On Friday Palin lied — she took a quote from an Obama speech out of context and used it to imply that the President doesn't like America as much as real Americans. Now the AP have lent her their credence.

Via the Plum Line; late last week on her Facebook page Palin put up a post called 'Mr. President, is a strong America a problem?' It opened thus (emphasis added):

Asked this week about his faltering efforts to advance the Middle East peace process, President Obama did something remarkable. 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.

Whether we like it or not? Most Americans do like it.

What she, or whoever writes her Facebook posts, had done was to lift a quote carefully out of context to skew a reasonable point. Obama was discussing the prospect for peace in the Middle East and said (again, emphasis added):

But what we can make sure of is, is that we are constantly present, constantly engaged, and setting out very clearly to both sides our belief that not only is it in the interests of each party to resolve these conflicts but it's also in the interest of the United States. It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure.

Obama says he doesn't want troops dying and the deficit increased, and that peace is a good thing, and this is evidence of his anti-Americanism etc etc. So far so Palin. Unfortunately an AP reporter then picked up on the remarks and reported the whole thing fairly straight.

Which is unfortunate as the entire shabby affair has been lent credence and all anyone will remember is that Obama once said he was ashamed of America. While we reserve the right to cover any idiotic utterances that fall out of Palin's smug face, we are not the AP and we do not set the news agenda across the country. In future, Associated Press, we'd recommend this website for simple fact-checking purposes.