A palindrome is a word, phrase, or sentence that reads the same backward and forward. (The three most famous are “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama,” “Madam, I’m Adam,” and “Able was I ere I saw Elba.”) Chatterbox, who has no innate gift for complex wordplay, but is pretty handy at clicking around the Web to find clever stuff thought up by other people, spent some time hunting down palindromes that incorporate the names of presidential candidates. Unfortunately, the online pickings were pretty slim. Here’s the best of what he unearthed:
Three Al Gore palindromes from a Web page maintained by The Palindromist magazine:
Rail, rotund Al Gore: hero, glad nut or liar?Aide malarial from Al Gore: zero glamor, flair a la media.Rot! Aid Al Gore–hero, gladiator!
And three George W. Bush palindromes from a humor site called Polisat.com:
Re vote, George B. beg Roe get over.’Tis in, like Tut, it’s Bush! Ah! Substitute kiln is it!W: Oh, wonk has posh subliminal plan I: Mil Bush sops. Ah ! Know-how!
(Polisat.com has some Bill Bradley and John McCain palindromes, too–to see them, click here–but they aren’t very good.) Readers are invited to submit additional palindromes incorporating the names of politicians, commentators, and others who will be involved in the March 7 primaries. All entries must make at least a little bit of sense. If you’ve borrowed your palindrome from another source, please credit it. E-mail submissions to chatterbox@slate.com. Please do not post them in “The Fray.” Void where prohibited by law. Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate. State law requires all employees to wash their hands before leaving this room. It has been formatted to fit your screen.
