From declaring that President Obama wears mom jeans to the moment she said we should all bless the haters, former Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin really outdid herself with head-turning quotes in 2014. Here are the top 8:
1. The time she decided Putin wrestles bears and Obama wears mom jeans
During a March interview with Fox News, Palin – in her own, quirky way – moved the conversation forward, calling out bizarre distinctions between Obama and Russia President Vladimir Putin.
Sound bite: “People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil. They look at our president as one who wears mom jeans,” Palin said “Anyone who carries the commonsense gene would know that Putin doesn’t change his stripes,” she said. “He wants to exert huge power and dominance, so he has to get to those border areas and he has to capture them.”
2. The time she sort of quoted Dr. Seuss
Following in the footsteps of Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who read from Dr. Seuss during his 21-hour filibuster in 2013, Palin brought out a copy of “Green Eggs & Ham” to the stage during her keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington, D.C.
Sound bite: “I do not like this Uncle Sam. I do not like his health care scam. I do not like these dirty crooks, or how they lie and cook the books. I do not like when Congress steals, I do not like their crony deals,” she continued. “I do not like this spying man. I do not like ‘oh yes we can.’ I do not like this spending spree. We’re smart, we know there’s nothing free. I do not like reporters’ smug replies when I complain about their lies. I do not like this kind of hope, and we won’t take it, nope, nope, nope.”
3. The time she said being a grandma might turn Hillary Clinton conservative
Palin said in May that Hillary Clinton, a much-speculated 2016 candidate, might “open her eyes” on abortion thanks to her daughter Chelsea Clinton’s pregnancy, which she expects will “broaden her world view.” Hillary has since become a grandmother.
Sound bite: “I think anyone who is a grandparent really starts looking further down the road. We start thinking about things like $17 trillion dollar debt that our nation is under and what we’re going to hand that to our grandkids for them to pay off,” she said. “That’s not fair to our grandkids. Hopefully, she’ll start thinking along those terms, too.”
4. The time she thought drinking Diet Dr. Pepper was the Ice Bucket Challenge
Palin thought drinking a glass of the diet soda would suffice. It didn’t.
Sound bite: “C’mon, at this stage of my life, in my career, aren’t I a little too prim and proper for all that ice bucket water dumping?”
5. The time she said let’s all bless the haters
The former Republican nominee for vice president and all-around pot stirrer, dropped a big, vague hint in October, saying she “hopefully” will run for office again “in the future.”
Sound bite: “Hey, the more they’re pouring it on, the more I’m going to bug the crap out of them by being out there, with a voice, with the message, Hopefully running for office in the future too … Bless their hearts, those haters out there. They don’t understand that it invigorates me. It wants me to get out there and defend the innocent,” she said. “It makes me want to work so hard for justice in this country!”
6. The time her family got into a bloody, shirtless drunken brawl
A 24-page police report released in October includes a white stretch limo, two birthday parties, three intoxicated Palin children, two separate fights, and neighbors who barked “f— The Palins” while Todd, the family patriarch, was lying on the ground.
Sound bite: No sound bite. No one reportedly listened to her when she tried to intervene in Bristol’s defense and was sitting safely inside her white stretch limo when police arrived, according to the report.
7. The time she was stopped for speeding, which she called “qualifying”
Palin was reportedly pulled over in July for speeding in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. She was allegedly driving her Toyota Tundra at 63 mph in a 45 mph zone. Although Palin accepted her speeding $154 ticket without a fuss, she gave TMZ a unique explanation for why she exceeded the limit.
Sound bite: “I wasn’t speeding, I was qualifying.”
8. The time she declared that gun-free zones are ‘stupid on steroids’
Back in April, Palin rallied thousands at the annual NRA meeting in Indianapolis Saturday night, saying that creating gun-free zone schools and other public buildings is “stupid on steroids.”
Sound bite: “Maybe our kids could be defended against criminals on the spot if more Mama Grizzlies carried [guns]. And [the] Obama administration wants you ID’d for that? Well, then go ahead and carry a sign too. A sign that says ‘Yeah, I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.’”
At the same event, she took a hawkish approach to national security, saying that current counter-terrorism efforts “coddle adversaries.”
Sound bite: “Come on. Enemies, who would utterly annihilate America, they who’d obviously have information on plots, to carry out Jihad. Oh, but you can’t offend them, can’t make them feel uncomfortable, not even a smidgen. Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we’d baptize terrorists.”
9. The time she launched a digital channel dedicated to herself
The Sarah Palin Channel was launched as an alternative to the news media she famously dubbed the ‘lamestream media.’
Sound bite: “Are you tired of the media filters? Well, I am! I always have been. So we’re going to do something about it. Together, we’ll go beyond the sound bites and cut through the media’s politically correct filter.”
Anna Brand