Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin brought down the house at CPAC with her headlining speech, and few lines drew more thunderous applause from the conservative audience than her right-wing-inspired reimagination of the Dr. Seuss classic “Green Eggs and Ham.”
Palin paid homage to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s fillibuster reading with her own riff on the childhood favorite, dropping creative lines like “I do not like this Uncle Sam” and “I do not like his healthcare scam.”
At the end, she gave a “hat tip” to “the internet,” saying she read a “couple lines” online and “winged the other ones.”
But a close examination finds that strikingly similar versions of Palin’s remarks can be found in the conservative blogosphere going back to 2010.
Here’s how one online commenter updated the Seuss classic on a Free Republic message board in September 2010:
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 secret deals.
I do not like this speaker Nan, I do not like this YES, WE CAN.
I do not like this spending spree — I’m smart, I know that nothing’s free.
I do not like your smug replies, when I complain about your lies.
I do not like this kind of hope. I do not like it. Nope, nope, nope!
And here is Palin’s version, verbatim, from Saturday’s speech:
I do not like this Uncle Sam, I do not like his health care scam.
(Pause for applause from the audience) Oh, just you wait.
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.
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!
Hat tip the internet. I saw a couple lines on the internet on that and I winged the other ones.
A quick comparison shows Palin dropped the now-dated reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, changed the generic “your” smug replies into “reporters’” and turned much of the singular first person tense to plural — but did she really lift only a “couple lines” as she said? You be the judge.
(H/T to msnbc’s own Adam Serwer)
