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.”
And some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and such as. More eviscerating from Dean Baker:
“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.”
Yep. We need a team of economic doofs running the country in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. McCain thinks the economy is strong, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Palin thinks Fannie Mae is this and Freddie Mac is this.
UPDATE: Ezra Klein:
it’s not a gaffe. It’s much simpler: Palin didn’t know the answer. Amidst a housing crisis, she didn’t know how the country’s largest lenders operate, and wasn’t aware that they weren’t taxpayer funded. It would be interesting to find out if McCain could give an actual answer as to how the lenders work…
Right! It’s not unlike invading Iraq without knowing the difference between Sunni and Shia. .
