Sarah Palin on Shakespeare

Palin's recent gaffe with "refudiate" and her subsequent statement that her creativity should be celebrated, because Shakespeare made up words too, reminded me of something.  You've all run across the annoying teenager who says theye won't study for the test because "It doesn't matter, Einstein failed his University entrance exam".  Of course, that's true.  But the teenager is no Einstein.  And Sarah Palin is no Shakespeare.  The response to her should be the same as what you'd tell the teenager.

When you've demonstrated you absolute command of the language in its present form by writing some of the most expressive dialogue and poems of your time, then we'll give you a pass. If you made up, or borrowed a word to express an idea that wasn't named in the language, we'd commend you for that.  But in this case, Sarah knew there was a word, she didn't know how to spell it or say it, and she should just come out and say it.  No reason to reach for glory in a straightforward gaffe.  Everyone makes mistakes, especially people who read "everything".