Sarah Palin Attempts To Explain 'Refudiate' Gaffe
Amid the familial banter that took place on Sunday's episode of "Sarah Palin's Alaska," the former Alaska Governor went beyond criticism of conservationists to explain the much ridiculed genesis of her faux-word, "refudiate."
Politico reports on the exchange, which briefly touched on a tweet from July -- since deleted -- concerning plans to build an Islamic cultural center near the site of Ground Zero:
"I pressed an F instead of a P and people freaked out," said Sarah, pointing out that her blunder was the second-most-searched word on Google trends. "Make lemonade out of lemons," said Sarah.
The original Twitter dispatch read: "Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate."
Many at the time believed the fabrication was a misguided splicing of the words "repudiate" and "refute." At any rate, the made-up word went viral and has since been named "Word of the Year" by The New Oxford American Dictionary
The Washington Post points out "that the 'F' and 'P' keys on a QWERTY keyboard are not near each other."
Others have also begun to question Palin's explanation of the mistake, pointing to this video of the former governor using "refudiate" during an appearance on Fox News before the Twitter gaffe.
WATCH (comments at the 2:30 mark):
UPDATE:
In the clip from "Sarah Palin's Alaska" below, it turns out that Palin claims she "pressed an 'f' instead of a 'd'" on the way to creating the word "refudiate." While the "f" and "d" keys are indeed closer to each other on a QWERTY keyboard, such an explanation would suggest that she was intending to spell the word "redudiate," which is also not a real word.
WATCH:
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First Posted: 12/27/10 04:16 PM ET Updated: 05/25/11 07:20 PM ET