Timothy Noah writes in Slate: “McCain chose as his running mate Sarah Palin, a Christian-fundamentalist hockey mom less than halfway through her first term as Alaska governor who opposed teaching teenagers about contraception, favored teaching teenagers about creationism, and displayed a striking lack of sophistication in a series of TV interviews with Charlie Gibson of ABC News.”

Palin didn’t oppose teaching teenagers about contraception. Noah’s link takes you to a column in which Ruth Marcus asserts that she did, on the basis of Palin’s statement of opposition to “explicit” sex-ed. But Palin said in August 2006 that she favors instruction about contraception, so long as it is not explicit. As for creationism, Palin has said that she does not mind if it comes up in class but does not want it added to the curriculum. Finally, I’m not sure “fundamentalist” is an accurate description of Palin’s religious views, but it’s possible that by now the word has been expanded to become a pejorative term for all kinds of conservative Protestantism.