What happens when liberals decide “Quotes of the Year”
Fred R. Shapiro is a Yale historian. He compiles an annual “memorable quotes of the year” list and has publishes the “Yale Book of Quotations.”
MSM outlets love Shapiro’s lists.
Shapiro, you see, is an admitted liberal historian.
And the omissions on his authoritative list of quotes are revealing.
Topping the list are quotes from Sarah Palin and Tina Fey. John McCain made the list, too.
But out of all the gaffetastic gaffes committed by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Professor Shapiro couldn’t find a single noteworthy quote to include on his definitive list. Because, you see, he did not find the Democrat ticket’s gaffes “memorable” or “remarkable:”
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.
…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.”
No “Gird your loins.” No “mark my words.” No “J-O-B-S is a three-letter word.” No FDR on TV.
No “57 states.” No “states in the middle.” No “Iran doesn’t pose serious threat.”
No “typical white person.” No “not the person I knew.”
No “first time in my adult lifetime.”
And no “they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”
Some gaffes, as we saw over and over again over the last year, are more equal than others.
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Michelle focuses on an imbalance in highlighting gaffes. Obama gaffes are overlooked, so he’s missing from the list.
Unless I completely misundertand the purpose of the list, I think it’s equally telling that Obama is not represented by any positive quotes, given his reputation as an orator.
Consider Obama’s address on race relations, delivered in March shortly after Rev. Wright first landed in the national spotlight. It was greeted with mountains of praise at the time, but nine months later there’s not a memorable quote in the whole thing? Or his address accepting the nomination. So important at the time it demanded Greek columns, but no phrase worth recalling now?
Fixed.
“Stand up Chuck”
Of course then we have to have “Where’s Joe” also…
Besides The One says it’s not fair to use any of his quotes: “I mean, I think — this is fun for the press to try to stir up whatever quotes were generated during the course of the campaign. No, I understand, and you’re having fun.”
Excellent point, which makes it all the more clear that this was nothing more than a childish little attempt to hit Republicans rather than list any quotes.
Liberals. Always so intellectually honest. /sarc
He’s an idiot. Walk on.
There seems to be a lot of crap coming out New Haven these days. Usually it takes longer to affect the country, but it’s nice to see Shapiro has perfected the art of instant shatification.
Here’s a quote for Mr. Shapiro:
“Liberals think Conservatives are evil but we’re not. Conservatives think Liberals are stupid because they are.”
Very good–just keep away from buses.
I e-mailed Mr. Shapiro “the wheels on the bus go thump-thump-thump‘ for inclusion in next years list.
I could not find “God Damn America” on the list either.
Liberals think Conservatives are evil
but we’re notbecause Conservatives argue from reason, instead of emotion. Conservatives think Liberals are stupid becausethey areliberals argue from emotion, instead of reason.”The same thing happened with Barlett’s Book of Quotations a few years back.
I’m glad I have my 1893 edition.
Well really this is what you would expect from democrats no? But it is interesting that many of the Republican leadership echoes the democrat rants when it comes to Sarah Palin?….I am becoming convinced that Republican leadership has admitted many liberal democrats to its ranks….why else select John McKain?….why is one of the Prominent members of the leadership, Colin Powel, advising to disregard conservative advice?…why is Colin Powel a Prominent member of the Republican leadership when he indorsed the democratic ticket in the last election? This is reaching out across the isle of betrayal?
Question….How many more, than Colin Powel of the Republican Leadership voted the democratic ticket? quite a few more me thinks….I think John is the front runner for the next election, who will he pick for a running mate?
How about this quote from Obama speaking of Blago, using the catch phrase Palin was known for “You Betcha”
http://sarah-palin-2012.blogspot.com/2008/12/questions-remain.html
Yes! It is true, Little Diomede Island (part of Alaska) off the west coast of Alaska is only 2.5 miles from Russia’s Big Diomede Island.
Mainland Alaska is 55 miles from mainland Russia.
Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Here are my Obama quotes:
Hmmm,
aaah, well, aah, well, maybe, hmm, aahh…
this is nothing more than wikipedia, which produces more morons than even television. imagine a 12 year old looking up information in wikipedia. their information will be so heavily biased if it even remotely contains fact and that will be their thought basis, and get reinforced by liberal teachers who agree with the drivel. maybe that explains why we keep having to lower the norm in standardized tests such as sat. in 1950′s when that test was introduced, they took a bell curve between 400 and 1600 and assigned 1000 to be the norm. in 1990′s that norm had slipped to the low 900s, and was beginning to make the education system look bad, so the readjusted the norm. there, fixed the problem. the kids are still being educated less, and the taxpayer is still being charged more, but the teachers don’t appear to be to blame.
How about Democratic Black Congresswoman Maxine Water’s comment about the “evil oil companies” that bring us our energy and many raw materials? “I WANT TO SOCIALIZE THEM!”
***
She is too English challenged to use the proper verb–NATIONALIZE them–like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela does with any private property of value–without economic compensation.
***
Socialism is here–welcome to the new U.S.S.A.
***
John Bibb
“My Uncle, in WWII, liberated Auschwitz”.
Never mind that no US ground force ever got close to Poland.
Socky (#109) wins the Editor’s Award for Accuracy as far as I’m concerned.
Liberalism is patently disingenuous at best. Shapiro only serves as a tool to drive that point home.
What are you trying to tell us rocketman , Maxine Waters is dumber than a rock? I do have to admire her-she got that dumb without even going to
jailYale. But a little sympathy for Representative Waters and her constituents–they have not had an economic boom since the Rodney Kings riots allowed them to loot to their hearts content.But now with a President BroBama to lead them all will be Sweetness and Light in South Central LA; Aid to Dependent Children will flow like rivers of milk and honey, crack will be subsidized and all will be happy.
Praise Allah and BroBama.
What happened to our future glorious leader’s claim that he has visited 57 states…just one more to go!
Illegal aliens commit crimes every day and none of them go to yail. Chu know wha I mean?
Actully Russia IS close to Alaska, closer to it than most other US States. And this IS a Nation of whiners hence why a Half assed whimp is going to be setting in DC Next Month.