In their desperate attempts at finding a “gaff” by Vice Presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palen Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo do a superb job at revealing their own gaff-tastic ignorance.

But first a question for Josh Marshall at TPM and Sam Stein at Huffington Post:

Who is paying for the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae?
Tic…tic…tic…tic…tic…Bzzzzzzzt !
Give up?

IT’S THE TAXPAYERS !

But hey… by all means grab the dunce hat,

Palin Makes Her First Gaffe

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.”

Talking Points Memo | Laughably Ignorant

Only they’re not even taxpayer funded. It’s only the government takeover, which Sen. McCain supports, that could change that.

I understand that the TV networks and the big papers feel like they’re not allowed to criticize Gov. Palin. But we’re in the middle of a housing and credit crisis and she doesn’t even know what Fannie and Freddie are. It’s an embarrassing level of ignorance that would sink a candidate for house or senate.

Back in July even the New York Times agreed with Gov. Sarah Palen:

Treasury Acts to Shore Up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - NYTimes.com

While senior Democratic and Republican officials in successive administrations have for many years repeatedly denied that the trillions of dollars of debt Fannie and Freddie issued is guaranteed, the package, if adopted, would bring the Treasury closer than ever to exposing taxpayers to potentially huge new liabilities.

If we the Taxpayers had a balance sheet, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae would be a HUGE liability!

Tanks to Michelle Malkin who is always a step light year ahead of the nutroots.

From 2000
CEI President Testifies on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

Let me end with a comment on the overall wisdom of the whole concept of Government Sponsored Enterprises. Isn’t this oxymoronic? At best, this mixing of private and political incentives creates marketplace confusion; at worst, it leads to a serious misallocation of capital and an increasing risk for American taxpayers. George Orwell noted that in the political world, words can be linked together to suggest almost anything. His writings also suggest that the results of that process are destructive.

Wizbang has a good breakdown of the Fannie and Freddie taxpayer bailout.

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Posted in 2008, Nutroots, Politics, blogs, democrats, mccain, palin