Paul Revere warned the British? 3 More Palin Gaffes

Sarah Palin claimed last week that Paul Revere was “he who warned the British.” But as any American 1st grader will know, Revere was he who warned the colonists, specifically Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

Palin’s camp, however, immediately dug up an obscure historic reference – one that no one talked about before her gaffe – to support her botched account of Revere. Palin herself also insisted that she didn’t err and that Revere did indeed “warn the British.”

Her story, however, doesn’t add up.

While Revere did tell British authorities about the colonial resistance, he wasn’t “warning” them. “Threatening” and “bluffing” are more appropriate terms. Moreover, Palin is no Paul Revere scholar.

She wasn’t speaking at some US history convention to discuss obscure facts about the American Revolution. Instead, everything about the context of her words suggests she was shooting for Paul Revere’s famed midnight ride to Lexington to warn the colonists, which she badly botched.

Palin has a history of embarrassing herself. They’re not just simple gaffes, like Joe Biden’s statement that “j-o-b-s” is a three-letter word or Barack Obama’s promise to fight the “rise of privacy.”

Obama, for example, doesn’t actually think Somali pirates are causing the rise of privacy.

Palin’s comments, on the other hand, reveal actual ignorance, i.e. she thought Revere’s midnight ride was really to warn the British instead of the colonists.

Click on “Start” to view 3 gaffes, or more appropriately embarrassments, she had in interviews with just one journalist, CBS’ Katie Couric.