It’s of the same quality as Sarah Palin’s “party like it’s 1773″ “gaffe.” Just prior to the 2010 election, Sarah Palin, “dumb” as she is, told a TEA Party crowd not to party like it’s 1773 just yet, and the lamestream media and the Liberals (redundant, I know) went wild. Sarah didn’t know her US History! She didn’t know it was 1776! What an utter maroon! While one Liberal asked “is there something special about 1773″ that’s as far as he took it, because his intent was clearly to mock the “ignorance” of Sarah Palin.
That didn’t turn out so well. She was talking to a TEA Party crowd. The TEA Party harkens back to the original, the Boston Tea Party, which it so happens took place in — you guessed it — 1773. Sarah Palin, the wise and well-informed teacher, set a trap for the Liberals and the Press (redundancy), snared her “game,” and taught people about a very important date in US History all at the same time. What did the media do after they found out they had been caught in a trap of their own making? What they always do when they gaffe: memory-holed it.
How many knew the Boston Tea Party took place in 1773 before Sarah Palin’s statement? How many know the Boston Tea Party took place in 1773 now?
“Let’s hide the fact Sarah Palin, that stupid chillbilly, knew more about historical events surrounding the Tea Party than we did and catch her making another(!) mistake regarding US History. Oh! Paul Revere! She stepped in it big time there! Let’s all point and laugh at her for that one. Surely that one won’t come back to bite us in the backside!”
Yes, the Liberals and the Media (redundancy) thought “we’ve got you this time” (cue sinister Star Wars theme music), and they went after her hard, in their usual derisively mocking tone. Surely, Palin’s claim about Revere’s ride and his warning the British and those bells and those gunshots had to be completely wrong. Surely, this time Sarah was wrong about history. Surely, this wouldn’t come back to bite the Liberals in the posterior.
You’d think, right? After all, Longfellow told all there is to tell about Paul Revere, right? Wrong. As Ed Morrissey shows:
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.
Professor William A Jacobson wrote:
In fact, as pointed out at Conservatives4Palin, Revere did in fact tell the British that the colonial militias, who had been alerted, were waiting for them. Here is the original historical text written by Revere (spelling in original, bold added):
I observed a Wood at a Small distance, & made for that. When I got there, out Started Six officers, on Horse back,and orderd me to dismount;-one of them, who appeared to have the command, examined me, where I came from,& what my Name Was? I told him. it was Revere, he asked if it was Paul? I told him yes He asked me if I was an express? I answered in the afirmative. He demanded what time I left Boston? I told him; and aded, that their troops had catched aground in passing the River, and that There would be five hundred Americans there in a short time, for I had alarmed the Country all the way up. He imediately rode towards those who stoppd us, when all five of them came down upon a full gallop; one of them, whom I afterwards found to be Major Mitchel, of the 5th Regiment, Clapped his pistol to my head, called me by name, & told me he was going to ask me some questions, & if I did not give him true answers, he would blow my brains out. He then asked me similar questions to those above. He then orderd me to mount my Horse, after searching me for arms
Palin’s short statement on the video was less than clear; that sometimes happens but the part of the statement which has people screaming — that Revere warned the British that the colonial militias were waiting — appears to be true.
I’ve learned something new today, about Paul Revere.
The leading lights of the left-blogosphere have made fools of themselves, as have people who are not of the left-blogosphere. I presume they all will be apologizing.
He’s certainly mistaken in his “presumption.” But he was only being sarcastic, of course, since the Left will do and has done what always does: to the memory hole!
Aaron Worthing has an incomplete run-down on the people who mindlessly mocked Sarah Palin, not even trying to find out if she was actually right. Because they “know” they’re smart and she’s just dumb.
Think Progress, Frances Martel at Mediaite, Crooks and Liars, Gawker, Greg Sergeant, Steve Benen, Tim Murphy, Digby, Ben Smith at Politico (I refuse to link to Politico if I can help it), Comments from Left Field, BooMan, Talking Points Memo, Rick Ungar at Forbes Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, The Hill, ABC, USA Today, Salon, Alan Colmes, Dennis DiClaudio, New York Magazine. That’s just an incomplete listing of all the people who laughed at Sarah Palin’s supposedly false statement concerning Paul Revere. Let me add to the list. Iowa Liberal, Delaware Liberal.
Now that the historical record, Paul Revere himself, and historians alike agree Sarah Palin was right about Paul Revere warning the British, all those above linked folks will be in a hurry to retract their hate-filled attacks, right? Nah, they’ll either double-down on their falsehoods or they’ll memory-hole their statements. Because they cannot bring themselves to admit that once again, the schooled, knowledgeable, wise and wily teacher Sarah Palin set a trap for them and they stepped right in it. They have to continue on in Teh Narrative and ignore the facts.
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