January 28, 2011 3:06 PM

Sarah Palin Elaborates on "Sputnik" Criticism

By
Brian Montopoli
Topics
Republicans

(Credit: Getty Images)
Sarah Palin posted to Facebook on Friday elaborating on her criticism of President Obama's State of the Union call for the United States to have a new "Sputnik moment" grounded in investing to unleash innovation.

Palin said in an interview on Fox News that Mr. Obama had offered a "WTF" moment (a derogatory play on his call for America to "win the future") in his speech and said the president "needs to remember that what happened back then with the former communist USSR and their victory in that race to space, yeah, they won, but they also incurred so much debt at the time that it led to the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union."

The response caused confusion because Mr. Obama was using "Sputnik moment" to describe the American response to the launch of the Soviet satellite, not celebrating the Soviet Union's ability to launch the satellite in the first place.

On Facebook Friday afternoon, Palin quoted a piece by Hoover Institution's Research Fellow Peter Schweizer defending her and criticizing a Washington Post writer, with a focus on whether the Soviet Union had a debt problem at the time of Sputnik.

She then wrote that "in a recent interview I mentioned analogies that could relate to solutions to our economic challenges, including the difference between a communist government's 'Sputnik' and the private sector's 'Spudnut.'"

Continued Palin: "The analogies I mentioned obviously aren't comparable in size, but highlight a clear difference in economic focus: big government command and control economies vs. America's small businesses."

She pointed readers to a Washington coffeeshop called The Spudnet Shop, writing, "Businesses like this coffee shop don't receive big government bailouts." Palin first mentioned The Spudnet Shop in her Fox News interview Wednesday.

"They produce something with their own ingenuity and hard work," she addsed "And here we see the former communist Soviet Union's advancement (before its government debt-ridden demise) vs. America's small businesses that are the backbone of our economy."

Palin went on to call for a "greater appreciation for the free market ingenuity of ordinary American entrepreneurs."

"Don't stifle their growth with burdensome regulations like Obamacare and cap-and-tax," writes the former Alaska governor. "Government should be on their side, not in their way."

An employee at The Spudnet Shop told Hotsheet Friday that Palin's aunt lives in the area, which may have been the reason it garnered Palin's attention.

The employee, who wanted to be identified only as Karen, said there has been an increase in customers since Palin first mentioned the shop Wednesday night, and that local newspaper and television stations have shown up as well.

Karen said there had not been much positive or negative feedback because of the Palin connection. "People are pretty civil," she said.


Add a Comment See all 231 Comments
by jeanneyess February 2, 2011 8:50 AM EST
Your'e right...Sarah Palin and Jan Brewer, the Twiggy Brained Twins, one's a half a governor who took 5 schools and 5 years to graduate with a BA in...communications (I didn't know that was a major) displayed proudly next to her gun license... and the other with her Associates Degree proudly displayed next to her gun license, selling us women down the river, I guess that is the price to pay to get ahead in politics, first thing, betray your gender right off the bat, don't let women have abortions or even "the morning after" pills, or any kind of birth control, and then when the poor woman has the child, you make sure you don't give her a dime to help support that child you made her have, no housing, no food, no clothes, not a blanket or little crocheted "shoes" for that babe, nope, and if the mom's Hispanic, get her across the border to Mexico or down to Puerto Rico, yeah, bribe her with a house in a crack community, just because you made her have it doesn't imply in any way any responsibility for that wiggly, new, fresh piece of humanity your laws wrought. Everyone loves a baby, even Republicans, just not having to pay for what it needs, now, you see, there you are crossing the line, like saving people with hepatitis with that costly drug, Interferon, now what's the point there, they are only going to die anyway, even if they are the breadwinner of the family, NOPE!, can't afford to go around keeping people alive, that's how we're going to solve the Social Security problem, let them die, DIE, BABY, DIE!!!

And Jan Brewer, I thought you had to meet some educational requirements to be a Governor, but guess not in Arizona, the state with the senator who needs real time censorship 24/7. But its a wild state like Alaska, where mavericks naturally breed (wink, wink). Now if Alaska would only let the wolf pups on the wilderness preserves islands instead of gassing them, REALLY, when you don't even know what the cause of the decline of caribou is, but then you go off gassing those baby wolf pups? You know there was this book called "The Keeper" who was the one person in this society who was the only one to know and remember the oral history of their society learning the past from the current Keeper, who was reaching the age of retirement, who had to pass on the history of their culture to the new Keeper, but then the new Keeper discovered that the retirement paradise was actually a factory and before the "retiring folk" went into the ground of paradise they took a pill so they wouldn't feel it when they were cut apart, literally butchered for meat, and once a week the entire culture would eat this meat to ration the luxury of real meat for the wealthy, who got steaks and breasts and chops, and the lesser pieces going to the markets for the lesser people, but, yes, that was their "retirement paradise," making of humans meat, and when the new Keeper discovered this, he knew his parents would not believe him, but he planned the escape of his younger brother and himself, and great trepidation, and many fearful government positioned warnings and attacks that from which they had to escape, the last being the worst, they got through to the other side, you ask the other side of what...the artificial world in which they had been living with controlled weather to maximize the happiness factor that you wouldn't "think" you just went along your way with everyone else, enjoy the weather, your nice and secure job, would eat, like the Catholics eat fish on Fridays, the special meat, and never ask, and if you wanted to know something about the history of the people you would go to "The Keeper."

And just how far are we to this simplistic society where the people don't ask questions and there are no books, no real education beyond elementary school for there is nothing but the governrment newspaper to read, no churches with bibles, plenty of How-To Books and picture books of places all over their realm to plan for holidays, but the government had stopped transcontinental and trans border holidays centuries ago, for the propaganda that the population was "forced on them" during their trips and the fees for the passports, too high, even across provincial borders, the fees were plenty high enough, most people stayed home and visited their own provincial parks.

Its coming sooner than you think...
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by dougp3104 February 1, 2011 10:18 PM EST
Anyone who seriously considers Mrs. Palin as anything more a nuisance should be examined for serious conditions of the hallucinatory kind. Who's been popping LSD?
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by USN__ret February 1, 2011 5:54 PM EST
Palin Always has been, and will always be irrelevant, why bother?
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by SeventeenAtHeart January 31, 2011 10:54 PM EST
Mrs. Palin's comment serves to highlight her lack of professionalism.
With a vocabulary like that, I wouldn't hire her for an entry level position.
She'd be too much of a liability (in a business environment, her kind of reckless speech is a lawsuit waiting to happen).

Which really makes me wonder - how can anyone at all remotely consider her to be Presidential material?
Reply to this comment
by mick7744 January 31, 2011 5:24 PM EST
by JV1970 January 31, 2011 3:49 PM EST
mick You're just mad at me for winning the argument about Trig and now you're trying to accuse me of murder. Well that little tactic didn't work two weeks ago with Sarah when you liberals tried to accuse her of murder and it won't work now with me for the same reason! You had no evidence against her and you have no evidence against me! But you idiots won't give up! You keep trying the same thing over and over again and saying the same thing over and over again without a shred of proof!

************************************

You've posted a lot of stupid things in the past, JV1970...but I think you've got a winner with your ludicrous remarks above.

You don't "win" an argument by simply announcing that you've "won" it...without addressing any of the points raised...and you absolutely never do...which is why I keep raising the same points over and over.

Don't you think it a bit strange that the (then) governor of a state could have such an extremely high-risk (and bizarre) delivery and there not be a single public record of that event...anywhere?

Please don't annoy me any more with this "I won" nonsense...you haven't even participated in the game yet...I mean the discussion!

As far as the stuff about accusing you of murder...I'll just leave that to you and your mental health care professsional.
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by carami6 January 31, 2011 9:16 PM EST
that's the way to say it
by JV1970 January 31, 2011 9:24 PM EST
mick7744 There is something else about me that you should know! Just as I don't joke neither do I play games and neither am I playing this one!I knew I had won from the very beginning of this argument! I knew that there is no way you could produce the birth certificate that I dared you to show me. You couldn't produce it and therefore I didn't need to and don't intend to address any "points" which you don't have anyway! Your "points" are just the same old unprovable crap that's been circulating all over the internet for the last two years. They are nothing new!
by mick7744 January 31, 2011 4:10 PM EST
Tou've posted a lot of stupid things in the past, JV1970...but I yhink you've got a winner with your ludecres remarks above.

You don't "win" an argument by simply announcing that you've "won" it...without addressing any of the points raised...and you absolutely never do...which is why I keep raising the same points over and over.

Don't you think it a bit strange that the (then) governor of a state could have such an extremely high-risk (and bizarre) delivery and there not be a single public record of that birth...anywhere?

Don't annoy me any more with this "I won" nonsense...you haven't even participated in the game yet!
Reply to this comment
by mick7744 January 31, 2011 4:26 PM EST
Sorry about the spelling...issues with my keyboard,

If it was a horse I'd have to shoot it

Yeah, USA_Is-back...I think it will be interesting to see which of them goes completely over the edge first.

Any wagers?
by kansas1946 January 31, 2011 4:08 PM EST
The problem with Sarah is, she makes a stupid comment, then when she gets criticized she tries to "explain" her stupid comment and just sounds more stupid. She just needs to let it go and get off of Face Book. She says more dumb stuff on Face Book. And John McCain wante to put this person one heart-beat away from the presidency. Incredible.
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by wildemanne January 31, 2011 3:18 PM EST
more unintelligible dribble from the great bigoted hope of the neo jerk celebration!wow if we were to depend upon her greatly minuscule nfs mind to elaborate all the stupidity that comes forth from the tea bagged ones 2nd grade would have to be re-evaluated,and the natl language {as if thats ever been questioned? although i do remember a comment on the natl language and script i was told it is ENGLISH not megreaslopshtcrap,you kno i think they call this spadniko but its all a bunch a unintelligible crap, since border jumping to this side is overlooked by law and not enforced as long as the culprits are kinda dark & they live tax free & unbound by gringo laws {they say stupid people listen to that stupid dribble,they must be right by all the extremely wealthy illegal drug pushers,counterfeiters,smugglers,& human traffickers,not even touching on counterfit music & movies! stupid gringos
Reply to this comment
by JRC_903 January 31, 2011 1:53 PM EST
Yes--when you use mere income as a measure of success, then Sarah Palin is more successful then the average American, even if she is far less intellect. But that's okay, most high end call girl also make more money than the average American.
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by jeanneyess January 31, 2011 1:04 PM EST
You know a lot of folk are having a good laugh at the notion of Sarah going for office, but are we going to be laughing when the notoriously imbecile decisions oof the Republicans go for image instead of intellect come next election. Of course, they aren't going to let her make any real decisions, probably like she didn't after making the hocky rink decision in Wasilla and wasted a whole lot of money that could be used for other things, but since I read that Alaskans get about $2K a year in Oil Royalties, I guess, waste away, especially after she got the millions for that "Bridge to Nowhere" from the Treasury and then didn't build it...she was, at that point required to return the money to the Treasury, legally and ethically, but she did not, now that's an example of theft of funds from the Treasury, and it's nothing to be proud of, and in fact, I would think that at some point, the Treasury is going to request the monies back, as it is due to them, and then, Half-a Governor Palin, what do you intend to do? It does NOT set a good precedent for honesty as you run for anything in any future election, my dear. Honesty is, above all else, the most significant qualification for any political position in Our American Government...What have you Palin for President People have to say to that?
Reply to this comment
by kcjwind January 31, 2011 1:08 PM EST
Your life will be the same either way
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