It is the golden rule of Washington politics: don't engage with your critics. But Barack Obama's political staff could not resist the chance to hit back at Sarah Palin after she wrote crib notes on the palm of her hand at a gathering of conservative activists.

Talk to the hand? Sarah Palin's palm print close up. Photograph: AP

Speaking at a question and answer ­session on Saturday, the former US vice-presidential candidate and ex-Alaska governor inadvertently revealed that she had written the words "energy", "budget cuts", and "lift American spirit" on her palm. The word "budget" had been crossed out and replaced with "tax".

At yesterday's daily briefing, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said he also had written some things down on his hand. Breaking off from a question on healthcare reform, he said he planned to make pancakes for his son if the snow in Washington continued. "I wrote 'eggs', 'milk', 'bread', but I crossed out 'bread.' Then I wrote down 'hope' and 'change', in case I forgot."

Without missing a beat, Gibbs continued with his comments on the tax treatment of health insurance benefits under a Republican proposal. Palin, who derided Obama as "a professor of law behind a lectern" and "a charismatic guy with a ­teleprompter" during her appearance at the first national Tea Party conference, has in turn been widely mocked for her own low-tech aid – dubbed a "Hillbilly Palm Pilot".

"You really need to remind yourself to lift American spirits?" joked Jon Stewart on the Daily Show.

Palin, who earned millions from the sale of her book "Going Rogue" and has a speaking slot on Fox News, is said to be considering a run for president in 2012.