The rot heard round the world

Ah, but without Bachmann and this post I might never have realized how funny it is that the great revolution began in Concord. Don't know how I missed that for 43 years.

I thought the war started in Concord, California.

The fact that she is even a credible candidate is a testament to how far from grace we have fallen. Politicians like her are a direct result of American Democratic, and Educational, insouciance.

"IT'S only because of the title of this blog and its associated print column that I reluctantly join all the other voices drawing attention to Michele Bachmann's latest mangling of American history."

I still wish you didn't.

On the one hand, the news media is doing America a favor by providing Michele Bachmann with a free forum to trumpet her ignorance. The more the Tea Party icon is seen and heard, the more she becomes a caricature of herself, and the faster she will self-destruct. On the other hand, all the media cover given her is making American politics and culture the laughing stock of the civilized world. I leave it at that.

"In fairness to Mrs Bachmann, it's an easy mistake to make."

True, for a mere Congresswoman. Every time anyone has put one of our esteemed Representative to a quiz of basic knowledge, the results have been embarrassing (Jeopardy champions excepted, of course). She once had to know it to get out of high school, but I'm sure her head has no room now for anything other than getting herself elected. No doubt, her Presidential preoccupations with New Hampshire allow her to recall that the state capital is also named Concord. Then, rummaging through her disconnected scraps of general knowledge, she recalled the phrase, "Lexington and Concord", and by a brilliant process of deduction . . .

But isn't a special gaffe for a darling of the Tea Party ? Or do they mean the Mad Hatter's Tea Party ?

Doug, I'd never noticed the irony, either. My only excuse is that the regional pronunciations of Conkerd (short o, first syllable strongly stressed), and cawncord (big round o, equally stressed syllables) are quite different.

Lexington, there's no audio download on NPR's story link. It's impossible for you to join with all the other voices.

Not that I'm a fan of hers nor the Tea Party...

Just file that comment in the same bin as the one that has the
"Social Security is going broke." comments.

They say that if you say a lie long enough and loud enough, people will believe it.

Regards

Ooh. Auuagh. Well, you're kinder to her than I would be, Lex. Even if she's confusing Concord, N.H. with Concord, Mass., someone in Congress ought to know that Lexington (Mass.) happened before Concord, and that Lexington is where the Shot Heard 'Round The World occurred. I disagree that it's an easy mistake to make for anyone out of high school. I'm more sympathetic with the small-government, deficit-reducing goals of the Tea Partiers than most, but Bachmann as any kind of public official can't be described in any kinder way than as a joke. (Not a credible candidate, ShaunP.)

While it's inexcusable for a congressperson to not know how the Revolution started, it's common for people to get anything beyond the basics wrong. As in:

1. Revere never made it. Dawes did. Revere was taken into custody. Riders spread out across MA into NH and RI. Longfellow made Revere famous.
2. One if by land meant walking all the way around, crossing Boston Neck - which would be underwater at high tide - and then through Brookline. The Regulars would not have made Lexington by dawn and that might have changed the day because there would have been larger numbers of militia present and thus more a pitched battle.
3. Two if by sea meant boats across the Charles into what was then the marsh in Cambridge. They took that route because it saved miles.
4. The militia fought straight up in rank like the Regulars. They didn't fire from cover like the movies show.
5. The real battle was the way home. Lexington was a rout and Concord a standoff with the Regulars amazed by the number of militia confronting them. Every turn in the road on the way back was manned by militia formed in ranks, usually behind fences. It was a series of pitched battles. If not for the relief column, the entire Regular column would have been forced to surrender or die. Most of the militia casualties were from the flankers trying to clear alongside the road and then after the relief column arrived with fresh men and ammunition.

Assonance in "concord," bampbs? It's like I've been staring at bats in a gold mine.

As stated so inaccurately by Bluto in Animal House:

"Did the Americans quit when the Germans attacked Pearl Harbor? Hell No!"

Perhaps this gives us an insight into how Ms. Bachmann spent her time in college, assuming she went to college.

I see the usual suspects have lined up behind Lexington to get a good laff riot over Bachmann's latest American Histroy gaffs

I also see how Bachmann has single handedly made us the laughing stock of the world.

The only problem I see is that she is a Congresswoman and not the President who thinks we have 57 states or the Vice President who makes so many gaffs it is hard to know where to begin.
Oh that's right they don't count. Since they are Liberals they get a free pass on virtually every stupid mistake they make.

How about Nancy Pelosi and her lies about being privy to and approving Waterboarding techniques in 2002? Ditto Harry Reid. Whoops there is that pesky "lib label" again

BTW What happened to Sarah Palin? Did your Sarah bashing get a little stale so now you get to pick on another uppity Republican woman?

I have a suggestion...why don't you guys spend some time thinking about solutions to the manifest problems we are facing instead of acting like a bunch of misogynist schoolyard bullies? Maybe you won't lose in 2012 so badly if you actually had some ideas the country could warm up to. Hint...don't look to these guys (the Economist) for any ideas...they are beyond clueless.
JLK

So the shot heard in Concorde wasn't an attempt to hijack the airliner??

JLKrier:

Welcome to a free press.

Don't worry. Those at Fox, and the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post, and Red State, and Newsmax, and the Weekly Standard, and talk radio -

Are more than happy to talk about the mis-statements, real or imagined, of Obama, or Pelosi, or Biden, or any number of Democrats.

They're happy to go on about them, and on, and on, and on, and on....

For non-US readers The Shot Heard Round the World would more commonly be associated with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which triggered World War I (an international event which took place between 1914 and 1918 and believed by many to be of greater historical significance).

Like JLKrier, I too wonder why the media doesn't talk about Barack Obama's misstatement of "57 states."

Sure, it was made back during the 2008 primaries, and it's 2011 right now, AND he was clearly trying to estimate the number of primaries and caucuses (which is above 50 because non-states that are part of the U.S. like Guam have primaries, and some states like Texas have both a primary and a caucus), but still, I can only assume Lexington's failure to blog about that statement yesterday is due to his unabashed chauvinism. Just like how the only explanation for why Michelle Bachmann getting U.S. history wrong is funny is the fact that she's a woman. Alternate explanations, such as the fact that Bachmann repeatedly claims that she understands America's founding and history and traditions and bases her ideology and support for the Tea Party on that understanding, are not even worth considering.

Hey Stephen Morris, RW Emerson coined and publicized the "shot heard 'round the world" phrase more than 75 years prior to the start of WWI. So hands off, euros! If Phil "Three-peat" Jackson had been around in 1775, the SHRTW phrase would have been trademarked before Franz Ferdinand was even a gleam in his father's eye.

-- A grumpy native of Lexington who is nevertheless willing to forgive RWE for his Concord-centric spin on events. The real SHRTW was the still-mysterious initial shot in Lexington, which both sides thought the other had fired, and which was the catalyst for all the fighting that followed.

@JLKrier
"I also see how Bachmann has single handedly made us the laughing stock of the world."

Au Contraire!...
That is a rather inaccurate assertion. She has had plenty of help:
Palin, Beck, Limbaugh, Rand Paul, DeMint, O'Donnell, Rubio, Angle, just for starters.

Also...
Pelosi and Reid might be liars, but hell they're politicians, of course they are liars!

Bachmann however is simply ignorant....and that's something else entirely.

But not to worry....you win today's Rush Limbaugh Award.
You managed to mention; the liberal media, anti-Republicanism, misogyny, Sarah Palin, an Obama gaff, delusional comments about the 2012 elections, and the word 'manifest'...all in the same comment!

Well done!

Mixing up a minor detail of the American Revolution is a forgivable mistake. Perverting American history and what the country stands for however, is not.