In last night's VP debate, Sarah Palin said:

...even more important is that world view that I share with John McCain. That world view that says that America is a nation of exceptionalism.

Wow, what an incredibly ignorant thing to say, especially in light of this clip from the Wikipedia definition:

Certain persons view American exceptionalism as a product of veiled nationalistic chauvinism. The term can also be used in a negative sense by critics of American policies to refer to a willful nationalistic ignorance of faults committed by the American government.

The emphasis is mine, as I definitely count myself among the "certain persons" and "critics" referred to. But if Wikipedia seems too "Left Liberal" for ya (you betcha!), try The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism by Andrew J. Bacevich, "an acclaimed conservative historian and former military officer." The book is currently listed as the #10 bestselling book on Amazon -- and thus it would be reasonable to expect that Sarah Palin had at least taken a glance at it. In fact, the Washington Post review begins...

This compact, meaty volume ought to be on the reading list of every candidate for national office -- House, Senate or the White House -- in November's elections. In an age of cant and baloney, Andrew Bacevich offers a bracing slap of reality. He confronts fundamental questions that Americans have been avoiding since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, first of all: What is the sole superpower's proper role in the world?

But maybe they don't get the Washington Post way up there in Alaska. "They" should. The jacket flap copy reads...

The Limits of Power identifies a profound triple crisis facing America: the economy, in remarkable disarray, can no longer be fixed by relying on expansion abroad; the government, transformed by an imperial presidency, is a democracy in form only; U.S. involvement in endless wars, driven by a deep infatuation with military power, has been a catastrophe for the body politic.

By way of contrast with the above "misspeech," Joe Biden said...

Look what we did in Bosnia. We took Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, being told by everyone, I was told by everyone that this would mean that they had been killing each other for a thousand years, it would never work.

Here's that towering genius, Cokie Roberts, calling Biden on his "gaffe" (click image for video)...

The fact of the matter is that Bosniaks is the correct term for Bosnian Muslims. Sounds as if -- like Sarah Palin -- Cokie should maybe sometime read a book.