Sarah Palin made a little gaffe the other day when she was on the radio with Glenn Beck and said that America should stand beside “our North Korean allies.” Big whoop; that’s not really a big deal, and everybody does it. A lot of bloggers jumped on it, but to me the occasional slip of the lip from Sarah Palin is nothing compared to the deliberate lies — i.e. “death panels” — and distortions she comes up with on a much more regular basis, not to mention her frequent entanglements with the basic understanding of the Constitution.

What’s also a lot more telling is how Ms. Palin responded to the reaction to her gaffe. Rather than smile and acknowledge the error with a self-deprecating “well, that was a dumb thing to say,” — which would, by the way, go a long way to earning her some respect from even her opponents — she went to Facebook and sent out a Thanksgiving “message” that was loaded up with every verbal gaffe attributed to President Obama that she could find in an obvious attempt to show that she’s not the only public figure that misspeaks.

My fellow Americans in all 57 states, the time has changed for come. With our country founded more than 20 centuries ago, we have much to celebrate – from the FBI’s 100 days to the reforms that bring greater inefficiencies to our health care system. We know that countries like Europe are willing to stand with us in our fight to halt the rise of privacy, and Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s….

You get the idea. Her message was a great big “Neener neener,” and she’s lashing out at President Obama, who, so far, has said nothing about her gaffe. As Andrew Sullivan says, “[t]here is no maturity here; no self-reflection; no capacity even to think how to appeal to the half of Americans who are already so appalled by her trashy behavior and cheap publicity stunts.”

I think it comes down to a simple question: we’ve already had one president in recent memory who had all the maturity and foresightedness of a drunken frat boy. Do we really want to have another who reminds us all of the bratty kid we had to put up with in grade school?

HT to Judy Blume for the title.