Both Weiner and Palin have been the focus of the media for their mistakes. In the case of Weiner, his mistakes include inappropriate internet behavior and a campaign of deliberate lies. In the case of Palin, she was wrong about a well known event in American history, namely the ride of Paul Revere. This was rather ironic given the purported mission of her bus tour. Obviously enough, Weiner’s mistake was morally worse. Palin was simply wrong about basic facts that people are supposed to learn in grade school, while Weiner was engaging in virtual infidelity and actual lying.
Weiner, of course, tried to cover up his mistakes by lying. However, he eventually held a press conference in which he admitted his wrongdoing and accepted responsibility. Rather surprisingly, he answered questions for about thirty minutes. Obviously he should have never done what he did, but at least he ultimately accepted all the blame and engaged in an act of public repentance. I do not, of course, know if this was a decision on his part or whether he was pressured into this act of revelation and contrition by someone of greater maturity and better ethics (or perhaps merely a better practical sense).
Palin’s mistake, though beautifully ironic, was incredibly minor in comparison with Weiner’s misdeeds and campaign of lies. While some people might have simply admitted to the mistake, that is not the way of Palin. Instead she followed her standard tactics.
First, rather than honestly admitting she had made some factual errors, she insisted that she was right. Interestingly, the Wikipedia page on Revere was changed to match her version, allegedly by her supporters (the possibility of pranksters should, of course, be considered). For someone who claims to be on a bus tour devoted to American history and who claims to base her political theory on the historical founders, she really should stick with the historical facts rather than insist that her errors are correct.
Second, she blamed the “lame stream media” for trapping her with a “gotcha” question. While there are “gotcha” questions (I suspect she might mean loaded questions or what philosophers call the fallacy of complex question), she was asked “What have you seen so far today and what are you going to take away from your visit?” That hardly seems to be a “gotcha question.” That is the sort of question school children are asked and are typically able to answer.
One possibility is that Palin is extremely lacking in her ability to handle questions. If so, then most questions would honestly be “gotcha” questions for her. If this is the case, then she definitely should not be president. Another possibility is that she lied about the question being a “gotcha” question, perhaps to protect her reputation. While this lying is not as bad as Weiner’s, it is still a point of concern.
Both Weiner and Palin could benefit from the wisdom of Confucius: “… if he finds he has made a mistake, then he must not be afraid of admitting the fact and amending his ways.”
NPR story on Paul Revere & Palin:
http://www.npr.org/v2/?i=137011636&m=137012129&t=audio
One thing I learned a long time ago is that someone can “sound” smart but be very dumb, and also that someone can “sound” dumb but be very smart. Often people from the Northeast hear a funny Southern (or Alaskan) accent and they assume the person the person speaking is dumb. Happens all the time.
Here is Obama speaking. You can tell when he loses his teleprompter.
I’m in favoring of banning teleprompters. It would be pretty cool seeing politicians trying to wing it.
Mike:
Actually the mistake is yours. Palin was right.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1343353
The NPR story linked above also concludes that Palin got it mostly right.
Well, she is right, provided that you read what she said in a way that makes it right.
Her words were that Revere ““warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms 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.”
If we take “warned the British” as “told his British captors that the country was mobilized”, then that would be right.
If we take “that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms” as “there will be armed men waiting for them”, then that would be right.
If we take “ringing those bells” and “to send those warning shots” to not refer to Revere but to the people who actually were ringing bells and firing shots, then she would be right.
So, provided that we interpret her semantics and syntax in a way that gets things right, then she was right. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt: let it be assumed that she was aware of the facts, but that she merely expressed herself in a way that was rather unclear.
I really think you’d better off not talking about Plain anymore. It’s starting to look like you have an agenda…philosophers in ivory towers should be above that.
More evidence…
Old North Church vicar defends Palin on Revere
By Joe Dwinell | Sunday, June 12, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
Photo
Photo by Steven Senne/AP
The vicar of Old North Church says he’s miffed at the “gotcha”-seeking media for twisting Sarah Palin’s stop at the Hub landmark earlier this month into an endless GOP-bashing circus.
Palin continues to be ridiculed for her comments on Paul Revere’s ride, but the Rev. Stephen T. Ayres told the Herald this weekend it’s all a tempest in a Tea Party pot.
“I am amazed that this silly story refuses to die,” he said. “I lament what’s happening to our culture. Everything is reduced to one-upmanship or gotcha.”
Ayres said he feels somewhat responsible because he tutored Palin on the particulars of Revere’s 1775 ride and teen exploits as a bell-ringer at the fabled church. So he has fired back at left-leaning bloggers by penning a post of his own on the church Web site.
“I knew where all the factoids she cited came from and take responsibility for putting them in her head,” Ayres, 56, wrote. “I will not take the blame for the odd order those factoids came out.’’
Ayres said he welcomed Palin, her parents, and her daughter Piper to the church on the morning of June 2, as she traveled the East Coast on her “One Nation” tour. He gave them the usual “one if by land, two if by sea” lesson, but added in how Revere founded the church’s bell-ringing guild in 1750 as a teen and how he warned the British after being arrested on the night of his famous ride that the minutemen had been alerted.
Hence Palin’s quote to the press that Revere “warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms 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.”
Ayres said Palin is “an easy target.” And, for anybody still gunning for her, he added, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow took liberties, too.
“He was not subjected to thousands of newspaper stories and blog comments attacking or defending his poem,” Ayres writes online. “One hundred and fifty years later most of the pundits and many of us assume Longfellow’s poem was historically correct. I hate to break it to you, but Revere was not standing on the opposite shore, did not make it as far as Concord that night, and finished his ride to Lexington before midnight.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1344806