Elisabeth Hasselbeck Backs Palin: Proof She's As Dumb as Paris Hilton?

October 24th, 2008 12:22 PM

On The Huffington Post, blogger Beth Arnold asks the question "Is Elisabeth Hasselbeck Too Dumb to Be on The View?" Certainly, many would wonder if this is some sort of rhetorical question, considering intellectuals like Joy Behar wondering if Tim Johnson’s brain hemorrhage was a Republican conspiracy, and so on. But Arnold is serious.

When Hasselbeck announced she would introduce Sarah Palin at a campaign rally, she was apparently declaring she was as ditzy-dumb as Palin, and Paris Hilton. It demonstrated "the lack of her own curiosity and intellectual dynamism," unlike Arnold, whose bio-line boasts that her lively, dynamic brain lives and works in Paris:

I'd missed the Survivor show on which Ms. Hasselbeck was a contestant. Thank God. It would not have made feel any better about her replacing dynamic Lisa Ling on this television show I used to love, to discover Ms. Hasselbeck became a celebrity because she ate worms. And as the American dream works these days -- for example, Paris Hilton -- she became a bigger celebrity because she was a celebrity. The blondes even look alike. Do they have similar views? Oddly enough, with Ms. Hilton's past antics, it would be odd to think of her as having a higher IQ than anyone, but Ms. Hasselbeck graduated from college and had a job before she reached the heights of stardom by grubbing for survival and voting people off her island.

So Barbara Walters plucked her out of her new career of doing things like judging Miss Teen USA to sit with the ladies who had lots to say and spout off her deadly and dull conservative views. As my husband says, it makes for spirited conversation on the show -- and skyrocketed the ratings with Ms. Hasselbeck's discussions with Rosie O'Donnell.

But if The View is truly like women friends getting together to chat, discuss, dish -- whatever you want to call it -- Ms. Hasselbeck wouldn't be included, because that group of women wouldn't be friends.

Arnold is clearly and arrogantly stating that The View was a better show when there weren’t any conservatives on it, since conservatism and intellectual dynamism-slash-curiosity are apparently opposites. Notch that as another endorsement for the Fairness Doctrine in the Age of Obama. But it continued:

In this vigorous political season, has Ms. Hasselbeck gone too far? With her latest announcement that she'll be campaigning with and for Sarah Palin -- and that is an honor -- does this, unfortunately, demonstrate the lack of her own curiosity and intellectual dynamism. Has it become something her colleagues on The View and the rest of us can no longer ignore?

Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum will be together this weekend, blonde and brunette, no doubt wearing tight dresses. I only hope they'll also wear matching outfits to ratchet up the ratings with the Sarah Palin look.

Arnold might think that a more dignified method for stars of The View to behave in campaign season is to unload an X-rated "comedy" routine about keeping "bush" in your pants "instead of in the White House."