Just passing through

Adrian Walker

June 04, 2011|By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist

Thank goodness, we now know exactly what’s right and what’s wrong with Massachusetts. We know now, because a half-term governor of Alaska took time out of her busy family vacation to enlighten us.

Yes, Sarah Palin passed through town on Thursday, but not without trashing Massachusetts health care, mangling some cherished history, and wishing Mitt Romney well — sincerely, I’m sure — in his bid for the White House.

Palin insisted that her trip up the East Coast this week was not a campaign venture. But she did pause long enough to state her objections to the individual mandate that is the centerpiece of the Massachusetts health care law, noting that Tea Party activists would find it hard to make peace with what many consider to be Romney’s most important act during his term as governor.

But all is not lost, Massachusetts. Palin made the rounds of historical landmarks and she did express her admiration for Paul Revere, though not without unleashing one of her trademark gaffes.

“He 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 his horse through town,’’ she said.

Uh, not exactly. Revere didn’t ring any bells — he was on a hush-hush mission and rather famously aboard a galloping horse. And he wasn’t warning the British, he was warning us. The fractured syntax, however, is most authentically Palinesque.

What is it with these out-of-state Republicans, anyway? First Michele Bachmann thinks the battle of Lexington and Concord was waged in New Hampshire, and then Palin demonstrates less knowledge about the midnight ride of Paul Revere than a literate third-grader.

Actually, I was mildly surprised that Palin graced Boston with a visit at all. She knows from experience that this is not a Palin stronghold. Her rally on Boston Common last year pretty much fizzled, I thought, with even her trademark rally lines — “Drill, baby, drill!’’ — failing to really ignite the crowd. But maybe she wasn’t visiting to test her appeal with voters. After all, she has a whole separate constituency: the media. As usual, she didn’t lack for their attention. She was followed clear across the New Hampshire border by the press horde, even though she answered few questions, and didn’t even bother to tell them where she was going, as is her standard procedure.