On Sunday’s episode of TLC’s epic reality television series Sarah Palin’s Alaska, the former governor addressed her use of the word refudiate (used in a tweet: “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate”). “I pressed an F instead of a P, and people freaked out,” she explained of the Twitter gaffe. That’s a fairly reasonable explanation, except she had used the word refudiate multiple times last year before tweeting it, and then she made a point of saying, “Shakespeare liked to coin new words, too. Got to celebrate it!” So, basically, the typo excuse is a lie. In any case, Palin enjoyed the spotlight the Twitter typo shined on her: On Palin’s Alaska, she pointed out that refudiate was the second-most-searched word on Google trends. “Make lemonade out of lemons!” she said. Now, long ago we realized Palin’s efforts to seek and receive attention were formidable, but we hadn’t realized she was officially of an “all press is good press” mentality. Well, we had, but we rarely hear her come out and say it.
