White House spokesman Robert Gibbs mimicked one of Sarah Palin's many embarrassing moments on Saturday: He wrote his notes on his hand for his daily White House briefing to journalists.

During a speech on Saturday, Sarah Palin showed her Tennessee audience (and the rest of the world) that she hasn't lost her touch when it comes to humiliating herself; a glimpse of her hand revealed that she had scrawled the reminders "energy", "tax", and of course "lift american spirits". Clearly, it was difficult for her to remember three points which have (probably) been included in every major US political speech in the last ten years, so Robert Gibbs decided to poke fun at her.

Delivering his brief, Gibbs allowed photographers to capture images of his palm, revealing his own list: "Milk, Eggs, Bread, Hope, Change"

This is a rather clever move. It takes a jab at the Republicans, who have been gaining ground on the Obama administration, adds some humour to a hard political time, and gathers a great deal of media attention (even that of this respected weblog). The Democrats will be attacked for this, but there's no denying that while ridicule may be childish, it has always been a very effective tactic to make a joke of the opposition- John Wilkes provides a shining example.