Palin actual quote was: "They're our next-door neighbours and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska." Palin also made the third annual list for her inability to name newspapers she reads. When questioned by CBS anchor Katie Couric, Palin said she reads "all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years."

Palin's quotes were pivotal, said Shapiro, associate librarian and lecturer in legal research at the Yale Law School who compiles the list. "This quote helped shape the election results," he said of the Russia quote. "As it sank in the public realised this was someone really, really inexperienced and perhaps lacking in curiosity about the world." Shapiro issued his Yale Book of Quotations, with about 13,000 entries, two years ago after six years of research. He expects to release the next edition in about five years, but in the meantime plans to issue annual top 10 lists.

Picking the best quotes this year was especially challenging because the presidential race and financial crisis provided so much material, Shapiro said. Last year's list ranged from "Don't tase me, bro" - shouted by a Florida college student who was shut with a Taser stun gun - to a quote from a Miss Teen USA contestant who gave a confused and mangled response to a question about why one-fifth of Americans cannot locate the US on a map. Shapiro said that when he began the list he thought he would select the most profound, eloquent or witty quotes. But the celebrity culture and political discourse led him down a different path.

"What I have come to do is pick some quotes that really say something about our culture and they tend almost exclusively to be quotes that are notable for negative reasons rather than being admirable or eloquent," Shapiro said. Palin's running mate, Senator John McCain, also made the list twice, once for his "the fundamentals of America's economy are strong" comment in April and again for saying "maybe 100" when asked last January how many years US troops could remain in Iraq. Shapiro said the quotes may have been somewhat unfairly construed. "Nonetheless, these quotes cemented his image as someone who was out of touch with economic realities or indifferent to economic realities and being someone who was fanatical about prosecuting the war in Iraq," he said.

Shapiro relies on suggestions from quote-watchers around the world, plus his own choices from songs, the news and movies, and then searches databases and the internet to determine the popularity of the quotes. Phil Gramm, a McCain adviser, made the list for saying "We have sort of become a nation of whiners" in July in reference to Americans concerned about the economy.

President-elect Barack Obama did not make the list, not even for his much-criticised remark in which he said some small-town Americans "cling to guns or religion". "To me it didn't seem like a very remarkable or very foolish quote," said Shapiro, who describes himself as a liberal Democrat. "Ultimately I decided against it, but it was a close call." However, a crude remark about Obama by the Reverend Jesse Jackson did make the list. Jackson apologised for the comment during what he thought was a private conversation in July.

"It indicates Republicans do not have a monopoly on quotes that are deplorable," Shapiro said. While Obama dominated the year and produced memorable quotes, "quotes from people like Palin were more celebrated and said more about our times than anything Obama said."

The Top 10 quotes of 2008, as compiled by Fred R Shapiro: 1. "I can see Russia from my house!" - Comedian Tina Fey, while impersonating Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on the TV comedy show Saturday Night Live, broadcast September 13. 2. "All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years." - Palin, responding to a request by CBS anchor Katie Couric to name the newspapers or magazines she reads, broadcast October 1.

3. "We have sort of become a nation of whiners." - former Senator Phil Gramm, quoted in The Washington Times, July 10. 4. "It's not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number." - a Treasury Department spokeswoman explaining how the $700 billion number was chosen for the initial bailout, quoted on Forbes.com September 23.

5. "The fundamentals of America's economy are strong." - McCain, in an interview with Bloomberg TV, April 17. 6. "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." - the Treasury Department's proposed Emergency Economic Stabilisation Act, September 2008. 7. "Maybe 100." - McCain, discussing in a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire, how many years US troops could remain in Iraq, January 3.

8. "I'll see you at the debates, bitches." - Paris Hilton in a video responding to a McCain television campaign ad, August 2008. 9. "Barack, he's talking down to black people. ... I want to cut his ... off." - Reverend Jesse Jackson, overheard over a live microphone before a Fox News interview, July 6.

10. (tie) "Cash for trash." - Paul Krugman discussing the financial bailout, New York Times, September 22. 10. (tie) "There are no atheists in foxholes and there are no libertarians in financial crises." - Krugman, in an interview with Bill Maher on HBO's Real Time, broadcast Septemebr 19. 10. (tie) "Anyone who says we're in a recession, or heading into one - especially the worst one since the Great Depression - is making up his own private definition of "'recession."' - commentator Donald Luskin, the day before Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, The Washington Post, September 14.

AP