Posted on 06/04/2011 6:59:09 AM PDT by radioone
I barely have to write the post this time. Did you hear? Sarah Palin is sooooo stupid. She believed that Paul Revere warned the British. Here, watch:
(Video at Link and many links embedded in original article)
Think Progress sniffs:
As Mediaite’s Frances Martel notes, Palin’s version “wasn’t exactly the official History Channel rendition.” It’s hard to imagine why Revere would warn the British of anything, or why he’d do it with bells and gun shots.
And as you can see, so did Frances Martel. So did Nicole Belle of the eponymous Crooks and Liars:
Can we all just breathe a collective sigh of relief that this is not the person one heartbeat away from the Oval Office?
And Gawker:
Perhaps we should all brush up on our history of such events should we ever get trapped like this, but this may include some inaccuracies. Revere did not warn the British arm
Greg Sergeant:
Everyone has already had a grand old time mocking this video of Sarah Palin bungling her Paul Revere history, but I actually think it amounts to quite an eloquent statement. It’s as eloquent an argument as anyone could make that this woman really should not be treated by any of us as anything resembling a presidential candidate until it’s absolutely necessary — which is to say, until she actually runs for president.
And another two-fer, Steve Benen quoting another:
In case anyone needs a refresher, Tim Murphy explained, “This is actually the opposite of everything Paul Revere did.”
And Digby:
How can it possibly be that even one person in this country considers this person qualified for the presidency.
And I will break the embargo on linking to Politico, to quote Ben Smith:
Palin makes Bachmann look like Longfellow
Joe Gandelman, of the Moderate Voice:
DRAT! Why did I spend so much time studying history at Amity High School in Woodbridge, Connecticut when I could have made up my own version and gotten away with it.
Kathy from Comments from Left Field:
the news would be if she said anything about American history or foreign policy or ANYthing that made sense, right?
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Sidebar: You know where I am going with this, right? Right?
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BooMan, who admits he doesn’t really remember very much of the history:
Paul Revere did not warn the British about anything.
Talking Points Memo’s Eric Lach:
Sarah Palin Offers Novel Take On Paul Revere’s Ride
Rick Ungar of Forbes Magazine:
While I had been led to believe that Revere’s historic ride was actually for the purpose of warning our forefathers that the British were coming, it turns out that his midnight ride, complete with ringing bells and warning shots, was really all about letting the English know that we were armed.
Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times just calls it a gaffe. The Hill writes:
She makes history come alive, doesn’t she?
ABC’s The Note’s Sheila Marikar:
Perhaps this week’s lesson in the annals of American history was necessary for Sarah Palin.
USA Today:
Sarah Palin apparently flubbed details of Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride when she visited Boston yesterday.
The former Alaska governor, who may or may not be running for the GOP presidential nomination, thought Revere was warning the British army during the Revolutionary War.
Salon:
Sarah Palin treated her audience to a litte American history (“little” being the operative word)
Alan Colmes sniggered. And Dennis DiClaudio writes:
Suck on that, history teachers! That’s how you tell a story about this great land that is called America! You may say that that’s pretty much the exact opposite of what actually happened in real life, but I say that you’re a not-real American and a possible traitor (and maybe a future tenant of Gitmo).
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I think that is just about everyone.
And gosh, isn’t that funny how stupid she is. Aren’t all those liberals clearly her superior in both intelligence and knowledge?
Um, really, you know where this is going right?
Well, Professor Jacobson points out that she was right. Paul Revere did warn the British.
Oh, and I saved New York Magazine’s Dan Amira’s snit for last because it is now so ironic:
Many Americans think they have a solid understanding of the country’s founding. No taxation without representation, tea party, Boston Massacre, George Washington, all that jazz. But, not surprisingly, Über-patriot Sarah Palin knows more than the average American. In fact, she may have more expertise on the subject than anybody else. For example, yesterday she revealed some heretofore unknown facts about Paul Revere’s midnight ride. Did you know that he was actually warning the British, through the repeated ringin’ of bells?
But if you have been following this blog long enough, you know I already wrote the post months ago. As I said here:
To pre-judge a person is to literally “judge before.” Before what? Before it is appropriate, before you have all the facts. Of course normally we think of prejudice as being based on specific traits. Racial prejudice is to judge a man by his skin color, rather than getting enough facts to judge him as an individual. But it can be based on anything.
Take for instance, Sarah Palin. Liberals have convinced themselves that Palin is a moron. So when Sarah Palin told a crowd of Tea Partiers that it was too soon to “party like its 1773” liberals freaked out. OMG, she is so stupid. Doesn’t she know the American Revolution was in 1776? As well documented by Cuffy Meigs, Markos Moulitsas, Gwen Ifil (who moderated Palin’s debate with Joe Biden) and others mocked her in that fashion.
One guy, Steve Paulo showed enough introspection to wonder “WTF happened in 1773?!” Well, hey, I was a history major, but I couldn’t rattle off every event of any year, 1773 or otherwise. But I can google. As of this moment the first link I get is this. You only have to page down once to discover that in December of that year was the original Boston Tea Party. You know, the event that the Tea Party is self-consciously invoking with its very name? Yeah, that one.
This is frankly a textbook case of someone believing their own propaganda. They have spent the last few years convincing themselves that Palin is stupid and uneducated and they have forgotten that this simply isn’t true. She isn’t dumb. She’s just a down-to-earth woman with a funny accent. And if you keep acting like she is dumb, you’re going to keep making yourself look stupid.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
UPDATE BY PATTERICO: God help me, I think I agree with happyfeet on Sarah Palin . . . on this one: this didn’t really have that masterstroke kind of feel. I don’t think it’s right to lump it in with the “Party like it’s 1773″ situation, where her critics did indeed look stupid even as they claimed she was. To me, she sounds kind of incoherent in this clip. But as Dennis Miller says: that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
That's why they are so afraid of her.
Sarah should run as an independent vs romney and commie obama.
On the other hand, maybe it was just a slip of the tongue? Just sayin’.
Paul warned the brits....Sarah right again!...
http://loopyloo305.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/sarah-palin-smarter-than-the-journalists/
I mean, technically speaking, America wasn't a country yet. Or was it? Maybe I shoud ask President Urkel.
Everybody knows that Palin is stupid and Obama is brilliant.
I can prove it.
Obama has much better college grades than Palin, just look at his transcripts.
Obama has a higher IQ score tha Palin, just look at his test results.
Obama has better understanding of the law and the Constitution. Just look at his law journal articles.
Obama knows more about geography than Palin. He can name the capitals of all 57 states.
Obama is a better linguist than Palin. Can Palin speak Austrian as well as Obama?
Obama can raise people from the dead. Did Palin ever give a shout-out to those in the audience whom we memorialize on Memorial Day?
Obama is brilliant. Palin is stupid. It’s that simple. Didn’t I just prove it?
from legal insurrection blog...
...This account in “Paul Revere’s Ride” by David Hackett Fischer (Oxford University Press 1994), may be of interest to Think Progress and all the others laughing because they purport to be so much better informed than Palin:
“A townsman remembered that ‘repeated gunshots, the beating of drums and the ringing of bells filled the air.’.... Along the North Shore of Massachusetts, church bells began to toll and the heavy beat of drums could be heard for many miles in the night air.”
Why would anyone think that getting a degree in journalism means you know anything more than how to write (if that)?
There is an element of amalgamation and myth-making that has passed down as history. The whole “midnight ride” thing is what the media took as the sum total of the Paul Revere story. The facts are no less significant and important, but less likely to capture hearts and imaginations. Sarah Palin cited the truth, that Paul Revere had warned the British while captured.
I’d call that midnight ride a borrowed confabulation, if a well-intentioned one. The midnight ride preceding the Revolution did not occur there. It occurred on the Outer Banks, and the rider was a sixteen year old girl named Betsy Dowdy on her Banker Pony, Black Bess.
Refer to the Elizabeth City, NC chapter of the DAR:
Or, the author Michael Worthington:
http://highered411.com/Albemarle/BetsyDowdy.HTML
Don’t forget that he excelled in Calendar 101 as he knows the current year is 2008.
I’m sure we will see a retraction from the ‘talking heads’ any day now.
I watched a rerun of Leno last night. He was on the street asking “students” when we obtained our freedom from the British. Not one of them knew. One said she thought it was about 1885, another after the Civil War and another said just before the great depression.
If she did this on purpose, to tweak the media, it won’t help her. Does she think they will now all say they were wrong, and she was right? The meme will continue to go out that she doesn’t know what she is talking about, even if she does.
“it won’t help her.”
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sadly, i absolutely agree.
the MSM is still the sole news source for the majority of “voters”.
...the people who know she was correct about 1773, and Revere, are people who would already vote for her.
sure, we will tell a few.
but how to get through to the rest?
millions still believe that Obama is doing a good job on the econmoy...
Someone’s got to do a really good job of making this massively incorrect massive media pile-on the story. It is emblematic of the erroneous coverage and impression that’s been promulgated about Palin for years.
Who can get the real story out beyond the conservative press?
How about her biographer, Steve Bannon? Could he get an addendum, trailer, or some other video montage of the the media and accurate historical corroboration out as part of his documentary release later this month?
Cheers!
I'm not so sure she couldn't become the first person to ever mount a truly serious threat to our two-party system. Perot and Trump, along with George Wallace and a others serve as spoilers. I don't think it's out of the question that she could out draw Romney and Obama. She would certainly run rings around the Great Pretender Obama, and a lot of people might well find her more likable, and therefore more electable, than Romney.
I fear another loaded primary season designed to foist on us the candidate of the elite's choice. The system is certainly designed to work to that end.
I would much rather see her reclaim the GOP for those of us who think she has what it takes, but if a third-party run is the only way to show elites that we're not going to play their game anymore then maybe it just has to be. I would really hate to see it, but it can't go on like it has, giving us candidates like Dole and McCain.
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