Much has been made about Sarah Palin’s intellektual capabilities. A fact which many might describe as “much ado about nothing.” Our recent glimpses as to what magazines and newspapers Governor Palin reads (“all of them, any of them…”) or her thoughts on the Bush Doctrine (“…”), her tendency to go off on tangents during the recent vice presidential debate, her folksy catch-phrases and her regional pronunciation of “nukular,” have many speculating not whether Governor Palin is experienced enough to hold such a high office, but whether she’s intelligent enough.

Recently, documents purported to be Palin’s IQ stats and SAT scores have been thrusting their way into people’s inboxes, not unlike a fuckin’ redneck hockey player from Wasilla with but a rudimentary understanding of where babies come from. Dawn Eden, author of The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On, has announced that Palin’s SAT scores are, in fact, forgeries based on her own scoresheet, which she posted publicly in 2004. Eden’s original scores were doctored to lower the grade and feature Palin’s name. The other document, claiming to reveal Palin’s lower-than-average IQ score of 83, has been floating around, yet to be authenticated.

Which leads us to the question: What does this have to do with Sarah Palin’s ability to govern? If she’s an idiot, then she’s at least an idiot who has managed to complete a college education (albeit in six years and at four different institutions of higher learning) and ostensibly act as a mayor to a town and, then, as governor of an entire state. And that’s without her father buying her a place at Yale. Surely she had to convince people she was at least more capable than all the other Joe Six-Packs vying for the same position. And, if not brilliant, Sarah Palin is at the very least incredibly savvy. She knows how to play to her strengths — her down-home appeal and self-publicized status as a “Washington outsider” — and rally people around her. Say what you will, that takes finesse and the ability to strategize.

Perhaps more pressing an issue that whether or not Sarah Palin was a good student or even what she has been able to accomplish despite an alleged lower-than-average IQ is whether the decisions she’s made reflect what the American people want in a leader and whether the issues closest to her heart are in the best interest of the public, and whether they’re in your best interest.

Take for example, oh… Latina voters! Issues that might be more socially, culturally and economically relevant to this demographic such as Palin’s stance on abortion, reproductive health, rape, health care, immigration, job creation, the ongoing war abroad - Is she on board with what you think or want? We’ve already heard from you on what factors you consider when voting for a candidate and 76% of you stated that neither a candidate’s ethnicity nor their gender influences your vote. So, barring voting on someone based on who makes their eyeglasses or who does their hair, you’re probably voting based on some combination of their experience (politically and otherwise) and their take on issues facing our country.

While it’s a fun form of release to speculate on how intelligent or dense certain politicians might be, let’s not lose sight of the forest for the meth-addled lumberjacks cutting down trees. Deal?

Nutroots use my SAT scoresheet to forge ‘Palin Grades’ [The Dawn Patrol]
Sarah Palin’s IQ? [Buzzfeed]