McCain Aides Say Palin Couldn’t Name Countries in North America, Didn’t Know Africa is a Continent

Ever since Sarah Palin was selected to be John McCain’s vice-presidential runningmate she was on the receiving end of a rather public vetting that opened up some serious cracks that a more thorough private vetting certainly would have detected. I hate to pile on, but the latest revelation is so amazing to me, I couldn’t leave it alone.

On the O’Reilly Factor, Fox News’ Carl Cameron reported that a McCain-Palin rift was due in no small part to Gov. Palin’s lack of knowledge of basic civics, politics, and geography - and her unwillingness to prepare in light of those those deficiencies. Reportedly, McCain aides said Sarah Palin had:

“Major gaps in her knowledge… real problems with basic civics, government structures, municipal, state, and federal government responsibilities. She didn’t know the nations involved in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)… She wasn’t actually able to name all of the countries in North America… and she didn’t understand, McCain aides told me today, that Africa was a continent and not a country.”

And what is perhaps just as astounding is that Bill O’Reilly basically replies to Cameron, “but you can get tutored in that stuff…”, as if preparing to be the vice president is like cramming for midterms. Watch it:

The fact that this story became public via Fox News so quickly after the election should raise a few red flags. Is Palin just being thrown under the bus for the good of the Party? Or is she really as clueless as this report suggests?

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