I heard about an interesting interview on NPR (yes, I listen to NPR) about the Palin comments. I'll post the money shot here, but I encourage you to read the whole transcript.

BLOCK: So you think basically, on the whole, Sarah Palin got her history right.

Prof. ALLISON: Well, yeah, she did. And remember, she is a politician. She's not an historian. And God help us when historians start acting like politicians, and I suppose when politicians start writing history.
I mean, let's be rational for a second... She just got out of a guided tour, would she really be so completely braindead to be 180 degrees wrong on what had just been explained to her? I think her response was inarticulate, but I don't think it was completely inaccurate.