Sarah Palin Heads List of Top Quotes

Sarah Palin lost the elections but she came a winner in Fred Shapiro's list of the Top 10 Quotes brought out in the Yale Book of Quotations.

She didn’t come out on top in the political sweepstakes, but she made it to another list for her political gaffes. The Yale Book of Quotations edited and compiled by Fred R. Shapiro lists Sarah Palin and her ‘clowning’ pretender Tina Fey who did a satiric impersonation of Palin on Saturday Night Live. First Place went to this jewel of verbalism –

“I can see Russia from my house!"

This was spoken by Tina Fey as ridicule to Palin’s original –

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

Not to be outdone by an impersonator, Palin grabbed the second spot herself with this -

"All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years."

This was in response to a question by CBS anchor Katie Couric to name the newspapers or magazines she reads. Though her ‘un-profound’ missed the meaning, they had a profound impact on the American electorate. As Fred Shapiro says,

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

For Shapiro 2008’s list was a particular challenge because of the raw grist from the election year and the financial crisis.

"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 brought out the first Yale Book of Quotations, with about 13,000 entries, two years. He expects to release the next edition in about five years, but in the meantime plans to issue annual top 10 lists. Head here for the ‘Top 10’ list. One notable omission remained that of the President elect. A speaker of caliber he would be thankful that he missed this honor role at least.