Maligned? No, Palined.

It has been a less than stellar week for Sarah Palin. Last Friday, Peggy Noonan insinuated that she was a nincompoop, and chastised her characterization of Reagan as “just an actor.” It goes without saying that Noonan, a cherished vestige of the Reagan Administration, wields a tremendous amount of power with her WSJ editorials. One can only imagine the embarrassment Palin’s camp procured.

Drudge is reporting that Rep. Spencer Bacchus (R-AL) claims “[the] Senate would be Republican today except for states (in which Palin endorsed candidates) like Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, … Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate.” I doubt this, but it truly doesn’t help the case for Palin that someone would be so outspoken in what is supposed to be a part of the country most amiable to her presence.

The most embarrassing face-off occurred yesterday. Sudeep Reddy of the WSJ condemned Sarah Palin’s inaccurate remarks in response to QE2. Palin had said “everyone who ever goes out shopping for groceries knows that prices have risen significantly over the past year or so. Pump priming would push them even higher.” Subsequently, she defended her remarks on her Facebook page, citing one of Reddy’s articles from November 4, 2010: “The article noted that “an inflationary tide is beginning to ripple through America’s supermarkets and restaurants…Prices of staples including milk, beef, coffee, cocoa and sugar have risen sharply in recent months.”

But, as Reddy responded, “The Nov. 4 Wall Street Journal article noted, in its first sentence, ‘the tamest year of food pricing in nearly two decades.’ It does indeed report that supermarkets and restaurants are facing cost pressures that could push their retail prices higher — but it hasn’t happened yet on a large scale. Critics of the Fed’s quantitative easing policy are focused primarily on concerns about potential future inflation.” Oops!

Palin brands herself as a fiscal conservative voice, though her misquote, and subsequent retort, can only lead one to question her understanding of the economy. This snafu is only conflated by her seemingly-superficial understanding of the political system. I’m not particularly anti-Palin, but this certainly doesn’t warrant any respect on my end.

Update (and/or clarification):

Palin wrote “The [November 4] article noted that “an inflationary tide is beginning to ripple through America’s supermarkets and restaurants…Prices of staples including milk, beef, coffee, cocoa and sugar have risen sharply in recent months.” What that WSJ article said is that food prices may be beginning to rise She selectively quoted a line that actually reads “An inflationary tide is beginning to ripple through America’s supermarkets and restaurants,threatening to end the tamest year of food pricing in nearly two decades.”

Palin criticized Reddy for pointing out that she’s wrong about grocery prices going up significantly in the past year by quoting a separate story that confirms what Reddy is saying—and cuts out that part with three dots. QE2 is a bad call, I agree. Nobody is refuting that. Palin just shouldn’t have misquoted. It doesn’t help her PR — hence I mentioned it in an article about the bad PR she has experienced this past week. I just think she should have exerted more tact.