
"But, no, we don’t have any of the campaign’s clothes in our possession. And it was never anybody’s intention to keep these borrowed clothes from the RNC," said Gov. Palin.
The difference is that it is much easier to wiggle out of this lie, because who is to say what her intentions were. Even if she still has the clothes, she can always claim a mistake was made.
However, as ignorant as Sarah Palin may be, she is a shrewd enough politician to know that she cannot deny a story that was caught on tape.