So Rick Perry goofed up the dates of the American Revolution:
“Our Founding Fathers never meant for Washington, D.C. to be the fount of all wisdom. As a matter of fact they were very much afraid if that because they’d just had this experience with this far-away government that had centralized thought process and planning and what have you, and then it was actually the reason that we fought the revolution in the 16th century was to get away from that kind of onerous crown if you will,” Perry said.”
I can’t give Perry too much crap for this. People misspeak all the time (President Obama very likely knows that there aren’t 57 states) and anyone who watched last night’s debate performance realizes that Rick Perry is suffering from some Schedule-1 tiredness. My most charitable interpretation? Perry was lazily conflating the narrative of the Revolution with the narrative of the Plymouth pilgrims (though that of course was in the early 17th century).