Palin's first "gaffe"?

The liberal blogosphere, via the Huffington Post, is calling Sarah Palin's comments today about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac her first "gaffe." I call this an example of wishful thinking.

I would define a gaffe as a statement by a politician that is either plainly, embarrassingly wrong or a statement by a politician that's true but reveals but revealing in an embarrassing way. An example of the first type would be Gerald Ford's insistence that Poland wasn't under Soviet domination. An example of the second type would be Reagan Budget Director David Stockman's suggestion that the administration fiscal policies were all based on guesswork.

Sarah Palin's alleged gaffe? Stating that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." Supposedly, this shows an embarrassing lack of knowledge on her part, because the FNMA and FHLMC do not receive direct taxpayer support. The problem for those who want to turn this into a gaffe, however, is that the statement comes on the same day it was announced that taxpayers will be bailing out the two mortgage giants to the tune of over $100 billion.

Even pre-bailout, Palin's statement seems pretty defensible. The federal government is the ultimate guarantor of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's solvency. Thus, these entities represent a huge potential liability for taxpayers, a fact which I assume ultimately affects the cost at which the federal government can borrow money to finance deficits.

Palin may have been wrong in some technical sense, but try explaining that to the average voter staring at a massive bailout.