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Historians agree: Palin was right about Paul Revere
American Thinker ^ | 06/06/2011 | Ed Morrissey

Posted on 06/06/2011 6:55:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

One if by land, and two if by sea … and then what? According to historians interviewed by the Boston Herald, Paul Revere then warned the British not to challenge a roused and armed populace. That came as news to many observers who had rushed to criticize Sarah Palin for her response to a gotcha question at the Old North Church:

Sarah Palin yesterday insisted her claim at the Old North Church last week that Paul Revere “warned the British” during his famed 1775 ride — remarks that Democrats and the media roundly ridiculed — is actually historically accurate. And local historians are backing her up.

Palin prompted howls of partisan derision when she said on Boston’s Freedom Trail that Revere “warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”

The first to dispute Palin’s critics was … Paul Revere himself. In his own account of the ride, written twenty-three years later, Revere recounts how the British captured him, and how he attempted to dissuade the British from advancing. Revere warned that he had roused the local militias and that there would soon be 500 or more armed citizens coming together to repel the British.

A Boston University history professor told the Herald that Revere did indeed warn the British as well as the Americans earlier in his ride:

Boston University history professor Brendan McConville said, “Basically when Paul Revere was stopped by the British, he did say to them, ‘Look, there is a mobilization going on that you’ll be confronting,’ and the British are aware as they’re marching down the countryside, they hear church bells ringing — she was right about that — and warning shots being fired. That’s accurate.”

Of course, Revere wasn’t planning on getting captured. He and others riding to the alarm (William Dawes and Samuel Prescott) wanted to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of British action first, and rouse the militia second. Dawes and Prescott managed to elude the British and complete the mission, but Revere was captured. Furthermore, his warnings sufficiently rattled the British that they let him go — but without his horse. He returned on foot to Lexington, where he managed to hide a trunk with Hancock’s letters to keep it from being captured, but missed the battle.

Andrew Malcolm notes the “faux gaffe” and gives a history of such in the media:

This phenomenon is actually not a new one in American politics, although its immediate spread is obviously hastened by the Internet. Speaking of which, Al Gore did not invent it. Nor did he claim to, as often as you’ve heard otherwise.

In 1999, the hapless former journalist, who should have known to make a better word choice, told CNN that in Congress he “took the initiative in creating the Internet.”

Democrat Gore never used the word “invented.” That was part of another willful misinterpretation that fit expectations of Gore’s boasts and was gleefully spread by opponents as further proof of his unseemly hubris. It lives on to this day.

Perhaps you remember how one day during a photo op President George H.W. Bush was overheard asking a store checkout clerk how this price scanner thing worked?

That quote was immediately transmitted as proof of how disconnected that Republican chief executive was, that he had no knowledge of something as ordinary as a checkout scanner.

The fact is, asking such inane and often obvious questions as “what are you doing here?” is a bipartisan ploy used by politicians to fill the awkward time void they are hanging around someone working while photographers snap their photos several hundred times.

Frankly, I had forgotten much of the history of Revere’s ride until this incident, and I had to look it up for myself to recall what Palin meant by her response. Tom Burnam covered it succinctly and accurately in his indispensable Dictionary of Misinformation, a book I have had on my shelf for more than 30 years. If all people know of Revere is Longfellow’s poem, which is what the reaction to Palin’s remarks seem to show, then they know far less than they think.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Alaska; US: Connecticut; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: 17750418; 18thofaprilin75; 2ifbysea; boston; connecticut; danbury; godsgravesglyphs; history; massachusetts; palin; palinrevere; paulrevere; sarahpalin; twoifbysea
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1 posted on 06/06/2011 6:55:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

BTTT


2 posted on 06/06/2011 6:57:12 AM PDT by BlueLancer (Strike Zion!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Sarah Louise Palin

Born February 11, 1964 in Sandpoint, ID (Meets the Jus Soli Requirement)

Parents were
Charles R Heath, born in ID
Sarah Sheeran, born in WI

Both parents were US Citizens at the time of her birth (Meets the Jus Sanguinis Requirement)

Sarah Palin is a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN

Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama ISN'T!

72:1:12

3 posted on 06/06/2011 6:59:25 AM PDT by ASA Vet (Natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. De Vattel)
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To: SeekAndFind
I'll bet there is a lot of crow to go being eaten for breakfast this morn....already served some up my self. I love it when the MSM make fools of themselves and the commies that it spoon feeds...
4 posted on 06/06/2011 7:00:09 AM PDT by rightwingextremist1776
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To: SeekAndFind
The media hates Sarah and Sarah loathes the media. That ain't gonna change.
5 posted on 06/06/2011 7:00:28 AM PDT by Phlap (REDNECK@LIBARTS.EDU)
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To: BlueLancer

This should be forwarded to that knucklehead Wallace over at Fox.


6 posted on 06/06/2011 7:03:01 AM PDT by DAC21
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To: SeekAndFind

Yes or no ... did Revere himself use bells and gunshots to warn the British?


7 posted on 06/06/2011 7:08:10 AM PDT by freedomwarrior998
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To: rightwingextremist1776

Unfortunately the crow will be eaten in private. You can bank on it that there will be no retractions from the likes of Yahoo and NBC Evening News - who were the two biggest fools.

The lie is already folklore now. And that’s the way the lib media rolls.


8 posted on 06/06/2011 7:09:15 AM PDT by nhwingut (Palin '12... Accept No Other)
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To: SeekAndFind

bookmark


9 posted on 06/06/2011 7:10:23 AM PDT by erod (Unlike the President I am a true Chicagoan.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Revere’s account.

http://www.americanrevolution.org/revere.html

Study up on history folks, the oh so intelligent liberals think they can use our ignorance against us.

http://www.constitution.org/primarysources/primarysources.html


10 posted on 06/06/2011 7:13:42 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: ASA Vet

Thank you for your post#3.

(In before the critics.)


11 posted on 06/06/2011 7:14:28 AM PDT by samtheman
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To: rightwingextremist1776

It won’t matter. This is like the 3rd or 4th occurrence like this. The slimes in the MSM will not admit they made a mistake, and they will gladly do it again to someone who is not left leaning.


12 posted on 06/06/2011 7:15:46 AM PDT by SengirV
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To: freedomwarrior998

Did we eventually beat the british troops during the American Revolution??

No! of course not... you and I were not even born yet...


13 posted on 06/06/2011 7:16:17 AM PDT by zwerni (this isn't gonna be good for business)
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To: SeekAndFind
Palin exposed the MSM as being stupid.
14 posted on 06/06/2011 7:17:34 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
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To: SeekAndFind

I think the MSM will run with this full-force for a few days. They will make the Palinwaswrong meme the official Reality.

Any correction if there is one will be weak and buried and irrelevant(since the goal is to damage Palin). Maybe we’ll get to see Tina Fey dressed as Revere!

After a coordinated media attack like that, a thousand patriots explaining the truth will go unheard, since everyone will have an impression of Official Reality.


15 posted on 06/06/2011 7:18:18 AM PDT by DBrow
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To: BlueLancer

Until / unless the media addresses BHO’s claim of 57 states, I will dismiss any “gotcha” moments.


16 posted on 06/06/2011 7:18:31 AM PDT by brownsfan (I miss the America I grew up in.)
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To: SengirV

And we all know that Paul Revere said, “I can see Russia from my kitchen window”!


17 posted on 06/06/2011 7:18:51 AM PDT by Radagast the Fool ("Mexico-Beirut with tacos!"--Dr. Zoidberg)
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To: rightwingextremist1776
It just took patience, something progressives lack in its entirety.

MSM, at the behest of progressives, rush to pounce on every word.

What is that saying? “Haste makes Sarah Palin President”?

I still not sure about her myself, however, she was right.

18 posted on 06/06/2011 7:19:31 AM PDT by Puckster
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To: freedomwarrior998

So which conservative in the race do you support? We know you are a serial Palin hater. So whom do you support?

Then we can debate who is superior relative to experience, policy, and issues.


19 posted on 06/06/2011 7:19:39 AM PDT by nhwingut (Palin '12... Accept No Other)
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To: SeekAndFind

for later


20 posted on 06/06/2011 7:20:03 AM PDT by Doctor 2Brains (If the government were Paris Hilton, it could not score a free drink in a bar full of lonely sailors)
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