While Sarah Palin said today she still doesn’t know whether she’ll run for president in 2012, she said she’s certain about something else — her American history.
Palin attracted some attention last week during her bus tour up the Eastern seaboard for saying that Paul Revere actually warned the British and not the colonists ahead of the Revolutionary War.
“You know what, I didn’t mess up about Paul Revere,” Palin said in an interview of “Fox News Sunday.” Here’s what Paul revere did, he warned the Americans that the British were coming, the British were coming, and they were going to try to take our arms away and we gotta make sure that we were protecting ourselves and shoring up all our ammunitions and our firearms so that they couldn’t take them, but remember that the British had already been there.”
Here’s how Palin re-told the classic Revolutionary War-era story last week while visiting Revere’s house in Boston:
“He who warned the, the British that they weren’t gonna be taking away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells and, um, by making sure that as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that, uh, we were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free, and we were gonna be armed,” the former Alaska governor said.
As ABC News’ Sheila Marikar reported last week, Revere did not ring bells on his midnight ride, which was in fact a covert mission to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams about the approaching British army.
But when pressed by Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Sunday about her interpretation of American history, Palin insisted that she got the story right. She continued by saying that Revere was a courier and didn’t make just one ride.
“Part of his ride was to warn the British that we were already there, that hey, you’re not going to succeed,” Palin said. “You’re not gonna take American arms. You are not going to beat our own well armed persons, individual private militia that we have. He did warn the British.”
Palin wrote off the occurrence as a “shout-out, gotcha” question, telling Wallace that she knows her American history.
Other Highlights from Palin’s Appearance
On the topic of Palin’s potential presidential run, Palin remained neutral.
“Still right there in the middle, Chris, still trying figure out what the lay of the land will be as these weeks and months go by,” Palin said in response to a question asking her to rank on a scale from 0 to 100 how certain she was about running.
Palin also apologized for seizing media attention away from the current Republican frontrunner, Mitt Romney, who officially announced his presidential run this week.
“I apologize if I stepped on any of that PR that Mitt Romney needed or wanted that day,” Palin said. “I do sincerely apologize and didn’t mean to step on anybody’s toes.”
Wallace also asked Palin about how she would handle the country’s economic situation if she were president.
“I would go the opposite direction of what these Democrats and President Obama have already tried in his two-and-a-half years,” Palin said. “They’re already tried the nearly $1 trillion stimulus package. And we still have 9.1 percent unemployment. We still have about a 17 percent underemployment rate. And we are incurring more and more debt — as we speak, Chris. So, it’s just not working.”
Palin continued that she would cut the federal budget, saying government spending is crowding out private sector investment.
Palin also said that President Obama isn’t doing enough to utilize domestic energy sources, such as oil reserves.
“It does come down to ‘drill, baby, drill,’ in addition to an ‘all of the above’ energy policy that really is non-existent in the Obama administration,” Palin said.
On the issue of the debt ceiling, Palin says she doesn’t support the Democratic plan to raise the ceiling.
“I know that the debt ceiling will be raised, whether I want it to be raised or not,” Palin said. “There is a majority in Congress, both sides of the aisle that will raise the debt ceiling. If I were in Congress, though, I would be a ‘no’ vote to raising that debt ceiling.”
Palin said if the debt ceiling is raised, she hopes that Republicans can negotiate an agreement to balance the budget and cut government spending.
