Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
This is hilarious. Sarah Palin pointlessly misquoted former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at a campaign rally after reading the quote on a Starbucks cup, then managed to strike a "that goshdarn media is picking on me" pose based on how that misquote would be portrayed in the press:
At a rally on Saturday in California, Sarah Palin offered up a rather jarring argument for supporting the Republican ticket. "There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't support other women," the Alaska Governor said, claiming she was quoting former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.The statement came after Palin had recounted a "providential" moment she experienced on Saturday: "I'm reading on my Starbucks mocha cup, okay? The quote of the day... It was Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State [crowd boos] and UN ambassador. ... Now she said it, I didn't. She said, 'There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't support other women.'"
In fact, the quote said, "There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't help other women." And here comes that premature persecution pose that the religious right practices almost reflexively:
Palin seemed to realize that the line could be viewed as grating. As the audience cheered, she remarked: "Okay, now, thank you so much for receiving that well. I didn't know how that was gonna go over. And now, California, let's see what a comment like I just made, how that is turned into whatever it'll be turned into tomorrow with the newspaper."
I imagine it will be "turned into" exactly what it is, an idiotic bit of irrelevant pandering. Does she really expect anyone to take seriously the idea that Albright was saying that all women should vote for any woman for public office? If Palin believed that, she should have been out campaigning for Hillary Clinton. And if that wasn't the point of quoting Albright, I'd sure love to hear what the point could possibly have been.
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And Albright already responded to this two days ago (via HuffingtonPost http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/05/palin-misquotes-albright_n_131967.html ):
"Though I am flattered that Governor Palin has chosen to cite me as a source of wisdom, what I said had nothing to do with politics. This is yet another example of McCain and Palin distorting the truth, and all the more reason to remember that this campaign is not about gender, it is about which candidate has an agenda that will improve the lives of all Americans, including women. The truth is, if you care about the status of women in our society and in our troubled economy, the best choice by far is Obama-Biden."
Posted by: yoshi | October 7, 2008 9:46 AM
Palin did essentially the same thing during the debate with the gay marriage question by saying that her previous comments shouldn't be interpretted as her being intolerant of gays. It's the "I'm just saying" bit all over again. I predict today the quote is:
"Barrack Obama's father was a Muslim. I'm not saying that Obama is a Muslim, but I found that interesting. I'm sure the media will insinuate that I don't like Muslims, but I tolerate them."
Posted by: Odie | October 7, 2008 9:55 AM
Palin was drinking Mocha - how elitist! -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | October 7, 2008 10:33 AM
More evidence the GOP continues to mutate into some new more mutated form of social conservatism (we need to add the dishonest, idiotic and deluded traits into their label now).
Palin's attempts to be cute ploys are common in viral emails sent out by this crew, when you call them out on the lies they spread the response is that it was only in jest or "I didn't say it, that was what x said".
The fact the party no longer leads and maintains a higher standard of discourse but instead is adopting the flawed thinking and rhetoric of its constituents is evidence we need to insure our votes place them far, far away from power.
Posted by: Michael Heath | October 7, 2008 10:36 AM
"There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't help other women."
Palin doesn't help other women. You do the math.
Posted by: Penn | October 7, 2008 10:56 AM
At least now we're getting to know what media outlets Palin is reading that she couldn't recall in the Couric interview.
As for women who don't help women, how does Palin rencocile this with her proposal that victimized women should pay for their own rape kits?
McCain/Palin can lead us into the 20th Century!
Posted by: Paul Lamb | October 7, 2008 11:06 AM
It's a dumb quote to begin with-- people should help other people, regardless of whether they are fellow men or women. Instead of taking umbrage at Palin using her statement, Albright should ponder how that statement lends itself to such use in the first place. The quote suggests that women have an obligation to assist other women purely because of shared gender, and that's exactly how Palin used it. It was ugly when Clinton supporters did it, and it's just as ugly now.
Posted by: Gretchen | October 7, 2008 11:12 AM
You're right Gretchen, it really is a dumb quote to begin with. It's nice to see that Palin was excited about getting a positive reply from the audience. Clearly, she thinks a statement's worth should be judged by the applause-o-meter instead of it's actual meaning. That doesn't bode well for the remainder of the campaign.
Posted by: Odie | October 7, 2008 11:21 AM
That sounds like a really, really bad attempt to riff off Stephen Colbert's White House Correspondents Dinner speech:
Posted by: Aaron Golas | October 7, 2008 11:30 AM
A Starbucks cup? Well, at least she finally was able to name something she had actually read. It's a start.
~David D.G.
Posted by: David D.G. | October 7, 2008 11:49 AM
"Clearly, she thinks a statement's worth should be judged by the applause-o-meter instead of it's actual meaning. That doesn't bode well for the remainder of the campaign."
The applause-o-meter is probably a better predictor of votes than the content of the statement. Sadly.
Posted by: nunyer | October 7, 2008 12:20 PM
The really big news here is that Palin patronizes Starbucks. She must be one of those elitist commie pinko homo-loving bleeding hearts. Not a proper Republican at all. :)
Posted by: Bill Poser | October 7, 2008 12:34 PM
What's funny is that when you switch the quote to what it's supposed to be, she's the one going to hell.
I suppose Palin is fortunate that there is no hell.
Posted by: JStein | October 7, 2008 12:47 PM
So she saw the quote while she was sipping on a latte at Starbucks? When she read the quote, she was so moved that she almost choked on her arugula? Afterwards, she returned to the Country Club with her Hollywood buddies to smoke cigars and sip martinis, and to judge the 'common folk' behind their backs, right?
Posted by: Michael | October 7, 2008 1:30 PM
I was just driving to the debate last week, thinking about Foreign Policy, when on the radio came this song. I'm pretty sure the words were "bomb, bomb, bomb...bomb, bomb, Iran." I think that was providential.
Posted by: Odie | October 7, 2008 1:40 PM
You forgot to mention the context of Albright's original quote which was talking about declaring rape as a weapon of war.
Posted by: Noadi | October 7, 2008 2:53 PM
And something tells me Albright wouldn't be charging for the rape kits...
Posted by: Tulse | October 7, 2008 3:15 PM
This was the first sentence of the relevant part of Palin's speech:
Forgetting the excruciating valley-girl speak "like kind of", the key word here is "providential". This is yet more Christian fundamentalist code, this time meaning that the God supplied her with the Starbucks quote to use in her speech.
Now, it's not as though she's claiming that God swooped in and blazed the quotation onto the coffee cup a la The Ten Commandments, but it is exactly this type of "providential" occurrence or sign that this type of Christian believes happens to them every day as God guides them in their lives. I've heard this sort of thing many times from "Bible-believing" friends and acquaintances.
Palin believes that, at the very least, God steered her attention to the quote of the coffee cup as something important to use in her political stump speech.
Now imagine her governing the country the same way...
Posted by: tacitus | October 7, 2008 4:12 PM
Quick, get this woman a lifetime supply of Jones Cola -- STAT!!
Posted by: G Barnett | October 7, 2008 4:57 PM
Paul, you said: "McCain/Palin can lead us into the 20th Century!"
More like the 18th...
Posted by: Blaidd Drwg | October 7, 2008 6:31 PM
Does Palin regard her stupidity as a point of pride?
Posted by: CHV | October 7, 2008 7:35 PM
I guess we all are.
And Blaidd Drwg, you beat me to it.
Posted by: BaldApe | October 7, 2008 8:28 PM
Perhaps we should see if we can get Madeleine Albright to debate Sarah Notevenremotelybright?
Posted by: Azkyroth | October 8, 2008 1:01 AM
This is so stupid. Support and help mean the same thing. As if we were supposed to be mind readers and understand that Albright specifically was thinking "THIS STATEMENT CAN BE APPLIED TO ALL THINGS BUT POLITICS!!!". How did those talks go in North Korea Mrs Albright??? Everything go peachy?
I wish people would spend half the time focusing on all of Biden and Obama's "gaffes". For every imagined one for Palin there are at least 3 from the Dem ticket. SNL could make them look like idiots if they weren't so biased in the other direction.
Posted by: Mark | October 10, 2008 12:59 AM
For example?
Posted by: Azkyroth | October 10, 2008 6:11 AM