Showing off for the low-information elite

Half-term, ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's Facebook page on Friday posted a note critical of recent remarks made by President Obama and recent actions taken by his administration regarding national security and foreign policy. The note's author began by clipping one of the President's dependent clauses from a Nuclear Security Summit press conference clean away from its main clause, let alone any of its context: "In front of some 47 foreign leaders and hundreds of reporters from all over the world, President Obama said that 'whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower.'" The Facebook author then went on to attack Obama for something the president neither said nor implied: that the president plans to dismantle America's military. Slate's William Saletan has posted a withering attack against Palin for the note's "ignorant imperialism" and "stupid" treatment of history: "So when Obama said 'like it or not', he was expressing misgivings about costly faraway wars, not about power. But that isn't what makes Palin's argument so stupid. What makes it stupid is that it's how Britain botched the Boston Tea Party and squandered its empire." Read more of Saletan's salt-the-earth column, here.

Furthermore, the note's author leveled criticism at Obama's administration for canceling the long-beleaguered F-22 fighter program, foregoing certain ballistic missile defense systems, and abandoning plans for "next-generation" nuclear weapons initiated by the Bush administration. The note includes a quote from "one defense expert" (Thomas Donnelly), who writes, "The president is looking to eliminate the last vestiges of the Reagan-era buildup," and goes on to say that the actions will result in America losing its status as a superpower. Huffington Post's Taylor Marsh treats the context surrounding these issues with great detail in a very critical post, closing with: "Whatever it is, in [Palin's] latest Facebook posting she further reveals her ambition, while using someone's talking points to sound knowledgeable ... however much she's paying her national security scribes it's way too much." Read more of Marsh's instructive and damning mash-up of Palin's note and the policies put forth by various presidents and secretaries of defense, here.

Of course, if recent history is any indication, Palin's blatant, venal misrepresentation of this matter will likely have the exact same effect that her "death panel" health care comment did: It will deepen the ardor of her core supporters and essentially baffle everyone else.