Opinion: From Madame Secretary: Madeleine and Memory

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Madeleine Albright, the former Clinton Administration secretary of state whose latest ‘’Google news’’ hit was about being misquoted by Sarah Palin, got off a zinger Wednesday at the annual governor’s women’s conference in Long Beach, one that might give her a fresher Google hit.

At a massive session where her fellow panelists included former French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy, now Cecilia Attias, and former British first lady Cherie Blair, Albright recounted the concerns she’d heard that, as a woman Secretary of State, she might have trouble dealing with the leaders of patriarchal countries.

‘’I had no problem with that,’’ she said, ‘because I arrived on a very large plane that said `The United States of America.’ ‘’ That got a pretty good laugh. She got an even bigger one when she added, ‘I actually had more problems with the men in our own government.’’

On Wednesday, Albright reiterated her quote without mentioning Palin’s misquote. Her original goes like this: ‘There is a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t help other women.’ This month, Palin used the word ‘’support’’ instead of ‘’help,’’ and cited as her source the quote of the day #287 printed on a Starbucks cup.

Starbucks, however, had it right.