I will say this about some of our would-be presidential candidates. It validates the very existence of Fox show/Jeff Foxworthy paycheck provider Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? Take Sarah Palin recasting the role of Revolutionary War era figure Paul Revere on his Midnight Ride during an appearance on her bus tour. Said the possible Republican candidate for 2012 (she's creeping up on Mitt Romney in the polls):
He who 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 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.
Er, did you learn it that way in elementary school? Me neither. OK, it was so bad, you have to hear it from Sarah herself:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
Her supporters will tell you we all misspeak once in awhile, and it's true. And yes, Democrats misspeak too. But the sheer number of gaffes, all things that pertain directly to things one should have learned in an American elementary school, coming out of this slate of presidential candidates is pretty damning.
We have Michele Bachmann with her running list of historical revisions, and the American teenager who has challenged her to a debate on them. There's Mitt Romney, who has, among other things, painted Hitler in a positive light. Tim Pawlenty has bungled Iraq and Iran. Should I keep going? I would, but it's painful, folks.
We could blame it on the American education system. These are, after all, four products of it (although . . . have we SEEN their birth certificates?). We could blame it on the party picking poor candidates.
Or we could go really wild and ponder whether Foxworthy's paying them all off with royalties from his show. How else could it possibly be on air? Oh right, because grown women possibly maybe running for the presidency don't know the story of Paul Revere.
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