Much giggling on the blogs about Sarah Palin’s mis-tweeting the word “refudiate” to mean “repudiate.” Palin’s defense: Shakespeare made up words too.
This latest Palin invention is unlikely to endure. But I notice that one Palin word invention really does seem to be catching on: her use of the word “verbiage” (Palin pronounces it “verb-ij” ) to mean “words.”
See for example Palin speaking on Fox’s “Hannity” program on September 17, 2008.
HANNITY: Senator Barack Obama yesterday was attacking Senator McCain for saying that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Do you believe that the fundamentals of our economy are strong?
PALIN: Well, it was an unfair attack on the verbiage that Senator McCain chose to use.
“Verbiage” historically means not merely “words” but excessive, prolix, or obfuscatory words. To say that someone is emitting “verbiage” is always a criticism, even an insult. Or anyway, it used to be so.
In the months since, I have heard more and more politicians and even non-politicians use “verbiage” in the same way as Palin, sometimes even pronounced the same way as Palin pronounced it. It seems a real trend. Thanks to Palin, a word that used to mean the cynical use of language to evade, conceal and deceive now more and more just means “language.” It seems somehow an appropriate accomplishment.
anniemargret // Jul 20, 2010 at 6:15 pm
jenin: “. Frankly, I know alot of women like her who would’ve done the same thing. It’s childbirth, it’s not brain surgery.”
You know a lot of 44 year old women who would take two airplanes and drive through snowy road to a local hospital knowing fully well she was carrying a high risk baby with a serious brain defect?
I’ve had three by Cesarean and my last was born when I was 31 years old. I almost lost the baby due to delivery complications. No sane women would do what Palin does, except a woman who has to prove how ‘tough’ she is. Everything she says is said with the intention of embellishing her resume with the public. Even having a baby.
She was irresponsible and selfish . Period.
anniemargret // Jul 20, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Actually the press needs to ask her about her pregnancy story. Why? Because if she fabricated it, or parts of it to impress her fans, then she would reveal herself to be a very superficial person, not the brilliant ‘Mom ‘o The Year’ status that everyone has conveyed on her now. Let’s see her repeat that pregnancy story over with someone other than the Fox News softball team.
It may seem like an aside, but frankly it speaks *volumes* about her basic character and integrity. Can anyone imagine Hillary pulling one of these stories on the press and America?
anniemargret // Jul 20, 2010 at 6:27 pm
msmilack: I share the disgust with you. I am tired of hearing about her in superficial terms. Most people care about a potential candidate’s views not whether or not they have a great family, is pretty, can shoot moose, etc… and by golly, I tired of hearing she wants ’smaller government’ – she needs to articulate exactly what that is and how she plans to make it so.
As far as people loving her…well I would suspect people in red state bars all adore her, but I would also suspect she doesn’t have a whole lot of fans in the east and west coast major cities . A poll also showed she gets very low marks from the college educated.
Like someone already said, it has nothing to do with the geographic location or background of a potential candidate – Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer, Lincoln was from the backwoods of Kentucky, even Reagan was born and raised in a second floor apartment above a ‘variety store’ in IL.
It has everything to do with what they say, and how they say it.
JeninCT // Jul 20, 2010 at 6:39 pm
“You know a lot of 44 year old women who would take two airplanes and drive through snowy road to a local hospital knowing fully well she was carrying a high risk baby with a serious brain defect?”
Um, yes I do. I know you people think childbirth is a serious medical condition but it’s the most natural thing in the world, and women all over the world give birth every day outside of hospitals.
Serious brain condition? Hardly. Genetic defect. It was important for me to get to my own Ob/gyn during labor, so I totally understand what she did.
You just can’t stand that she’s a conservative woman.
Watusie // Jul 20, 2010 at 6:55 pm
JeninCT, women leaking amniotic fluid and experiencing contractions don’t take 8 hour flights without the flight attendants noticing anything.
I have no problem with conservative women per se. I met Kay Bailey Hutchison once in person and found her to be very interesting and tremendously charming. Margaret Thatcher was da bomb.
What I can’t stand about Sarah Palin is that she is stupid and a liar.
anniemargret // Jul 20, 2010 at 6:57 pm
jenin: “You just can’t stand that she’s a conservative woman.”
Oh yes, jenin, keep on dreaming. All those 71% of Americans that don’t think she is fit to be President all dislike her because she’s a ‘conservative woman.’
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-6113291-503544.html
There is nothing ‘conservative’ about Palin. She’s an extremist and egotist. And if that’s the new normal for ‘conservatives’…I bet you David Frum and the Republicans moderates are frothing at the mouth in frustration. They should.
Xunzi Washington // Jul 20, 2010 at 7:51 pm
“You know a lot of 44 year old women who would take two airplanes and drive through snowy road to a local hospital knowing fully well she was carrying a high risk baby with a serious brain defect?
Um, yes I do. I know you people think childbirth is a serious medical condition but it’s the most natural thing in the world, and women all over the world give birth every day outside of hospitals.”
Now you are just posing. A 44 year old woman who has broken water with a high risk baby is not only at risk herself, her baby is at risk as well. It simply amazes me — I am really serious here — at how cavalier you seem to be about this. Which is what leads me to believe that you are putting us on. To put a baby’s life at risk in this manner is grotesque. The fact that you are morally bending yourself into a pretzel to make sure that you don’t critique her abysmal behavior in this case is stunning — no change that, horrifying — to me.
Quite simply — it’s a moral outrage, and any doctor would say the same thing.
JeninCT // Jul 20, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Watusie wrote:
“JeninCT, women leaking amniotic fluid and experiencing contractions don’t take 8 hour flights without the flight attendants noticing anything. ”
Planes are a way of life in Alaska and especially for the Governor of Alaska. Also, she’d already had four kids. I think you people are taking your experiences with pregnancy and childbirth and projecting them onto someone who has had very different experiences than you.
Xunzi Washington // Jul 20, 2010 at 8:16 pm
“Planes are a way of life in Alaska and especially for the Governor of Alaska. Also, she’d already had four kids. I think you people are taking your experiences with pregnancy and childbirth and projecting them onto someone who has had very different experiences than you.”
Um no, you say “my water broke, I’m 44, and I have a high risk baby” and you check your ass into a hospital like any marginally morally sensitive person would. And this is not the point of view of some one person with idiosyncratic experiences. It’s the MEDICAL establishment’s view of the situation.
Of course, if you want to continue serving as the board’s witch doctor, knowing better than the current medical science of 2010, go right ahead.
CentristNYer // Jul 20, 2010 at 8:48 pm
If Palin was telling the truth about the final hours of her delivery, her actions were reckless and showed extraordinarily poor judgment. If, however, she fabricated the details to make it a more interesting war story — or to deflect attention away from the truth surrounding the birth — this only confirms her reputation as a fabulist.
In either case, how could anyone with a brain think this woman should be the voice of the GOP, let alone be allowed anywhere near the White House?
Xunzi Washington // Jul 20, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Centrist says: “In either case, how could anyone with a brain think this woman should be the voice of the GOP, let alone be allowed anywhere near the White House?”
Ask Jen, the resident witch doctor and shaman. She seems to have first-hand knowledge of how a person could be in the affirmative camp on those questions.
Watusie // Jul 20, 2010 at 9:27 pm
JeninCt: the number of hours spent in the air determines the strength of a woman’s uterine muscles, so that Palin was able to just “hold it in” until she got to Wasilla? I’m going to mark that down as one of the stupidest things I’ve heard.
CentristNYer // Jul 20, 2010 at 9:39 pm
@Xunzi:
I’m still waiting for Jen to explain this remark: “I also believe that she left her role as governor because it was in the best interests of her state.”
In other words, Jen believes that we should hire as president the woman who had to resign her last job because she’d failed so miserably.
If that isn’t a totally deranged line of thought, I don’t know what is.
JeninCT // Jul 20, 2010 at 10:00 pm
CentristNYer wrote:
@Xunzi:
“I’m still waiting for Jen to explain this remark: “I also believe that she left her role as governor because it was in the best interests of her state.”
In other words, Jen believes that we should hire as president the woman who had to resign her last job because she’d failed so miserably. ”
OK, once more from the top for all the slow learners out there: She resigned because people and groups were hammering her with nonsense ethics violations that cost both time and effort to defend, so she chose to leave the office of the governor in the hands of her Lt. Governor, who shares her values and ideals.
The sheer hatred of her on these boards only cements my opinion that it must have been hell to be governor with that big target on her back. I don’t blame her for doing what she did. It was best for Alaska and best for her.
CentristNYer // Jul 20, 2010 at 10:35 pm
JeninCT // Jul 20, 2010 at 10:00 pm
“She resigned because people and groups were hammering her with nonsense ethics violations”
You really are astonishingly gullible.
Xunzi Washington // Jul 20, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Jen
I’m assuming that there’s only a finite amount of Kool Aid in the world and your behavior in this thread has convinced me that the price must be going up, up, up.
msmilack // Jul 20, 2010 at 11:50 pm
Xunzi Washington // Jul 20, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Either the entire labor story was made up and she was never in labor in the first place before she returned to Alaska; or it’s at least partly true which means that she knew she was taking a risk with the health of the infant and didn’t care. Whether that is because the baby was developmentally imperfect or because of her ambition, I can’t say.
Watusie // Jul 21, 2010 at 8:07 am
JeninCT
Firstly, the problems with the Alaska ethics complaints system did not detrimentally impact the lives of the ordinary Alaska citizens, so Palin could have continue to fulfill her duty to the people who elected her – the truth is she simply found it inconvenient to do so, and so quit on them.
Secondly, a real leader would have led the charge to fix the problems in the system – not just said “oh well, this sucks, I’m outta here”.
CentristNYer // Jul 21, 2010 at 9:58 am
Watusie // Jul 21, 2010 at 8:07 am
“…a real leader would have led the charge to fix the problems in the system – not just said “oh well, this sucks, I’m outta here”.
But, Watusie — didn’t you get JeninCT’s memo? Palin is a “fighter”!
Fairy Hardcastle // Jul 21, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Refudiate. It’s not such a bad concoction is it? It has a certain efficiency about it. You are asking someone to both refute (give an argument against) and repudiate (affirm that it is not your point of view) in one word. Reminiscent of bloviate which is a BOR favorite.
nahiaali33 // Jul 22, 2010 at 2:44 am
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