Palin's latest ploy...liberals become laughing stalks.

Sarah Palin's references to an arcane part of the famous story of Paul Revere's "midnight" ride has sure provided a little comedy at liberal expense.  In a word: "played". 

By now the world knows Sarah said Revere warned the British, as indeed Revere's own account demonstrates to have happened.  Revere's "warning" of course, was not that the Americans were coming, but a threat that the large American force would crush the assembled "Regulars".

The liberal reaction vividly displays typical liberal tactics, and the disingenuous manner with which such tactics are implemented.

However, most significantly, it demonstrates that liberals are truly and typically ignorant of real history.  Liberal education and historical perspective are almost entirely post modern.  The premise: one must learn "why" and then the facts that support the theoretical conclusion.

Real historians learn the historical facts, provided by the historical actors and contemporaneous reports, and then apply historical evaluation.  Maybe that's why half of 12th graders cannot identify George Washington.   Imagine the mouth breathing if those same 12th graders were asked to describe the monumental accomplishments of the revolutionary commander before he became president.

Once the liberal ignorance of Revere's warning of defeat was exposed their behavior was classic and predictable.

The liberal response.  Deny the historical evidence, furnished by Revere himself.  Why?  Was Paul Revere a known liar?  Nothing in the historical record supports that proposition. 

Rather, liberals now argue that Revere's contemporaneous record of a conversation should be disregarded because it inconveniently demonstrates the shallow nature of the Sarah phobic left.  The liberals also get a chance to toss a little mud in the direction of an American hero,  laingappe for those who believe no American heroes exist beyond the 50/60s civil rights campaigns.

Maybe the progressives believe Revere to have been a psychic of greater precision than say, Edgar Cayce.  Surely Revere created a false account of his 1775 conversation with the knowledge that it would be used to expose the hair trigger on the liberal on the Palin gun. 

Of course, the body of biographical information about Revere describes a cocky and defiant revolutionary.  Those  statements of Revere's that Sarah referenced are entirely consistent with a defiant personality's response to unexpected captivity by the British. 

How loud is the laughter on the Palin family truckster?  Loud enough to hear in sleepy little Iowa.

Iowa Caucuses: A 2012 Preview

The general election is over for 2010.  We here in Iowa have a new old Governor and huge new majority in the Iowa House of Representatives.  In all probability, given even minimal leadership from the top, we probably can gain functional control of the 26-24 Senate.  The opportunities to save our state abound.

Nothing in all of these changes is of much interest to anyone who does not live in Iowa.  Of course the people beyond our borders find Iowa most interesting in quadrennial odd years for one very big reason:  the Iowa Caucuses.  As we enter 2011 we are even now preparing for the 2012 Caucuses.  Presidential candidates will soon be as plentiful as the deer the roam our highways.

In 2008 former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took the caucus beauty pageant in a huge upset of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.  Huckabee became a major player in Iowa off the strength of his close second place finish in the 2007 Ames Straw Poll. 

The landscape has not changed all that much.........or has it?

Palin in Iowa: Sexy Sadie What Have You Done?

Tonight's RPI Reagan Dinner gave further and compelling evidence of Sarah Palin's now undeniable celebrity star power.  The event drew 1500 or so guests.  The typical RPI event, with Newt, with Mitt, even with Huck, draws about 200 paid guests and 200 comped operatives.  Every single aspect of the event was the same as every other RPI event: the venue, the format, the open lack of hospitality, the Ronald Reagan video (albeit with a new twist that somehow linked President Reagan with Warren G. Harding) even the ecumenically insensitive choice of entree`, roast pork on Rosh Hashanah.  The only difference tonight was provided by the nuclear illumination of the taxpayer's revolution and its most powerful messenger.  

As with the 2008 Republican National Convention, Sarah again expressed the 18th Century concepts of democracy and freedom in the language of the 21st Century.  While sitting in the crowd, however, my mind drifted toward the lyrics of the 20th Century's greatest lyricist, John Lennon.  In 1968, the Walrus (who was not Paul) penned the words: