Sarah Palin

[contrasedative]

I was talking to some friends today who were convinced that Palin actually said the line, "I can see Russia from my house." After searching YouTube and Google for a while, one of them finally conceded that the line came from the SNL skit making fun of a similar sentiment in her Charlie Gibson interview

Comments

[jaiwithani]

The misattribution of the Alaska quote has bugged me, too. I think people conflated the quote with her because of the staggering number of dumb things she'd actually said. The parody evoked a perceived truth, as did Gore's (also not actual) quote, "I invented the internet".

That said, I think that the truth does matter, in both of these cases.
Gore really did exaggerate. Not as much as was perceived, but there was a nugget if truth behind the caricature. So with Palin.

Not everyone believes the "Secret Muslim" thing (the highest I saw was 15%) because there isn't much to hang it on and the Obama campaign fiught aggressively against it.

As for uninformed people voting..."democracy is the worst system of government, except for all the others". The best solution is to reach out and get people informed. It's hardly an ideal solution, but its the best we've got.