While our intention at TIG is to provide positive, pro-Obama coverage (versus negative, anti-Palin McCain coverage), sometimes we need to point out when one of the candidates on the Republican ticket does something jaw-droppingly stupid. Today is one of those days.

For today, Palin made her first public gaffe, a big one. And to be fair, it was about a complicated issue: the government takeover of Frannie/Freddie. I find the whole collapse of our mortgage industry story challenging to follow, a lotta ins, a lotta outs. But then again, I'm not aiming to be one melanoma away from the presidency. Sarah Palin, obviously, is.

You'd hope she'd be able to express at least a fundamental undertstanding of the issue at hand. You'd hope, but you'd be WRONG.

From HuffPo:

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, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.

The article continues with a quote from the co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research:

"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."

The Atlantic comments:

Gov. Sarah Palin evidently hasn't gotten around to the Fannie/Freddie lessons yet. They're "too expensive" for taxpayers. Which either puts her at odds with the McCain-endorsed federal bailout, or it puts her at odds with reality.

Encouraging to know that She-Who-Might-Be-President doesn't have a clue about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration. People, this is scary stuff.

I'm waiting for the rest of the so-called liberal mainstream media to pick up the story, to bring it out of the blogs and into the news realm. Let's see if that happens…