Fey/Palin Top 2008's Most Memorable Quotes

No He Can’t! President-Elect Does Not Make Yale Lecturer's Top-10 List of Quotations

(AP)  Sarah Palin lost the election, but she's a winner to a connoisseur of quotations.

The Republican vice presidential candidate and her comedic doppelganger, Tina Fey, took the top two spots in this year's list of most memorable quotes compiled by Fred R. Shapiro.

First place was "I can see Russia from my house!" spoken in satire of Palin's foreign policy credentials by Fey on "Saturday Night Live."

Palin actual quote was: "They're our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."

Palin also made the third annual list for her inability to name newspapers she reads. When questioned by CBS anchor Katie Couric, Palin said she reads "all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years."

Palin's quotes were pivotal, said Shapiro, associate librarian and lecturer in legal research at the Yale Law School who compiles the list.

"This quote helped shape the election results," he said of the Russia quote. "As it sank in, the public realized this was someone really, really inexperienced and perhaps lacking in curiosity about the world."

Shapiro issued his Yale Book of Quotations, with about 13,000 entries, two years ago after six years of research. He expects to release the next edition in about five years, but in the meantime plans to issue annual top 10 lists.

Picking the best quotes this year was especially challenging because the presidential race and financial crisis provided so much material, Shapiro said.

Last year's list ranged from "Don't tase me, bro" - shouted by a Florida college student - to a quote from a Miss Teen USA contestant who gave a confused and mangled response to a question about why one-fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a map.

Shapiro said that when he began the list he thought he would select the most profound, eloquent or witty quotes. But the celebrity culture and political discourse led him down a different path.

"What I have come to do is pick some quotes that really say something about our culture and they tend almost exclusively to be quotes that are notable for negative reasons rather than being admirable or eloquent," Shapiro said.

Palin's running mate, Sen. John McCain, also made the list twice, once for his "the fundamentals of America's economy are strong" comment in April, and again for saying "maybe 100" when asked last January how many years U.S. troops could remain in Iraq.

Shapiro said the quotes may have been somewhat unfairly construed. "Nonetheless, these quotes cemented his image as someone who was out of touch with economic realities or indifferent to economic realities and being someone who was fanatical about prosecuting the war in Iraq," he said.

Shapiro relies on suggestions from quote-watchers around the world, plus his own choices from songs, the news and movies, and then searches databases and the Internet to determine the popularity of the quotes.

Phil Gramm, a McCain advisor, made the list for saying "We have sort of become a nation of whiners" in July in reference to Americans concerned about the economy.

President-elect Barack Obama didn't make the list, not even for his much-criticized remark in which he said some small-town Americans "cling to guns or religion."

"To me it didn't seem like a very remarkable or very foolish quote," said Shapiro, who describes himself as a liberal Democrat. "Ultimately I decided against it, but it was a close call."

However, a crude remark about Obama by the Rev. Jesse Jackson did make the list. Jackson apologized for the comment during what he thought was a private conversation in July.

"It indicates Republicans do not have a monopoly on quotes that are deplorable," Shapiro said.

While Obama dominated the year and produced memorable quotes, "quotes from people like Palin were more celebrated and said more about our times than anything Obama said."


The Top 10 quotes of 2008, as compiled by the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations:

1. "I can see Russia from my house!" - Comedian Tina Fey, while impersonating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live," broadcast Sept. 13

2. "All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years." - Palin, responding to a request by CBS anchor Katie Couric to name the newspapers or magazines she reads, broadcast Oct. 1

3. "We have sort of become a nation of whiners." - former Sen. Phil Gramm, an economic adviser to Sen. John McCain, quoted in The Washington Times, July 10

4. "It's not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number." - a Treasury Department spokeswoman explaining how the $700 billion number was chosen for the initial bailout, quoted on Forbes.com Sept. 23

5. "The fundamentals of America's economy are strong." - McCain, in an interview with Bloomberg TV, April 17

6. "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." - the Treasury Department's proposed Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, September 2008

7. "Maybe 100." - McCain, discussing in a town hall meeting in Derry, N.H., how many years U.S. troops could remain in Iraq, Jan. 3

8. "I'll see you at the debates, bitches." - Paris Hilton in a video responding to a McCain television ad, August 2008

9. "Barack, he's talking down to black people. ... I want to cut his ... off." - Rev. Jesse Jackson, overheard over a live microphone before a Fox News interview, July 6

10. (tie) "Cash for trash." - Paul Krugman discussing the financial bailout, New York Times, Sept. 22.

10. (tie) "There are no atheists in foxholes and there are no libertarians in financial crises." - Krugman, in an interview with Bill Maher on HBO's "Real Time," broadcast Sept. 19

10. (tie) "Anyone who says we're in a recession, or heading into one - especially the worst one since the Great Depression - is making up his own private definition of 'recession.'" - commentator Donald Luskin, the day before Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, The Washington Post, Sept. 14

[missybelle-2009]

Posted by ms1-1-1 at 10:13 PM : Dec 14, 2008


You make no sense....

[formrusmcsgt]

It is pretty obvious to me that Sarah Palin is far smarter than Obama --

Posted by adamh97 at 11:28 PM : Dec 14, 2008

Barack Obama''s estimated IQ score range is 130 to 148 and quite possibly higher.

Sarah Palin''s IQ score has been dificult to obtain. However, we know that she is a college graduate with a Bachelors degree in Journalism and a minor in Political Science and just by sheer estimation we can safely say that she has an IQ of at least 125 or higher.

http://www.kids-iq-tests.com/r-prez.html

[toobigtofail]

its pretty obvious to me that Sarah Palin hangs around with convicted Felons...Ted Stevens

[toobigtofail]

t is pretty obvious to me that Sarah Palin is far smarter than Obama ..."

Posted by adamh97 at 11:28 PM : Dec 14, 2008

---

its pretty obvious to me that Sarah Palin is much smarter than adamh97...and that aint sayin much

[caldwellptr]

I see none of us made the list, again!

This list could have been put together by the DNC. It was in a way, Yale and the rest of Academia are so liberal they can almost be called a branch of the DNC. It never ceases to amaze me how liberals can be so critical of Sarah Palin and at the same time ignore the stupid things that Joe Biden and Obama say.

It is pretty obvious to me that Sarah Palin is far smarter than Obama -- she has the sense not to hang out with virulent anti-Semites, racists or terrorists. Yes, Sarah had some gaffes, but, many of Obama''s ideas which he presented sounded fine on the surface, but were actually seriously flawed, so naive that it is amazing more people didn''t see through them.

[tangouniforn]

If you do not like his list, put out one of your own.
If you are as good as you think your are, it will be a smash hit.

[solarrays247-2009]

Posted by bpmcgarry at 07:30 PM : Dec 14, 2008

Is your computer suffering from hic-cups? Thought so, ''cause that must be why you continue to post the same post over and over and over again! Poor thang!

[bpmcgarry]

This sounds like a list put out by the Democratic National Committee. Obviously, YALE is bereft of any semblance of fairness or attempt at unfiltered views. This is what is wrong with higher education.

Obama: We have campaigned in 57 states, with a few more to go.
Biden: When FDR got on television to explain to the American public the cause for the stock market crash of 1929...completely ignoring that TV''s weren''t introduced to the American public until 1938 or that FDR wasn''t officially president until 1933...4 years later.

This was a political hack job by one person, who has appointed himself arbiter of American quotations. Completely irrelevant...

God *** America!
I am for the first time proud to say I am an American.

Those aren''t improtant either...

[bpmcgarry]

This sounds like a list put out by the Democratic National Committee. Obviously, YALE is bereft of any semblance of fairness or attempt at unfiltered view. This is what is wrong with higher education.

Obama: We have campaigned in 57 states, with a few more to go.
Biden: When FDR got on television to explain to the American public the cause for the stock market crash of 1929...completely ignoring that TV''s weren''t introduced to the American public until 1938 or that FDR wasn''t officially president until 1933...4 years later.

This was a political hack job by one person, who has appointed himself arbiter of American quotations. Completely irrelevant...

God *** America!
I am for the first time proud to say I am an American.

[bpmcgarry]

This sounds like a list put out by the Democratic National Committee. Obviously, YALE is bereft of any semblance of fairness or attempt at unfiltered view. This is what is wrong with higher education.

Obama: We have campaigned in 57 states, with a few more to go.
Biden: When FDR got on television to explain to the American public the cause for the stock market crash of 1929...completely ignoring that TV''s weren''t introduced to the American public until 1938 or that FDR wasn''t officially president until 1933...4 years later.

This was a political hack job by one person, who has appointed himself arbiter of American quotations. Completely irrelevant...God *** America! I am finally proud of it.

[bpmcgarry]

This sounds like a list put out by the Democratic National Committee. Obviously, YALE is bereft of any semblance of fairness or attempt at unfiltered view. This is what is wrong with higher education.

Obama: We have campaigned in 57 states, with a few more to go.
Biden: When FDR got on television to explain to the American public the cause for the stock market crash of 1929...completely ignoring that TV''s weren''t introduced to the American public until 1938 or that FDR wasn''t officially president until 1933...4 years later.

How about Joseph Wright did he say anything that touched a nerve?

This was a political hack job by one person, who has appointed himself arbiter of American quotations. Completely irrelevant...

[bpmcgarry]

This sounds like a list put out by the Democratic National Committee. Obviously, YALE is bereft of any semblance of fairness or attempt at unfiltered view. This is what is wrong with higher education.

Obama: We have campaigned in 57 states, with a few more to go.
Biden: When FDR got on television to explain to the American public the cause for the stock market crash of 1929...completely ignoring that TV''s weren''t introduced to the American public until 1938 or that FDR wasn''t officially president until 1933...4 years later.

How about Joseph Wright did he say anything that touched a nerve?

This was a political hack job by one person, who has appointed himself arbiter of American quotes.

[clovisbuford]

What about "Lipstick on a Pig" that Obama got a standing ovation for when he attacked Palin? Posted by opedanderson at 05:25 PM : Dec 14, 2008...errr if you think that quote was a reference to Palin you are delusional. Its quite clear it didn''t reference Palin in the context in which it was used .As for paying your taxws is patriotic .? It is , for a conservative you seem to think wealthier Americans deserve a free ride . In WW2 the top 1% of income earners paid a whopping 94% of their income to pay for the war agains Nazzissm . In the current "war against Terror" the wealthiest 1 5 were given tax breaks . Go on back to listening to talk radio , its obviously what you consider "news"

[centerfall94]

Posted by opedanderson at 05:25 PM : Dec 14, 2008

Denial.

For republicans, it''s not their party''s horrible leaders'', it must be the biased media!

Straight from Limbaugh/Hannity''s bigoted mouths to your ears, and look - right out your mouth!

Predictable.

Sad.

Pathetic, even.

Cry more please?

[opedanderson]

Well, this article was accurate in one sense:

" Shapiro, who describes himself as a liberal Democrat..."

Of course, he picked the worst of the quotes possible from the other side (from his point of view) and conveniently overlooks the doo-seys that the Liberals came out with......like from Joe "foot in the mouth" Biden? 6 months to be tested/be patriotic and pay more taxes/Clinton might have been a better choice....Ring a bell, idiot?

And why did you not include the guns and religion quote from The Messiah? Was that less "pick(ing) some quotes that really say something about our culture..." than the one from the Treasury Dept? What about "Lipstick on a Pig" that Obama got a standing ovation for when he attacked Palin? How did that not make your list? Or Clinton''s "3 am"?

This article is yet another example of CBS''s and the rest of the MSM''s love affair with the Chosen One Barack Obama.

You are just another hack gasping for air from inside the Barack Obama Tank.....

[centerfall94]

LOL! The Witch of Wasalia is just precious! Her quotes are as good as the Shrub''s! LOL! Hilarious!!!!