ShakesPalin

But soft, what light from yonder window breaks? It is the East, and I can see Russia from my front porch. (freehawk)

No doubt you've already heard about ShakesPalin on Twitter, but it's just too funny to pass up. Here's Matt DeLong in the Washington Post with a succinct explanation:

A Twitter posting Sunday from former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, in which she claimed common ground with Shakespeare, started the blogosphere's week in rollicking fashion.

Palin tweeted that "peaceful Muslims" should "refudiate" the New York mosque being built near Ground Zero. This prompted plenty of retweets at her expense -- "refudiate," of course, is not a word.

After deleting the offending tweet, Palin replaced it with another, calling on "peaceful New Yorkers" to "refute the Ground Zero mosque plan" -- although the word she was apparently looking for was "repudiate."

Then came the kicker: To quell the ribbing she was receiving on Twitter, Palin  posted another tweet: " 'Refudiate,' 'misunderestimate,' 'wee-wee'd up.' English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!"

This spawned plenty of scorn Monday in liberal blogs, as well as a new meme on Twitter,  #ShakesPalin, in which participants revamped classic Shakespeare quotes, Palin-style.

It's not just liberals, either. The following tweet is by Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute:

To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous liberals, or to quit halfterm, and by opposing, rake in speaking fees. (normative)

IMHO, this shows both the power and the limitation of new media, not just Twitter, but cell phone and internet-driven communication in general.

Mine is a tale told by an idiot — full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. (lesleyabravanel)

On the one hand, it's not just a handful of reporters, these days, watching politicians and other celebrities. And where reporters often need to maintain a friendly relationship with the people they cover (or, being human, just want to be liked by the people they're with), ordinary citizens are less likely to practice self-censorship.

Neither a thinker nor a reader be / for thought oft loses both itself and friend / and reading dulls the edge of Fox TV. (djsamk)

And when something breaks, it can be all over the internet in a flash. Plus, we see the incredible creativity of ordinary people. These tweets aren't all great, but the gems certainly do rise to the top. And this is only a sample of the humor - text, videos, cartoons - which is widespread on the internet these days.

To be, or not to be...wait, I wrote the answer on my hand someplace. (Archer070)

It's not just humor, of course. Political commentary is becoming ever more democratic in general. But let's not dismiss the value of ridicule. After all, do we really want another political leader as dumb as George W. Bush - or even dumber? We hear a lot about "elitists," but I want my president to be better educated, more experienced in government, and, yes, smarter than I am. Our founding fathers weren't a bunch of uneducated, inexperienced hicks.

Is that a book deal I see before me? The contract towards my hand? Come let me clutch thee. (phuul)

But there's a limitation to modern technological devices, and Sarah Palin demonstrates that, too. Yes, she's tweeting, but her supporters tend to be the elderly, not the internet-savvy young. And her fans are almost proud of their ignorance. How many of them even know that "refudiate" is not a word? How many care? How much will this really hurt Palin's popularity? Very little, I suspect.

If this were played upon a stage now, I could refudiate it as an improbulous fiction. (dceiver)

But these things certainly cheer me up, and that's not bad, not bad at all. The election this fall is looking bleak, not because so many people have lost their minds, but because of the enthusiasm gap. Republicans plan to vote. Democrats are discouraged - mostly because governing has turned out to be hard work - and discouraged people don't vote. So laugh a little and lighten up. Then, damn it, buckle up and do something! In particular, vote!

The lady doth refudiate too much, methinks. (LonMDR)