Palin Hits Back After Korea Slip

(AFP) – US conservative standard bearer Sarah Palin has accused critics of unfairly singling her out, after a slip of the tongue rekindled questions about her credibility.

After mistakenly urging radio listeners to “stand with our North Korean allies,” the Alaskan, who looks increasingly likely to run for the White House in 2012, protested that President Barack Obama had made similar slips and not been singled out.

“They couldn’t resist the temptation to turn a simple one word slip-of-the-tongue of mine into a major political headline,” Palin wrote on her Facebook page late Thursday.

The former governor pointed to instances in which Obama had mistakenly said there were 57 US states, instead of 50, and claimed the country was founded 20 centuries ago — without, she said, stirring up the same kind of criticism.

“If you can’t remember hearing about them, that’s because for the most part the media didn’t consider them newsworthy.”

Always divisive and sometimes meandering in her speech, Palin has staked her popularity on conservative views and an unorthodox approach to politics.

But her disregard for the usual verbosity and pomp of Washington has caused some critics to portray her as incapable or unfit for the Oval Office.

Palin was particularly criticized as a vice presidential candidate at the last election in 2008 for her alleged lack of knowledge on key foreign policy issues.

In the Facebook posting Palin tried to beef up her foreign policy credentials, claiming she was often “ahead of the curve” on issues relating to the Korean peninsula.

“The one word slip occurred yesterday during one of my seven back-to-back interviews wherein I was privileged to speak to the American public about the important, world-changing issues before us.”

“I corrected myself seconds after my slip-of-the-tongue, and… made it abundantly clear that pressure should be put on China to restrict energy exports to the North Korean regime.”