Only because she (aided by her handlers in the 2008 election) has carefully crafted the image of an iconoclast. If a stranger walked up to you and talked that way, you would assume he was a moron, if he didn't have a foreign accent.
As I said, she's trying to pass her linguistic ineptitude off as something cute and clever.
She's playing on the concept of Spoonerisms. Oxford professor William Spooner (1844-1930) was identified as a new kind of "absentminded professor," one who absentmindedly mixed up the phonemes in his speech. Entire books are filled with amusing quotes attributed to him, including:
- Three cheers for the queer old dean. (For "dear old Queen.")
- The Lord is a shoving leopard. (For "loving shepherd.")
- You were fighting a liar in the quadrangle. (For "lighting a fire.")
- Please sew me to another sheet. (For "show . . . . seat.")
- You've hissed all my mystery lectures and tasted the whole worm. (For "missed . . . . history" and "wasted . . . . term.")
Most attributed Spoonerisms have to be apocryphal since no one person could have said all the things he is credited with. Spooner himself acknowledged only one Spoonerism in his life: "The kinkering congs their titles take," for "conquering kings," and this one actually sounds like an honest mistake rather than something unintentionally clever!
But Spoonerism has become an art. Cunning stunts, bass-ackwards, don't pet the sweaty things, and the masterpiece "I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a pre-frontal lobotomy."
Spooner's alleged speech handicap has become a form of humor, and people are admired for devising clever new Spoonerisms. Palin would like to capitalize on this phonomenon of unintentional errors being regarded as cute.
But her errors are not unintentional. Her limited vocabulary and slow thought process prevent her from finding the right word for a sentence, so she intentionally compensates by throwing together some bits of awkward grammar. And worst of all, the results do not come across as either clever or humorous. Just plain stupid.
And don't forget the Spoonerism, in a tribute to Gilda Radner's Roseanne Roseannadanna character, on "Saturday Night Live" in 2008: "What's this I hear about a vice-presidential candidate parasailin'? They should be busy campaigning, not out having fun on the water!"