Sarah Palin thinks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are taxpayer funded.

[arcadian]

This woman is overly unqualified to be the Vice President and potentially be the next President of the United States.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/08/palin-makes-her-first-gaf_n_124792.html

Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."

Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, which came before the government had spent funds bailing the two entities out, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.

"You would like to think that someone who is going to be vice president and conceivable president would know what Fannie and Freddie do," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "These are huge institutions and they are absolutely central to our country's mortgage debt. To not have a clue what they do doesn't speak well for her, I'd say."

Added Andrew Jakabovics, an economic analyst for the progressive think tank, Center for American Progress: "It is somewhat nonsensical because up until yesterday there was sort of no public funding there. Even today they haven't drawn down any of the credit line they have given to Treasury. 'Gotten too big and too expensive' are two separate things. The too big has been a conservative mantra for a while and there is something to be said of that in that they hold about half of the mortgage guarantees that are out there. And in the last year they have been responsible for roughly 80 percent out there. The 'too expensive to tax payers,' I don't know where that comes from."

[Bob Dobbs]

1. She thinks a LOT of stupid shit.

That's why the republic party loves her.

[dkf]

2. She's not stupid...she simply has had no interest or inclination to understand our economic problems

Kind of like Bush.

[AuntPatsy]

5. That is exactly how I view her lack of knowledge on certain issues, she just doesn't care enough

to research it....and sadly the media is not pouncing on that very fact that its more than obvious she is in hiding simply because she is getting a crash course on what she "SHOULD" know while campaigning for such an importan position in our country...did bush lower the bar that much that now intelligence and a knowledge of working government means so very little?

[Virginia Dare]

3. Now she has the temerity to weigh in on how it should be fixed..

she really is the true Manchurian Candidate.

[arcadian]

4. Scary prediction

Bush attcks Iran to boost McCain's numbers, Palin asserts herself as crusader warlord. I can see her going that way.

[Romulox]

6. Ummm, they ARE at this point. nt