Sarah Palin's Strange Use Of The Phrase "Palling Around"

On Saturday October 4th, Sarah Palin opened up a new line of attack against Barack Obama at a rally, claiming Barack Obama is "someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." Source, CNN: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/05/fact-check-is-obama-palling-around-with-terrorists/#more-22716

CNN checked the facts, and determined that this claim was false. One could point out that making such a false claim indicates that Palin is a liar. And they would be right. But Palin's speech reveals an even greater problem - it shows she's kinda stupid. Here is a candidate for Vice President who doesn't really know how to use the English language.

First, she says Obama is palling around with "terrorists." Her attack is clearly referring to William Ayers. By my count, that is one guy. But Palin used the plural 'terrorists.' That would indicate there was more than one terrorist that was targeting his own country that Obama was palling around with. But even the attack ads indicate they are only talking about Ayers. I know she's supposed to be folksy, but even idiots don't use plural words when they are referring to the singular.

Ok, so Palin can't count very well. So what? Is anyone that shocked that a woman who can't name a single magazine or newspaper that she has read isn't good at math? But Palin also doesn't seem to understand the phrase 'palling around.' When I think of palling around, I think about hangin' with my buddy, watching a football game, playing playstation, or maybe taking part in a book club. Well, probably not taking part in a book club, but you get the point.

So, what did Obama do with this Ayers dude? According to CNN factcheckers, "Ayers and Obama worked with the non-profit Chicago Annenberg Challenge on a huge school improvement project." That doesn't sound like fun at all. It sounds like work - the big clue is he was working with a non-profit, not "having a blast, chillin' with the non-profit." That, and frankly, school improvement projects don't really sound fun.

They also "both were board members on the Woods Fund, a charitable foundation that gave money to various causes." I'm guessing the Woods Fund puts the bored in board. Even Carrot Top couldn't make serving on a board interesting, as anyone who has seen his film "Chairman of the Board" will attest. As the poster indicates "work sucks." If being on a board was something people did to pal around, the poster would have said "Chairman of the Board: Work is Awesome!"

Since when is doing work with someone considered palling around? By Palin's definition of 'palling around' I've palled around with all of my coworkers, even the creepy ones I try to avoid at all costs because he smells like cat urine and I think he may be a serial killer. And that's just not cool, because on the off chance that I ever run for something, I'd hate to have to respond to an ad that said I "palled around with a serial killer who smelled like cat urine."