A minor historical point
Kruschev at one point told the US, "We shall bury you." Following the process used on the Palin comment that might come out as meaning that people in the Soviet Union live quite long lives, and what he really meant was "We shall outlive you."
Well, actually, that's exactly what Kruschev meant. "We shall bury you" is a Russian saying that literally means "I (we) shall outlive you and be there to see you buried".
That doesn't mean that Sarah Palin isn't utterly shallow and profoundly ignorant. She's all that and more. I've always thought that it was amusing how Americans overreacted to a simple Russian saying and turned it into a virtual declaration of war. If the translator had been capable of a bit more nuance, history might have been slightly different.