Soon to be in the English lexicon: He/she had their chance and pulled a "Palin"...

[zulchzulu]

To pull a "Palin": to offer a solution that has short term gain but is fatally flawed and considered a foolishly chosen liability. Similar to "Damacles' Sword" or to fly like Icarus.

[babylonsister]

1. LOL! I like it! nt

[gateley]

3. ...

:hi:

[gateley]

2. I'm going to start using that right away! nt

[Kalyke]

4. Hmmm... McCain's proposal to study the economy via an

appointed committee is a Palin.

[pimpbot]

5. One of the best episodes ever!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. will "failin' palin" be a new interweb meme?

Sources say "maybe."

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Neither of your comparisons is accurate

The moral of the Damocles story is that with power comes risk, and that this risk can outweigh the happiness of having power and its trappings. Cicero said of the story (Dionysius was the king): "Does not Dionysius seem to have made it sufficiently clear that there can be nothing happy for the person over whom some fear always looms?"

The story of Icarus is a warning against becoming so enamoured with something that you forget or ignore the associated risks. While it has some morality elements, for more than 2000 years the tale has been portrayed as heroically reaching for what is beyond ones grasp, of not being afraid to try.

I don't think either story is appropriate with regards to Palin.

If you want an analogy for "to pull a Palin," you have a wide open field of Republican environmental, economic and foreign policies. If anything, McCain's pulling a palin is just a text book case of decades of Republican thought. :hi: