I have a sister who's pretty smart, a professor of philosophy at a prestigious Canadian university. She is however an extreme narcissist whose attitude towards the world is so solipsistic that she learns and knows nothing outside her own quite narrow slice of her discipline, or that practical or personal knowledge that can otherwise advance her career. At family gatherings, her ignorance of what is happening in the world is the subject of incredulity and laughter.

Again (too!) she's quite smart; but again (too!) not qualified for election to public office, never mind VP or POTUS.

But seriously, the story went that she not only referred to Africa as a country--and note that even in DENYING this story she referred again to "the country" of Africa--but also thought that "South Africa" was just a region of Africa rather than a nation--i.e. she thought it was like western Europe or northern California.

Consider that Palin would have been approximately thirty years old when Nelson Mandela took office as president of South Africa; the fight against apartheid had then been going on for years, and more pertinently it had been front-page news for years.

Anyone who was an adult at that time, and who had any interest at all in public affairs, would have been aware that South Africa was a nation. The only way to square her not knowing that (if indeed she did not know it) is to posit an extreme uninterest on her part, as an adult, in the kind of information we expect our leaders to be interested in.

We are not talking about a lack of "experience," but rather a lack of even high-school-level knowledge of public affairs.

You can learn, but only if you want to learn--if you are interested in the subject. Palin is not interested in the subject. Indeed, the story goes that campaign aides could not even get her to pay attention to her prepping for the Couric interview, even though Palin must have known that much depended on her performance.

Palin is not a serious person. She is someone who wants to be on television, like millions of other Americans. That is not enough to lead a nation.

Our education system is failing. That's one reason for students not knowing basic geology.

Geography either.

Vocabulary either.

As I wrote there, the need to destroy Sarah Palin, who threatens the Republican Establishment as much as the Democrats, is very strong indeed.

I doubt that this is true, but I would not be surprised if it were.

I do fully believe, however, that she didn't know the NAFTA countries.

Although the way our school system is going, I suspect I would want to avert my eyes at a survey of high school students asked to find Africa on a global map.

That may be Freudian slip of the week

Alex, I don't agree with you often, but you're spot on here.

I just don't buy that Palin, knowing she's pretty shrew and smart politically to do what she's done in Alaska, is an abject moron.

I don't buy it. I think McCain aids are burning her to protect their own incompetence.

I've encountered my than my share of students who didn't know Africa wasn't a country.

That is horrifying. Don't people read books anymore?