A Friend's Post: "Palin Supporters and the Criticism Double Standard"

'Sarah Palin’s determined network of fans and defenders have been working overtime the past few days, since clips of her remarks about Paul Revere began hitting the airwaves and the internet.

As most of us have known since middle school history classes, Paul Revere was a silversmith who gained fame for a “Midnight Ride” by horse in the overnight hours of April 18-19, 1775. The purpose of the ride was to alert John Hancock and Samuel Adams on the British Army’s movement toward Lexington, just hours before the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Revere and William Dawes took two different routes to get the message delivered without being detected by the British Army.

But Palin, in her trademark cutesy style, showed her blatant ignorance of history, reimagining the tale as such:

“He who warned uh, the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh by ringing those bells, and um, makin’ sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed.”

Revere was warning fellow Americans, not the British. He rang no bells, he fired no shots. His Midnight Ride was done in stealth, not in a loud, attention-getting manner. And as for “taking away our arms,” it wasn’t about the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms, because the Constitution wouldn’t be written for another 14 years.

These Palin fans will continue to beat the familiar old drum: that the media is unfairly trying to make Palin look stupid by focusing on these missteps. There is almost not a single one of them who hasn’t, at some point, made reference to Obama’s mis-step at a 2008 campaign stop in which he claimed to have visited “57 states.”

The majority of them have, some time along the way, made their own jokes about Obama stumbling when a TelePrompTer failed or when he awkwardly realized he’d gotten ahead of his own script.

They conveniently fail to mention that Obama’s gaffes are comparatively rare. Palin seems to find little difficulty in saying things that either make no sense or are completely wrong.

Just the other day, for example, she got all kind of facts wrong about Obama’s proposal to forgive some of Egypt’s debt. She also managed to overstate the Social Security system as a Ponzi scheme, mischaracterize the specifics of Obama’s stimulus package, and prove she doesn’t really know nearly as much as she thinks she does about offshore drilling and the financial impact thereof.

But Palin’s supporters will continue to defend her as the greatest thing since sliced bread. While also continuing to nitpick every mistake Obama has made.

So it’s time to make a decision.

If it’s so unfair to pick on little ol’ Sarah any time she says something she oughtn’t, or to assume that a fact error is a sign of inability, then these same people need to stop doing the same with Obama.

Otherwise, Palin’s supporters are just operating under yet another tired political double standard. And the rest of us, rest assured, are not fooled by this folly.

I don’t begin to understand what Palin’s supporters see in her. But at this point, I don’t see how any supporter of any candidate, announced or not, can honestly think their man or woman is the only “obvious” choice.'

My comment:

Well, we have a history of hiring idiots to be in the White House. Dan Quayle. W. Now Obama. Sarah Palin, whom the gods should keep far, far away from any political arena. She is a moron. And a little tip for history buffs: Paul Revere VERY quietly rode from point to point along with three others sent to various places to whisper, "The Hessians/Red Coats are coming." We were all British still and he would have sounded like an idiot saying, "The British are coming."

Palin is not too bright. At least know your own history before embarking on a mission to the White House!