Yep, you’re absolutely right. Palin was 100% correct in blaming the collapse of the Soviet Union on Sputnik, just as she was 100% correct that the answer to the economic malaise is to have more potato donut shops. She is not ready for prime time.
Troll alert
We may note that the Not Ready For Primetime Players achieved notable success.
You know if the USSR fell in 1980 and or in early 1981 and Jimmy Carter was widely given credit for it like Reagan is, the Sputnik theory would gain more popularily here and with Republicans in general. But because it was Reagan that won the cold floor they are going to have trouble selling this re-writing of history WITH ANYONE just to cover a mistake. Here's an interesting writing and FR post that doesnt mention Sputnik:
An interesting quote from that:
Yet many historians and pundits have refused to credit Ronald Reagan's policies for helping to bring about the Cold War victory. .Rather, they insist that Soviet communism suffered from chronic economic problems and predictably lapsed, as Time magazine's Strobe Talbott put it., “not because of anything the outside world has done or not done . . . but because of defects and inadequacies at its core”.
and
“.Margaret Thatcher remarked a few years ago that Reagan would go down in history as the man who “won the Cold War without firing a shot”. .Perhaps it is too much to ask the wise to admit their errors. But it's only right that Reagan deserves due credit during his lifetime for his prescient statesmanship. “
Of course Paiin was playing on words, with Spudnut being a symbol of the small business firm.