On Palin

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Back during the heat of the election season, Sarah Palin tossed out a quip to her supporters about how they can't "party like it's 1773" just yet The media and the left, as per usual whenever Sarah Palin says or does anything, used this as more evidence of her supposed lack of intelligence, missing the point that she was making completely.

Well, Sarah's gone and done it again:

This is just another laughable statement in a line of them, right? Unfortunately for us, and fortunately for Palin...

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 as-ked 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. He then orderd them to advance, & to lead me in front. When we got to the Road, they turned down towards Lexington. When we had got about one Mile, the Major Rode up to the officer that was leading me, & told him to give me to the Sergeant. As soon as he took me, the Major orderd him, if I attempted to run, or any body insulted them, to blow my brains out. We rode till we got near Lexington Meeting-house, when the Militia fired a Voley of Guns, which appeared to alarm them very much.

The common story of Paul Revere is almost entirely based upon this poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and while I cannot recall at this point the exact roots of "the redcoats are coming," there are a number of understandibly historically inaccurate pieces to the popular story of Paul Revere's ride. I've known that for some time, but even the part of Revere actually warning the British as he was captured is one that escaped my mind until the reminder this weekend.

I was an unabashed supporter of Palin up until she resigned her office in Alaska and decided to embrace populism (which is a cancerous form of rhetoric and politicking regardless of which side takes it), but that doesn't mean that my opposition to her methods and preferences requires me to embrace ignorance myself in an attempt to refute what I may believe is her own. This sort of attack on Palin is not new, of course. The 1773 thing was recent, but recall that the media and left wing created all sorts of wild theories from the beginning of her entrance to the national stage, from her political affiliations to misstating her position on the Iraq War being "God's will", etc. (This is a fairly exhaustive source of different Palin rumors and their veracity.)

What will it take to have an honest dialogue about Palin from the media? At what point will the left wing learn that Palin is not anywhere near as ignorant or uninformed as they like to believe? Is there not enough honest criticism of Palin to go around that her opponents, both media and political, have to make things up?

Comments

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Probably because she sounds like some Fargo-esque version of Snooki when she speaks like this:

He who warned, uh, the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms uh 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 and we were going to be armed.

[musicpsych.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting the text. It helps to see what was said. I just want to know, what bells?

I think from the way she describes it, it sounds like she is trying to fit his story into her narrative, and make it seem like they are in the same category of American patriot. Especially with phrases like "warning shots" and "taking away our arms."

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

So we're just being critical of her ums?

[404.livejournal.com]

It's just the low hanging fruit for the media to latch on to to ridicule and feel smug and superior over.

[udoswald.livejournal.com]

She could easily show the media by disappearing from the public eye and not launching "family vacations" in huge buses with graphics on the side. As much as she claims she hates the "lamestream media", she's addicted to their attention. As for "feeling mug and superior", there are 5 year olds who are superior to that woman. It's not the media's fault she's dumb.

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

TELEPROMPTER!!!!@#^246@#!!!#!35

More like a low hanging orchard.

[squidb0i.livejournal.com]

Every time she opens her mouth idiocy falls out.

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

Is there not enough honest criticism of Palin to go around that her opponents

She quit as governor because the job was too tough......the end. Which begs the question: What Would Hillary Do?

[http://users.livejournal.com/-wanderer-/]

Somewhat relevant article about how Sarah Palin is misunderstood: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-tragedy-of-sarah-palin/8492/

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

The left-wing tends to caricature their opponents and create a narrative that is almost entirely unwarranted.

This wouldn't be that bad if they didn't cry about how they're thinking is subtle and complex at every turn.

Many things that they declare absolute truths stem more from their desire than the evidence.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

I think it goes both ways, if we're to speak honestly.

Everyone Knows Sarah Palin Should Not Be Trusted With Nuclear Weapons

[telemann.livejournal.com]

"What will it take to have an honest dialogue about Palin from the media?"

Your post isn't helping that dialogue, but instead makes her look even more stupid by trying to justify her rambling answer with Revere's account: she was wrong, even if the general population views the historical event through Longfellow's poem.

Revere didn't ride to warn the British, the account you cut and pasted was after he was captured (something Sarah never mentioned BTW), the militia fired a volley as the British captors and Revere rode nearby, there weren't any gunshots fired "as warning." The context of the question makes it clear why Revere was a patriot, so if Palin was saying his purpose to warn the Brtitish, he was a stoolie. And BTW: the British were sent to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock at Lexington- another reason for Revere's ride (also something that Palin left out). There was also no bell ringing or multiple gun shots fired a long the way used as warning (a basic knowledge of 18th century guns would make that laughable, so that's a real LOL moment for her). And obviously Palin conflated the lantern hanging in the church tower with bell ringing and made it up on the spot.

And I know it's Fox News talking point to whine about the liberal media: but Sarah Palin is her own worst enemy: her Tweets and Facebook updates are as consistently vapid as are her off the cuff remarks to the press. The media doesn't have to make her look foolish, she does it well all by herself. McCain campaign staffers also mentioned this and even during the campaign itself, one staffer called her "a diva" and impossible to work with. Heh.

Was Glenn Beck out to get her too, when he asked her about her favorite founding father? She screwed that history up too, again conflating several things into a broad rambling answer. George Will said she's unfit to be President (http://www.mediaite.com/tv/george-will-everyone-knows-sarah-palin-should-not-be-trusted-with-nuclear-weapons/), and should never be trusted with the nuclear launch codes. Is George Will a leftist media goon trying to trash Palin too? GEORGE Will?

Re: Everyone Knows Sarah Palin Should Not Be Trusted With Nuclear Weapons

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

but Sarah Palin is her own worst enemy

I think Sarah Palin would have faded quickly after leaving the Governor's office if she didn't have such a rabid following. She quit to prepare for a presidential run in 2012? C'mon

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

As the OP said, Governor Palin had proclaimed about 1773 at a Tea Party rally, and the Left called her an idiot for that (because all American history apparently started in 1776). Even though, she was right, no, the American Left couldn't resist the urge to mock her. (And, yes, there is plenty to rightfully criticize Palin on elsewhere, so let's get that caveat said.)

People misspeak or use malaprops all the time, especially me. I don't like to play gotcha when it happens to the Right or the Left. Other than it speaks of our current culture of gotcha, and everything will be rammed down your throat, depending on what it is.

I figure if she got the 1773 Tea party reference right, and this one wrong, call it a wash or call it even. Of course, feel free to disagree and convince me otherwise.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I'll give her this: she at least got the timeframe and the basic details right. That's more than can be said for Bachmann.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

She claimed Revere warned the British. Leaving aside that it was actually three people riding and that you're right, Revere benefited from Longfellow in excess to what he actually did, he was warning the militia of Lexington and Concord, and at that phase everybody saw themselves as British. The move to independence was not for another calendar year and reflected hardening radicalism on both sides.

The American Revolutionaries wanted British liberty, the Redcoats had General Failure in charge, and from there wanting liberty turned into a secession war. In my view Palin's a huckster who's milking politics for fame and attention, and no more. She's not Nehemiah Scudder with two X chromosomes, and she's just using her Trump Card to get her name in the press.

All of this on a silver plate.

[squidb0i.livejournal.com]

LIke Paris Hilton with political aspirations, but not even remotely hot.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/06/27/rewriting-the-legend-of-paul-revere

Longfellow's poem was fucking made up from scratch.

Also, Palin implied the British were coming to take away our Second Amendment rights. The ones that wouldn't exist for 20 more years.

What most reasonable people would like to see is for P* to be given the amount of attention she truly deserves, that being utterly none whatsoever.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The thing is with that that the British were coming to take something related to guns: gunpowder. They were doing that to avert trouble and found themselves fighting another battle against an enemy behind concealment and superior Dakka. The irony of that is that this was still a time frame when everybody saw everybody else as British and the colonials weren't near ready to actually secede yet. It wasn't British taking American guns, it was the lawful authorities suppressing potential rebellious assembly gone bad.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Again, why is this lady so important?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

She's probably the most powerful Republican out there right now in terms of influence and attention.

2 ¢

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Boredom - that's the predominant sentiment currently describing the early stages of the pre-election campaign in the US. The potential presidential candidates could hardly be more boring. That's why everyone is clinging to a woman who has the potential to entertain, hoping that she'd add some colorite to the game.

Imagine if there's an upcoming presidential election and no one cares about it. Now that's what looks very likely to happen in the next election, and that's bad for media ratings and possibly the political process as a whole. With the exit of an eloquent guy like Huckabee and colorite persons like Trump, what remains is a bunch of faceless, grey actors who fail to impress. There's just no 'hype' about them. Just compare to the previous election, with all the vigor and passions within the Democratic camp itself, with Hillary vs Obama, and the 'maverick' old horse McCain! There's no room for comparison.

It's the media who desperately needs an explosive election fight to pump up their ratings, and they must be worried right now. So that's why their last hopes for something interesting (and lullzy) rest with Palin. That's why she's still not stepping out of the contest, and she'll probably run (we could expect anything from her).

So it's no surprise that the media have been following her closely, giving her maximum publicity to her and her constant political stunts. Populism tends to sell well, don't forget that.

It's really funny, the attention she gets. After buying a 1.7 million dollar house in Arizona, the assumption didn't come late that she couldn't use that house for anything else but an election campaign headquarters. After all, Arizona is not so much at the ass of the world as Alaska is.

And she's been helping fuel these speculations in her unique way. If she runs, it'd be a media Bonanza. There would be heated debates, and they could rely on a passionate and acute competition between two ladies who can ignite their base electorate like no one - Palin is still postponing her decision about running, which is very welcomed by Bachmann, who also feeds on publicity. And in fact the two are like twins. They're both preaching to the same choir, the Tea Party sympathizers, they both have a sharp tongue, etc. And this promises an awesome battle between the two. If only...

Re: 2 ¢

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

You know, this reminds me of this (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/15078.html) post. Good auld times :)

[caerfrli.livejournal.com]

Keep telling yourself that's what she was thinking.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

And what was she thinking if not what actually happened?

Palin on divine will

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The source for Palin claiming the US military action in Iraq as divine will was a speech she gave at a religious school. I've seen the video.

Re: Palin on divine will

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

You should watch it again - it doesn't say what you think out does

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Why do you need an honest dialogue from the media about a millionaire celebrity? Honestly, if I had that much money you can say whatever you want about me while I swim around in my Scrooge McDuck silo of money.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Sara is her own worst enemy, sorry.

[squidb0i.livejournal.com]

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, uh, no. Revere MISLED the British when he was stopped, but he certainly didn't do... whatever it was she thinks he was trying to do.

At what point will the left wing learn that Palin is not anywhere near as ignorant or uninformed as they like to believe?

That's funny.

[squidb0i.livejournal.com]

Innit?

[the-s3ntinel.livejournal.com]

Palin is a complete moron and a vindictive, small-minded narcissist. I can't get my around the fact that you Americans are prepared to have a straight-faced discussion of her and the idea that she might be president.

To the outside world, this kind of thing - this failure to step outside yourselves, turn around and perceive something's true nature - makes you look insane. The Japanese have their used underwear vending machines. The Palestinians have their 'Mickey Mouse' who mimes using an AK-47. You have Sarah Palin. Good luck!

[usekh.livejournal.com]

Well Pailin clarified for you, and showed she had no idea as we said ""Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you're not going to succeed. You're not going to take American arms. You are not going to beat our own well-armed persons, individual, private militia that we have," she added. "He did warn the British.""

Not "He was captured, and questioned and warned the British" but that part of his intention in the ride was to do that.

Or are you going to tapdance some more?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Nothing to tapdance about. She got it right.