Sarah PAC:

We spent a very moving day in Kansas City, Missouri, where it’s easy to remember what really matters, because here we have the National World War I Museum and Liberty Memorial.

The Liberty Memorial Tower is dedicated “In honor of those who served in the World War in defense of liberty and our country.” Reading the many memorial inscriptions while standing in the rain was a somber and humbling reminder of the sacrifices young Americans made nearly a century ago in distant battlefields so far from home. So many of them never returned from those fields in France and Belgium. Yes, it was a somber, real, significant moment reading those words about the honor in one’s dedication to God and country.

The main inscription on the memorial reads: “These have dared bear the torches of sacrifice and service. Their bodies return to dust but their work liveth evermore. Let us strive on to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

I took the above photo of Piper and my niece McKinley with the memorial in the background. It brought home to me what this “One Nation Tour” is about. It’s about the duty we have not just to the living, but also to the dead and to the generations yet to be born. Our founders called us the “heirs of freedom,” and as such we have a duty to those who have already paid the price for us to live in freedom, and we have a duty to those who will come after us.

And apparently that concludes the tour. Study up time for everyone:

Now it’s back to Alaska for the start of the school year. (And, of course, our annual visit to our own state fair where Piper looks forward to clogging on the Blue Bonnet Stage!) While kids crack open their school books, I look forward to continuing my own writing and research on strategies and plans to help move our country forward.

We will be back on the road soon, for on September 3rd we’ve been invited to a big Tea Party “Restoring America” rally in Waukee, Iowa. We hope to see many of you there as we gather to discuss the direction of our country and the way forward with our fundamental restoration of all that is good and strong and free in America. You can click here for more information on the event.

Thank you all for your support and for sharing this leg through the Heartland of the “One Nation Tour” with us.

With an Alaskan heart,

Sarah Palin

Sarah PAC:

Alexandra Moe was able to snag a comment on Tim Pawlenty’s leaving the 2012 race:

As the SarahPAC caravan (consisting of an SUV, minivan, and bus) drove through Illinois — even on some dirt roads — passing cars would slow down to snap pictures out the window, and some even honked and waved. Palin was greeted at every stop, including some of the hotels, by crowds of people wishing to take a photo with her or snag an autograph. ….

“So I really, really hope the best for Gov. Pawlenty,” Palin told NBC News during her tour of the museum. “He is a good man, and disappointed that he dropped out.”

“We still have many months to go, and I think we will see more people coming and going,” Palin added during a follow-up question standing in front of a replica White House.

And remember the big ole’ camera hanging around Piper’s neck? Here are her pics:

Palin also went through Hannibal, Missouri, Mark Twain’s hometown.

These pictures come from Alexandra Moe of NBC. Palin at the boyhood home of Reagan and the Ronald Reagan Museum at Eureka college:

Update:

Sauk Valley:

With no public announcement and no fanfare, Sarah Palin’s flashy “One Nation” tour bus pulled into town and parked on “Ronald Reagan Way.”

On board were the former Republican vice presidential candidate, her husband, Todd, her daughter, Piper, and a niece, McKinley, both 10.

They all toured the home of the most beloved GOP president, in the town he always called home, during Reagan Trail Days, the town’s annual 5-day festival celebrating its native son, and during the centennial year of his birth.

Many in the crowd, needless to say, were thrilled.

For her part, Palin seemed to enjoy the tour.

“I think the home was absolutely beautiful and so appreciative, speaking on behalf of I think a lot of Americans, that this town has put such effort into the restoration of this,” Palin said afterward.

“These volunteers are amazing. This is beautiful.”

[...]

The visit wasn’t a total surprise. Ann Lewis, chairwoman of the Dixon Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission, was honored on Friday night at the Trail Days Reagan Gala. A short time later, around 10:45 p.m., she got a phone call from a Palin representative.

“People at Eureka College had given them my number,” Lewis said. “They wanted someone to act as a guide.”

Lewis agreed to show Palin around – and also to keep the visit under wraps, she said Saturday.

After visiting the Boyhood Home, Lewis took the group to historic Lowell Park, where a handsome Ronnie Reagan was a lifeguard back in his teens and early 20s, and where he reportedly fished 77 people – many of them young women – out of the Rock River.

To complete the local tour, the bus made its way back through Dixon along Ronald Reagan Way.

“We drove from the river all the way up,” Lewis said. “She was very gracious. She was answering questions. She signed pictures.”

[...]

Palin autographed the mag, and the two even chatted about Brousil’s preparation for an upcoming triathlon.

She’s “very personable, friendly and interested in the people that she’s talking with,” Brousil said.

Lee Murray told Palin that the next time he sees her, he hopes it’s when she’s in the White House.

The 93-year-old thinks the potential candidate is “pretty honest.”

“She means well. I think she’s a good American,” Murray said.

He said he was surprised to see Palin in Dixon, where he’s lived since 1945. He was so excited that he planned to tell his family about meeting Palin even before returning home, he said.

Two years ago, Sally Campbell didn’t get Palin’s autograph when the two were in The Villages in Florida at the same time, she said.

“My friend called me this morning and said, ‘Sally, Sarah Palin’s up at the Reagan house,’ so what did I do? I hopped in the car,” Campbell said.

“I think she’s absolutely down-to-earth, and she’s got it.”

Update II:

SarahPAC:

Video:

And apparently some fairgoers favor Palin – http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=477789

A straw poll at the Kankakee County Fair found that of likely Republican Party voters, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the top choice as the prospective presidential candidate.

Palin, the vice presidential GOP candidate from the 2008 election, received 19 percent of the votes, said Kim Curlee, secretary for the Kankakee County Republican Central Committee.

At total of 86 ballots were cast. This straw poll was the first time the party conducted a survey at the county fair.

“We are trying to get people to think about the election. We want people to start generating thoughts about 2012,” Curlee said.

Following Palin were: Minnesota U.S Rep. Michele Bachmann, 17 percent; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 15 percent; Texas Congressman Ron Paul, 14 percent; Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 12 percent; former Georgia congressman and ex-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, 6 percent; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, 5 percent; and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, 4 percent.

Veteran commercial fisherman and biologist Capt. David Goethel of Hampton said he had the opportunity to speak with Palin at the Fisherman Coop Thursday, June 2, after his day out on the water. During his meeting with her, he explained to her the fishery regulations and his position as a member of the New England Fishery Management Council. “I explained how New Hampshire is disadvantaged here,” Goethel said. “She knew exactly what I was talking about.”

Goethel said Palin conveyed to him her feelings that small businesses are important, and that their closing is counterproductive to the economy.

“She didn’t seem to be in campaign mode,” Goethel said. “She seemed like a tourist.”

Goethel said of the approximately 45 minutes to an hour Palin was there, most of that time she and her parents and daughter, Piper, were in the building where fish were being filleted and where the lobster tanks are located.

“My wife took them into the lobster tank area, and basically gave a biology lesson on how to tell a male from a female,” Goethel said. His wife, Ellen, is also a marine biologist.

Goethel said New England lobsters are different from anything found in Alaskan waters and Palin and family members appeared interested in learning about products of our local waters.

“She seemed like a nice person, normal and down to earth and friendly,” Goethel said. “We didn’t discuss international relations but she didn’t seem like any lightweight.”

Minus the mob of media crowding her, Goethel said Palin seemed sincere, very unscripted, and without any pre-planned “canned” statements, and just seemingly interested in learning about fishing in New England.

Goethel said his son, Daniel, who is currently working alongside his father on his 44-foot stern trawler vessel, the “Ellen Diane,” also spoke to Palin. After Palin learned of David Goethel’s horrific accident last September, where he fell 25 feet from his boat to the ground, Palin’s reported parting words to Dan were to “take good care of your father.”

Palin insisted yesterday on Fox News Sunday she was right: “Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you’re not going to succeed. You’re not going to take American arms.”

In fact, Revere’s own account of the ride in a 1798 letter seems to back up Palin’s claim. Revere describes how after his capture by British officers, he warned them “there would be five hundred Americans there in a short time for I had alarmed the Country all the way up.”

Boston University history professor Brendan McConville said, “Basically when Paul Revere was stopped by the British, he did say to them, ‘Look, there is a mobilization going on that you’ll be confronting,’ and the British are aware as they’re marching down the countryside, they hear church bells ringing — she was right about that — and warning shots being fired. That’s accurate.”

I would also add the obvious point: Palin’s remarks were not a misspeak when she said Revere warned the British. Many are asking, “Why don’t you just admit that you misspoke? Why don’t you just say that you meant he warned the colonists?” If that’s what she had meant she could say that. But that’s not what she meant. Let’s take a look at what she actually said:

“He warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms…”

Replace “British” with “colonists,” the supposed correction that Palin critics say she should make:

“He warned the colonists that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms….”

Then it really makes no sense. The colonists were trying to take away our arms? That really would be botched history.

“At last the [British] officers began to feel the full import of what Paul Revere had been telling them. His words of warning took on stronger meaning when punctuated by gunfire. The sound of a single shot had suggested to them that surprise was lost. The crash of a volley appeared evidence that the country was rising against them. As they came closer to the Common they began to hear Lexington’s town bell clanging rapidly. the captive Loring, picking up Revere’s spirit, turned to the officers and said, ‘The bell’s a’ringing! The town’s alarmed, and you’re all dead men!’”

- Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer, pp. 135-6

“And you’re all dead men!” Love it.

Great article over at American Spectator:

*        *         *         *        *

Now it seems that our liberal friends over at Think Progress are pulling the latest Sarah Palin-is- dumb-routine over her reference to Paul Revere’s ride (the same “this Republican is dumb” routine they have been pulling on Republicans since the days when they called Lincoln a “baboon.” One could ask how dumb is it in America to have a 9.1 unemployment rate, but I digress).

So everybody at Think Progress is having a nice chortle at Palin’s expense for supposedly screwing up her history. Or, as Think Progress says, “Sarah Palin Flubs American History.”

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Wait just a minute here. What is it that Think Progress writes?

The site says this — and I have placed the bad history of Think Progress in bold print:

Seemingly moved by the historic importance of Boston, Palin decided to recognize the city’s own Paul Revere and his famous “Midnight Ride” in which he hung two lanterns and rode to Lexington to warn Patriot leaders that the British army was arriving “by sea.”

Er…no.

Paul Revere did not hang any lanterns at all.

[...]

To help the historically challenged at Think Progress who think Governor Palin is historically illiterate, let me again put the appropriate — and accurate — historical fact in bold print.

He said to his friend, ‘If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light, -
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country-folk to be up and to arm.

In other words, Paul Revere didn’t hang a solitary lantern in the belfry arch of the North Church. That assignment was given to “his friend.” Why? Because Revere could not possibly be in two places at the same time. He couldn’t “hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch” while at the same time “on the opposite shore will be, ready to ride and spread the alarm, Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country-folk to be up and to arm.”

What’s the real news in this little reality check?

Think Progress…well…ah…flubs American history.

And these people think Sarah Palin is dumb?