Sarah Palin says she's right about Paul Revere. Is that wrong?
(Read article summary)Sarah Palin recently offered a curious account of Paul Revere's midnight ride, but on Sunday she refused to acknowledge any mistake. The real question: What does she gain by all this?
Sarah Palin is defending herself – she says that what she said about Paul Revere isn’t wrong. Is she right? About not being wrong, we mean.
Let’s start from the top. When her “One Nation” bus tour stopped at Paul Revere’s house in Boston last Thursday, Ms. Palin gave her unique perspective on the most famous event in which he was involved. During his midnight ride of April 18, 1775, Revere “warned the British they wouldn’t be taking away our arms,” said the former Alaska governor.
She also described Revere as “riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells.”
Blogsophere chaos ensued. Many commentators noted the obvious point that Revere’s main task was to rouse American minutemen and warn them of a British advance, not vice versa. Some hacks went so far as to rewrite Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poetic account of the event to reflect Palin’s views.
