Alaska
governor palin-izes Newt Gingrich

By
John Breneman

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin definitely did NOT plagiarize Newt
Gingrich during a recent speech about Ronald Reagan. She Palin-ized
him.

Though Palin failed to mention that chunks of her 17-minute
speech were lifted from a 2005 article co-written by Gingrich,
she did acknowledge that, "Recently, Newt Gingrich, he
had written a good article about Reagan…"

While introducing Reagan’s son Michael at a GOP event in
Alaska last Wednesday, Palin said Reagan taught us that, "courage
and persistence are keys to historic achievement." In
contrast, Gingrich credited Reagan with teaching that, "Courage
and persistence are the keys to historic achievement."

Palin also mentioned the Gingrich
article a second time during her address — and though
several passages appear
to be lifted directly from Gingrich’s writing, supporters
say Palin sufficiently mangled the former House speaker’s
words and threw in enough "you betchas" to claim
the ideas as her own.

After all, Palin was a college journalism major who was far
too smart to fall for Katie Couric’s trick "gotcha"
questions about what she reads to stay so well-informed.

Critics who are fond of claiming that President Obama is
illiterate without a teleprompter pointed out that Palin was
not reading from ANY electronic devices whatsoever when she
said of Reagan:

"Reagan knew that real change and real change requiring
shaking things up and maybe takin’ off the entrenched interest
thwarting the will of the people with their ignoring of our
concerns about future peril caused by selfish short-sighted
advocacy for growing government and digging more debt, and
taking away individual and state’s rights and hampering opportunity
to responsibly develop our resources, and coddling those who
would seek to harm America and her allies."

A
little Reagan trickles down into the speeches of all Republican
politicians, but Palin’s little Dutch treat showed she’ll
do whatever it takes to be the GOP’s new Cute Rockne.

In other efforts to appear Reaganesque, Palin announced
she had just signed legislation that outlaws Russia forever
and ordered the Alaska National Guard to begin bombing in
five minutes.

She also called on the repressive communist government of
China to "tear down that wall."

VIDEO
of Palin’s Gingrich/Reagan speech

Related story: Palin
comparison: she’s no Dan Quayle — Oct. 3, 2008

Humor Gazette video: Fox
Puppet News: Sarah Palin & GOP convention — Sept.
3, 2008