Prospective Veep Sarah Palin is, if one is to believe her word and the claims of John McCain and various other Republican leaders, a veritable energy maven. "Governor Palin is, I think, an energy expert," says George Pataki. "Coming from the natural-resource rich state of Alaska, Palin is an experienced energy expert," says CNBC cheerleader Larry Kudlow. McCain is almost as effusive: "She understands the energy issues better than anybody I know in Washington, D.C."

Unless all the energy experts live in Arlington, that's quite a claim.

It's also an incorrect one, which we know thanks to the Wonkish sleuths at FactCheck.org. Why? Because Palin can't even provide an accurate estimate of her state's contribution to the US energy portfolio. Her estimate, immortalized in her disjointed interview with ABC News' Charlie Gibson, is "nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy."

The reality, provided by the oft-ignored Energy Information Agency? About 3.5 percent, all told. Alaska provides 14 percent of the crude oil produced in America, but that's not 20 percent of the US domestic energy supply, and in any case Alaska supplies only 4.8 percent of the oil suppied to the US. Did she mean natural gas? Nope; Alaska produces less than 2 percent of the US' total natural gas supply. However you slice the numbers, Alaska doesn't produce anywhere close to 20 percent of the domestic US supply of energy. Palin is wrong.

Which would be predictable, if she weren't being sold as a mastermind expert in energy. If she were being portrayed as merely the utterly typical Alaska politician she is. If John McCain weren't announcing that he's planning on making her the architect of his energy plan should he become president, despite her appalling ignorance of alternative energy.

Sarah Palin is not an energy expert. Her physical residence in a state with lots of oil makes her an energy expert about as much as John McCain's Arizona residences make him an expert on the Saguaro cactus. Whatever her other qualifications, whatever her other credentials, she's no energy czar. And it's telling that the GOP resorts to this sort of wishful thinking to justify her inexplicable presence on their presidential ticket -- and worrisome that they believe their own spin so much that they're willing to put her in charge of energy policy.