Palin Misquotes Albright: "Place In Hell Reserved For Women Who Don't Support Other Women"

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.'"

Actually, Albright didn't say that. The accurate quote is, "There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't help other women." (Sources made the same point to CBS's Scott Conroy.)

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."

Albright responded to Palin's remarks in a statement to the Huffington Post on Sunday. "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."

Here's video of Palin's remarks:

Comments

[spiderbucket]

There is a special place is Hell for HYPOCRITES.

[jja]

That's the truth.

[coffee36]

Amen to that.

[OhCaptain]

Now, why didn't she mention Starbucks cups to Katie when she was asked where she gets her news?

[rhodawade]

Because she was holding the cup and her hand was over the writing. Out of sight, out of mind!

[stater75]

This could be the trashiest thing I've heard Palin say so far. To take a quote that was to inspire the female spirit to help fellow women and mothers in need and twist it like this. Besides making me angry, it made me feel sad for her. I don't know how anyone can listen to her without being offended. I guess Wendy Wine Coolers don't really care.

[DocJ]

Palin's latest distortion highlights one of the scariest things about her ticket: the strong possibility of real mental disorder in both candidates.

Many people laugh at Palin's syntax-mangling (which is even worse than Bush's), but as others have pointed out, her speech resembles the "word salad" that's a major symptom of serious, even pathological, cognitive confusion.

So it's not just a matter of disagreeing with what she says: her inability to say it clearly suggests that her thinking process might be jumbled as well.

This is not something we can afford in a leader.

Nor is the paranoid whiff in nearly every statement by McCain. There's that "they're out to get me/us" mentality which he so often displays, as well as the smug grandiosity of claiming to be the Ultimate "Maverick" and "Patriot" when the facts show otherwise.

Add to this the myriad effects on a hair-trigger temper of spending nearly six years in a box, and all the unknown repercussions that could conceivably surface during his first crisis as President. Nobody doubts the horrors he endured in Vietnam, and PTSD can take decades to fully reveal itself.

The bottom line is that it could be nothing less than catastrophic to have such people in charge. I don't think this risk has been emphasized enough in the current dialogue.

(In case you're wondering why I'm so worried, please note that the "Doc" in "Doc J" reflects a PhD in psychology.)

[jazznjo]

gee...when you put it like that..... to be safe I better vote for Obama. at least he's a calm, cool, keep your distance while i think, but I give one heck of speech with proper syntax kind of a guy.

[Melty]

That is a funny quote coming from a governor who believes that sexual assault victims should pay for their own sexual assault examination kits. Oh you got raped, well if you want eveidence you'll have to pay to get it collected and if you don't like it then you shouldn't have got yourself raped because we all know it is always the victims fault. Really which one of us is going to hell? Me the Obama supporter or you Sarah the let's victimize the victim. I look and listen to her and I just don't get it. Who is Sarah? Where did she come from? and why is she here making my blood pressure rise everytime she opens her mouth?

[Daddysgirl]

Now she can't even READ word for word!

[SalsabyJake]

There is definitely a place in hell reserved for Sarah. She is violating a subpoena along with her husband. She owes back taxes on expenses she claimed for her children from the state of Alaska. She wants women to pay for their own rape kits and carry children from sexual assaults to term. She wants to rape the environment of her own beautiful state to dig up every last drop of oil (as Jon Stewart pointed out, "Will she charge for the rape kits used on the environment?!"). She accuses a decent man of condoning terrorism and accuses the media of entrapping her into stupid answers to deep questions like "What newspaper do you read?" She gets a whole WING in hell...

[rhodawade]

I liked your "environmental rape kit" comment!!

[zcanelakat]

Here Sarah, let me help you with this. You are not Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Barbara Jordan or Ann Richards. The next quote can be attributed to Sarah Palin when she was running for Governor of Alaska:
"I think it’s pretty cowardly... somebody is peddling this five days before the election, obviously to smear my reputation."
" [Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), 8/22/02]
http://mudflats.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/palin-2006-vetting.pdf

[crackerjill70]

The way I see it, there's a place in hell for women who take away other women's rights.

[stater75]

I'm sure Albright would agree with you.

[BerDov]

A very interesting article. As someone who is still learning English, I went to merriam-webster.com. Check it out, Nico:

Entry Word:
support
Function:
noun
2 an act or instance of helping— see help 1
It's high time to suggest to Websters:

This country faces some serious issues and many of you are smart enough to weigh in. Why do you people insist on making laughing stock of yourselves?

P.S. If Barry does win, you will not celebrate for long. You will be thrown under the bus as they say here, or put against the wall, as they used to say over there, where I grew up and earned A's in such subjects as "The History Of the Communist Party", "Political Economy of Socialism", "Marxist-Leninist Philosophy", and alike.
P.P.S Just wanted to hit return when noticed this ad below: "Mama Voted for Obama". Still not funny?

[Rhadamanthus]

Since there is such curiously strong opinions in these comments that "helping" somehow differs greatly from "supporting," would somebody please elaborate. If you do, please avoid explanations that are clearly outside the intent of Madeline Albright's sentiment. For example, one woman assisting another to get up physically after she has fallen down is helping without supporting but it is also clearly outside the intended meaning of Madeline Albright’s words.

If no one can explain the difference convincingly, please move on to more substantive issues.

[lhurley3171]

Thank you, seriously. They'll rip her a new one for every little stupid thing. Your right, the meaning is the same in both statements.

[JamesMo]

Oh God - Helping infers somebody that’s downtrodden that may need help. Supporting means mindlessly following - like you guys.

Get a life! Read a dictionary.

What a stupid thing to try and twist someone else’s words to try and support your own campaign.

[RLindsey]

The difference is that "help" implies aid on a basic, human level and support goes beyond that into the realm of ideas. If Sarah Palin worked together and she were being harassed because someone was attracted to her, my intervention would be "helping" her as a woman. If Sarah Palin and I worked together and she proposed an idea that I thought would be bad for our place of business, I would not "support" her.

While the words might be interchangeable at times, they simply do not have the same implication. And when considered the nuanced art of speechmaking it is valid to deeply consider a candidate's choice of words. The substitution of “support” for “help” implies that my gender obligation with Palin goes beyond a simple understanding of gender inequality.

There are plenty of situations in which I would “help” Sarah Palin. There are very few in which I would “support” her.

[MikeDu]

Palin didn't support H. Clinton. I guess that means Palin is going to spend eternity in the bowels of hell, right?

[lhurley3171]

Acctually, she never declared her support for any candidate until she was pick for VP. When asked a question about they type of candidate she would support last year Palin used the comment "he or she" to respond.

[elouis]

I know that people are using a lot of words to describe Sarah Palin. I know that she is playing politics and wants to win this election. But I think that it is time to have a serious discussion about what might be really wrong with her. Unless she knows somethings we don't, there's a problem here. She is not only embarrassing her family, women and her state but she is embarrassing our country, as McCain is beginning to do. She makes the claim to be a Christian, to one degree or the other, as all of these candidates have done. McCain selected her and claims he has "better judgment" than Obama/Biden. Is he trying to fool himself and the American people? What does that say about his ability to lead anything?

Life can get difficult and I and others want to give her the benefit of the doubt but it's becoiming impossible to do so. She simply is not qualified to lead (as VP) at this moment in time.

Pray for her, all of us in this nation and the next administration! Lincoln once said in tough times for America, paraphrasing Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:25), "that a house divided against itself will not stand". Perhaps, in the midst of all of our problems, God will use this "political chaos" to bring us closer together!

[Bobbi112947]

Read the cup again..

[Kristi23]

Hey Sarah, I'll send you some of my favorite teas from Celestial Seasonings and see if you can't grab something insightful to use between now and election day.

Just remember all you republicans, her next big decision could come from something she read out of a fortune cookie.

I truly can't believe that we are at this juncture, I hope her next cup o joe, says, no when to put your country first and step down.