Tag Archives: William Dawes

Sarah Palin’s comments after visiting the Old North Church in Boston, which has an important place in American history, were a new landmark in political idiocy.  It’s not just that she made a couple of mistakes in describing the midnight ride of Paul Revere.  Everybody does that.  We only

Listen, my children, you'll hear, of course, that Sarah is dumber than Paul Revere's horse

know about Paul Revere at all from the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (the guy my elementary school- in 3rd and 4th grade – was named after), and Longfellow was much more interested in a good story and tight rhymes than historical accuracy.

In rhyme and in meter, old Henry found flaws

with the midnight ride of William Dawes

It’s the fact that she obviously had no fucking idea what she was talking about.  It was similar to the contestant in the Miss South Carolina pageant who went on and on about Americans not having enough maps and South Africa and Iraq and whatnot, just stringing words together and hoping nobody was listening.  “Just riding his horse through town, ringing bells and warning the British that we were going to be free,” Sarah said.

First, he was probably pretty darned quiet until he was well clear of  Boston.  As Longfellow said “…ready to ride and spread the alarm, to every Middlesex village and farm.”  (Back in elementary school, I always got a big chuckle out of a county named “Middlesex.”)

I suspect that Sarah Palin was confusing Paul Revere with Wee Willie Winkie, as in “Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town, upstairs and downstairs, in his nightgown.”  I can’t remember the rest of it.

The part most people seem to be bothered about was that “warning the British” line.  She has since defended that by saying “Well, the colonists were British, too.”  True, that, but it’s clearly not what she meant.  So, because part of what she said might be technically, even though accidentally, correct, she thinks she gets a point.  Sorry, Sarah.  Outside of your dedicated followers, who are just as stupid as you are, nobody else grades that way.

She also has said, as she often does, that it was a “gotcha” question.  The question was  “What have you seen so far today and what are you going to take away from your visit?”

Doesn’t sound like a gotcha question to me.

Up to that point, it’s just funny.  What happened next is weird and scary.  Sarah’s supporters tried to rewrite Paul Revere’s Wikipedia page so it would match what she had said!  That is seriously, seriously, fucked up.