Sarah Palin lost the election, but she's a winner to a connoisseur of quotations.
The Republican vice presidential candidate and her comedic doppelganger, Tina Fey, took the top two spots in this year's list of most memorable quotes compiled by Fred R. Shapiro.
First place was "I can see Russia from my house!" spoken in satire of Palin's foreign policy credentials by Fey on the TV comedy show "Saturday Night Live." Palin actual quote was: "They're our next-door neighbours and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
Palin also made the third annual list for her inability to name newspapers she reads. When questioned by CBS anchor Katie Couric, Palin said she reads "all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years."
Palin's quotes were pivotal, said Shapiro, associate librarian and lecturer in legal research at the Yale Law School who compiles the list.
"This quote helped shape the election results," he said of the Russia quote. "As it sank in the public realised this was someone really, really inexperienced and perhaps lacking in curiosity about the world."
Shapiro issued his Yale Book of Quotations, with about 13,000 entries, two years ago after six years of research. He expects to release the next edition in about five years, but in the meantime plans to issue annual top 10 lists.
Picking the best quotes this year was especially challenging because the presidential race and financial crisis provided so much material, Shapiro said.
Last year's list ranged from "Don't tase me, bro" - shouted by a Florida college student who was shot with a Taser stun gun - to a quote from a Miss Teen USA contestant who gave a confused and mangled response to a question about why one-fifth of Americans cannot locate the US on a map.
Palin's running mate, Sen. John McCain, also made the list twice, once for his "the fundamentals of America's economy are strong" comment in April and again for saying "maybe 100" when asked last January how many years US troops could remain in Iraq.The Top 10 quotes of 2008:
1. "I can see Russia from my house!" - Comedian Tina Fey, while impersonating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on the TV comedy show "Saturday Night Live".
2. "All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years." - Palin, responding to a request by CBS anchor Katie Couric to name the newspapers or magazines she reads.
3. "We have sort of become a nation of whiners." - former Sen. Phil Gramm, an economic adviser to Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, quoted in The Washington Times.
4. "It's not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number." - a Treasury Department spokeswoman explaining how the $US700 billion ($NZ1.3 trillion) number was chosen for the initial bailout.
5. "The fundamentals of America's economy are strong." - McCain, in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
6. "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." - the Treasury Department's proposed Emergency Economic Stabilisation Act, September 2008.
7. "Maybe 100." - McCain, discussing in a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire, how many years US troops could remain in Iraq.
8. "I'll see you at the debates, bitches." - Paris Hilton in a video responding to a McCain television campaign ad, August 2008.
9. "Barack, he's talking down to black people. ... I want to cut his ... off." - Rev. Jesse Jackson, overheard over a live microphone before a Fox News interview.
1. (tie) "Cash for trash." - Paul Krugman discussing the financial bailout, New York Times.
10. (tie) "There are no atheists in foxholes and there are no libertarians in financial crises." - Krugman, in an interview with Bill Maher on HBO's "Real Time," broadcast Sept. 19.
10. (tie) "Anyone who says we're in a recession, or heading into one - especially the worst one since the Great Depression - is making up his own private definition of "`recession."' - commentator Donald Luskin, the day before Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, The Washington Post.
