Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has a thing for John Wayne. In an interview yesterday with Newsmax, she said she wants to live in “John Wayne’s America.” And in the Iowa town of Waterloo today, where she announced her presidential candidacy, Bachmann told Fox News, “John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.” But unfortunately for historically challenged Bachmann, as the Washington Times points out, the John Wayne born in Waterloo is John Wayne Gacy, the notorious serial killer who murdered 33 teenage boys and young men, not the iconic Western actor.
I hope you people of Minnesota are proud of yourselves.
Valdivia
This is really making my day–I know I have a low bar–can’t stop laughing thinking about it.
Dr. Loveless
Dear Michelle: Next time read the actual articles, not just the Google hits.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i just saw this in a tweet, damn john cole is on shit at balloon juice world hq.
hilarious, and i think she can just about drop out now.
Villago Delenda Est
Bachmann is the sort of person we put on trial after WWII for war crimes.
jo6pac
Another clown for the clown car and she can win the repug show, that puts 0 in a good place to win.
freelancer
Beclowned doesn’t even begin to describe how awesomely stupid this woman is. But it is meta enough.
Urza
On the plus side, there will be an uptick in employment for people fact checking her, writing up how stupid she is, and filing it all away for possible 2012 commercials. These commercials however are likely to destroy Comedy Central since they will be in direct competition for gut busting laughter.
dpcap
That’s ok, we’ll just rewrite the wiki article about John Wayne.
scav
Maybe she’s speaking truth to power: she and many others really want to live in an America where it’s open season on the wrong sort of young men.
Rosalita
but, but, but his PARENTS lived in Waterloo briefly!!
terraformer
No. We are not proud of ourselves.
That is all.
Alex S.
Even Think Progress is wrong. John Wayne Gacy wasn’t born in Waterloo, but in Chicago.
MikeJ
It was changed for about 3 minutes.
Miller
John Wayne was a fag.
Elizabelle
Watch out, guys.
John Wayne born in Winterset, but his parents first settled as newlyweds in Waterloo. That may be what Rep. Bachman (Loon-MN) garbled.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57865.html
This smacks a little of the Palin-Paul Revere extravaganza.
And however much you laugh, the wingnuts will forgive Michelle Bachmann, because she just misspoke. They’ll see her as more human for it. And laugh at point at the liberal media for making such a big deal of this. “More proof you can’t trust ’em.”
Never mind that the wingnuts were still chortling about Obama’s 57 states over at the Washington Times.
Villago Delenda Est
Actual WWII combat marines loath John Wayne.
Ahasuerus
Both IMDB and Wikipedia report that the actor John Wayne (born Marion Robert Morrison) was being born May 26, 1907 in Winterset, Iowa. Winterset, Waterloo – at least they both start with the letter ‘W’. Close counts, right?
ETA: Ah crap, I see Elizabelle got here first. (Shakes tiny fist at Elizabelle)
Gus
Minnesota used to be a pretty great place. Among the tops in education and quality of life. Unfortunately there are a huge number of one issue voters (anti-abortion) who became convinced that Jesus was also for free markets and a strong military. Fortunately the Twin Cities are still hugely liberal, but sadly they’re increasingly surrounded by a bunch of Bible thumping, God-bothering freaks.
The Dangerman
I’m fairly sure John Wayne was amongst the crowd that benefited mightily from buying up property on the cheap, cheap, CHEAP from Japanese Americans put in the camps during WWII.
Han's Solo
Of course she loves John Wayne Gacy. He raped, I mean he forcibly injected baby batter in women. To reproduce is God’s greatest calling and he was doing his best to do what he thought God wanted him to do. Exactly like Bachman is doing with her career in politics.
And if not for those satanic liberals forcibly aborting those babies, after John Wayne Gacy killed them, those babies would be thriving, God Fearing, Tea Party Partriots willing to persecute anyone with Anti American thoughts!
PS – If you don’t realize this is snark you need to slap your parents for allowing you to grow up and be that stupid.
Chris
I love that she chose to say John Wayne rather than, say, Davy Crockett or Wyatt Earp or George Custer or Calamity Jane, or, you know, some iconic figure of the frontier that was actually real.
It’s a “rare moment of truth” in another way too: it’s not the frontier that gets them all fired up, it’s 1950s Hollywood’s reimagining of it. The world should be just like the movies, doncha know! And we’re the party of people who think it actually is!
freelancer
@Elizabelle
I know your point is that for Bachmann and her supporters, this and things like the Taibbi article are badges of honor and only serve to embolden her. But she’s more than a little delusional, and her followers are mired in the fantasy wingnutopia that is the 27%.
What should be done or said about Bachmann? Mockery and derision is the least that we can offer, and we aren’t the pointy-headed elitest pundit class. No matter how often it’s thrown at us, we don’t fit that label. So mockery and derision and demands for nonbatshit conservatism sound a bit different coming from us, both on the web and IRL. I for one will continue with the jokes.
lacp
So John Wayne Revere rode through Iowa warning patriots that Lee Marvin was going to take away their guns? Huhwah?
cleek
somewhere, a low-level fact-checker just got sent home.
A Ghost To Most
I never saw John Wayne on the Sands of
IwoIowa Jima …/Patterson Hood
comrade scott's agenda of rage
The majority of the people of MN may or may not be proud of themselves. The people of Bachman’s exceedingly well-gerrymandered district I’m sure are.
As is the state Republican party that puts emphasis on winning state legislatures and governorships to correspond with redrawing Congressional district maps. This is where they win all the time and Dems epically fail.
Every time I hear the old “well, demographics will eventually catch up with the Repups” I chuckle and shake my head knowing that the Repups know how to fight that at the state level with voter suppression laws and gerrymandering.
PeakVT
Facts, shmacts. They’re all liberal, so who needs them?
bemused
Hey, now. Don’t lump all of us Minnesotans with the dipshits in her weird district who voted for her and unfortunately probably would again if she doesn’t get anywhere with this presdential run.
oth, Gov Dayton was the first MN governor to walk in the annual Twin Cities Gay Pride Parade.
Villago Delenda Est
Explains their worship of Ronaldus Magnus, who frequently mistook what he saw in the movies for reality.
Also explains the entire notion of “rugged individualism” in the saga of “how the West was
wonconquered”.Chris
@ Elizabelle –
I realize the chances of a conservative understanding this are vanishingly small, but the problem with Sarah Palin isn’t that she makes misstatements. It’s that she repeatedly tries to bullshit her way through things, is too stupid to do it effectively, and when she’s caught in her misstatement, has an army of people who try to justify it as “no no no, actually, she was totally telling the truth, and it’s proof of how perceptive and smart she is!”
Obama makes misstatements too. But after his “57 states” gaffe, I don’t recall a Democratic campaign to try to explain that there were really 57 states in the Union, or change wikipedia’s United States page to reflect the new “fact” that there were 57 states in the Union.
Han's Solo
If Bachman does win the nomination she’ll have to be very careful in picking her running mate.
She’ll need someone who seems smarter than she is; because she says stupid things a lot.
She’ll need someone who seems saner than she is; because she’s nuttier than squirrel shit.
She’ll need someone with name recognition; because with the exception of the teabaggers and possibly the staff at the Minnesota Institute for the Batshit Insane nobody knows who she is.
Smarter, saner and better known than Michelle Bachman? There is only one way to go: Charlie Sheen.
eastriver
Michele Bachman’s todo list:
1) Put on mascara
2) Practice crazy smile
3) More mascara
4) Fire fact maker-upper
5) Check eye makeup
Ben
Hey, don’t make fun of Michelle. She’s the Democrats best chance of 4 more years in the White House, taking back the House and keeping the Senate.
Tonal Crow
Now that’s a double helping of awesome with awesome sauce!
ETA: Bachmann-Palin 2012: All the stupid, and twice the crazy!
JCT
And for g_d’s sake Michelle, why the fuck are you IDOLIZING movie actors anyway.
In real life, “John Wayne” was a massive asshole — that “spirit” you admire was FAKE and made up by Hollywood. The End.
Really, is this the best the GOP can do?
nancydarling
I liked quite a few of John Wayne’s movies, but he was a shirker when it came to military service. Everyone else was joining up, Stewart, Tyrone Power (who was gay I believe), lots of others. Clark Gable enlisted at 41 after Lombard was killed in a plane crash while on a tour selling war bonds. Not Wayne. He played lots of soldiers in the movies, though. I just never have understood the RW hero worship of Wayne.
Villago Delenda Est
Which wasn’t really a gaffe, if you were paying attention to the context he said it in.
57 contests to the nomination. There are more than 50 delegations to the DNC…or the RNC, for that matter. There’s American Samoa. There’s Puerto Rico. There’s the Virgin Islands. There’s Democrats or Republicans Abroad. There’s the Marianas. There’s DC. There’s Guam.
PurpleGirl
I thought John Wayne’s real name was Marion MICHAEL Morrison, which isn’t what Wikipedia has. Anyway, she needs a fact checker on her staff, like last week.
freelancer
Not to be outdone, Sarah Palin stopped at the Field of Dreams just outside of Dyersville, IA and remarked on her admiration for the film:
“Y’know it’s just like what America is and can be. We can hit a grand slam if we just keep on the ball, with our eyes, and we won’t have to watch the pitch as it sails by. Just Great. Baseball, James Earl Ray was in the film, he gave a speech about American and Baseball and how it was bringin’ us all together, just fantastic. Passed down from generation to generation from the Greatest Generation dropping into Market Garden on D-Day on and on to our great, just great agriculture industry so that Kevin Costner could have a game of pickle with his dad Shoeless Joe. I admire what James Earl Ray said and did. He is a great spirit, especially in the face of diversity. I share James Earl Ray’s appreciation for diversity, you betcha. Ronald Reagan. If you build it, tear down this wall. Freedom. Go the distance.”
kwAwk
The wikipedia article ThinkProgress cites indicates Gacy was born in Chicago and later moved to Waterloo.
Nellcote
@#28 I thought MN had a law that said you couldn’t run for Prez and re-election at the same time. Since she’s announced for Prez doesn’t that mean she can’t run for re-election unless she drops out?
…
John Wayne Gacy painted clown paintings. Co-incidence?
Rosalita
you forgot the part about applying false eyelashes…
PTirebiter
Yea, the fictional America, filled with real Americans as portrayed by rich Hollywood stars. Who cares that she got his birthplace wrong, the real problem is these jerks who mourn something that never existed and they’re pissed about it.
MikeJ
Han’s Solo @ 20:
Uh, no. He forcibly injected it into men.
Trentrunner
freelancer@39:
I got all the way to the end before I realized it was snark.
And I’m still not 100% sure.
/hat doff
Villago Delenda Est
Um, Sarah, dear, I’m afraid you’re confusing “The Man”, “The voice of Darth Vader”, and “Terrence Mann” with your hero, the convicted assassin of another near person.
On edit…oh, snark? Poe’s law strikes again!
jl
Excuuuuse me!
Marion “Duke” Morrison is from Winterset, Iowa.
IIRC, Morrison’s family moved to Southern California when he was a young kid,and he went to University of Southern California, which way back then was a dumping ground for well off mediocre students.
And finally, John Wayne is from Hollywood.
JCT
This is all perfect for the chickenhawk party — they love puffing out their chest and sending other people’s children to fight wars of choice.
It’s all a game of Risk to them because their real knowledge of war comes from John Wayne movies.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Villago Delenda Est @37
One of those- I think the Marianas- doesn’t have a primary. IIRC, the 57th is the second Texas contest.
But I could be wrong. It’s been a while since I had to explain this to a wingnut.
Special Patrol Group
One can’t help but wonder what Miller (aka the real Don Pesola) thinks about all this.
Cris (without an H)
Don’t worry, we have PZ Myers to remind us that Minnesota has not only liberals, but atheists also too.
Chris
@ nancydarling
I do. He’s exactly their kind of guy. Badass rhetoric and posturing, with absolutely nothing to back them up, but they like the way it feels.
Interestingly, people who knew him claim that he felt really guilty about not signing up, and that’s what motivated a lot of the politics he became known for. According to his wife, “He would become a ‘superpatriot’ for the rest of his life trying to atone for staying home.”
PurpleGirl
I have a feeling that James Earl Jones would not like being mistaken for that other person. Sarah, repeat after me… James Earl Jones.
Nellcote
@#39 Holy Crap! Is that a real quote?
Hungry Joe
Yeah, and Ronald Reagan said that trees cause smog and that he was there when Auschwitz was liberated, and he liked to relate a moving WWII tale that turned out to be the plot of the wholly fictional movie “The War Lover.” (Steve McQueen. Pretty decent flick.) That he was spouting fantasies or lies — it was hard to tell with him — made no difference.
Villago Delenda Est
Max@49: That could well be…couldn’t be the Canal Zone, as that was stolen back by the Panamanians fair and square.
gbear
I hear that Chris Wallace had to delay his vacation due to a ruptured gut.
gene108
I applaud Bachmann’s can-do attitude. I’m tired of Presidents sending in SEAL Team Six or Delta Force or whoever to do their killing for them.
What we need is a President, with the spirit of John Wayne Gacy in her; someone who’ll do her own damn killing.
Repeal the 22nd Amendment and let her serve as President for Life, if she does her killing with her bare hands!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage #26:
Ditto that on the voter suppression, but gerrymandering is a two-edged weapon which can as easily hurt as help the side that uses it. is essentially a leveraged bet that the ideological state of the electorate will not shift against you. It works great when it works (i.e. in the short term), but when it doesn’t work it magnifies the damage done. Essentially it takes an ever narrower slice of swing voters in the middle and gives them greater power to reward or punish either party. In general terms that is bad for our democracy since it helps fuel wild swings in who controls the House (cf 2002-2010) but in the longer run it isn’t all to the advantage of the side which is performing the gerrymandering.
Redshift
Right on. Mockery is the best weapon against bullshit. As Harry Frankfurt wrote, you can’t fight it with facts, because it takes far more work to debunk BS than it takes for the BS artist to make up new BS.
There is no one who is going to change their vote to Republican just because they’re offended at mean bloggers hurting Bachmann’s fee-fees. Bachmann is a joke, and the more we can do to make anyone who supports her embarrassed to mention it in public, the better.
Bobby Thomson
How do we know she misspoke? It’s not like wingnuts don’t have a history of lionizing serial killers.
askew
Hey not fair to blame all Minnesotans for Bachmann. She is the rep of MN-6 not the whole state. She’d lose a statewide contest in a landslide.
Remember we also gave you Wellstone and Franken.
freelancer
@Nellcote:
That you had to ask means I dun mah job right good. Thanks.
Villago Delenda Est
Which is a trait they share with another group of jerks, only this group of jerks was in central Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
Bobby Thomson
Thank you, Ned Stark.
Zandar
OK, I laughed. Has she picked a Florida point man yet? I hear Dexter Morgan is available.
bemused
nancy darling:
And he was married three times, fancied latino women, had affairs, a big drinker. But that was real life. For all the scorn rightwingers have for Hollywood, they believe their heroes in the movies, Wayne and Reagan, were actually those people.
YellowDog
I was born and raised in Minnesota, when we had Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey. Bachmann is from Iowa. As we used to say, the best thing to come out of Iowa is an empty bus.
Jewish Steel
@freelancer:
You do m_c and Palin? Good one.
Chris
@ bemused –
Check out these quotations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne#Statements_to_Playboy_magazine) from an interview he gave in 1971, touching on American Indians, welfare, and black people. He hits every single conservative note (slightly adjusted because it was forty years ago and you could get away with saying more).
His personality might not’ve been what they wanted, but politically speaking, he was one of them to the bone.
Dr. Loveless
I installed two-way mirrors at his pad in Brentwood, and he came to the door wearing a dress.
Omnes Omnibus
@ YellowDog: IOWA is, of course, an acronym for Idiots Out Wandering Around.
ETA: While I am at it, what separates cheeseheads from dickheads? The Illinois-Wisconsin border.
Wilson Heath
Winger media seems to be taking an active interest in picking winners. Wallace’s “flake” question, beyond giving some cover to “fair & balanced” after the Stewart interview, was an alley-oop for Bachman to say she isn’t a witch, er, flake. Now the Moonies seem intent on taking her down a peg. Very odd.
bemused
Chris:
True. As long as one has the “right” views, the rest can be easily forgiven or ignored.
jl
@27 Chris,
Yeah, I just looked at the Wikipedia article. Like Reagan, Wayne says he was a liberal Democrat when he was younger.
Like Reagan, he sprinkles the conservative lines with humility, and nuggets of reasonableness.
So, he doesn’t want welfare to pay people to sit and do nothing, but he is OK with work welfare. He dismisses any special actions to help minorities academically, but carefully avoids pure racial bigotry, saying anyone who can meet standards is welcome.
Like Reagan, some of his views, as conservative as they seem to us, would get him bounced out of today’s nutcase party as communist.
Never was a Wayne fan. To me he is like whoozits… Nicholas Cage. Here is a guy who as far as I can tell, simply cannot act at all. As soon as he enters the screen any suspension of disbelief flees my head. And I watch a motion picture of a person, obviously not able to act anything at all, saying some words, then (I hope) leaving the scene as soon as possible.
Edit: just to be bipartisan, Kenneth Costner falls into that camp of ‘acting’ as well, though sometimes I can grasp on to some momentary suspension of disbelief when he is in a scene. So, not as extreme as Mr. Morrison.
YellowDog
@ efgoldman
Pawlenty happened after I left. But he won two terms with only a plurality in two 3-way races.
Bulworth
So…she wants to live in an Old West fantasy land?
You mean she isn’t “Proud of America” the way it is now?
Han's Solo
Breaking (I think) TPM just posted that Dane County Sheriff’s Office has opened an investigation into Judge “Choker” Prosser in Wisconsin.
Bulworth
WIN!
Stefan
Now don’t get me wrong, I love John Wayne movies, and love John Wayne the actor. If I’m flipping channels and come across a John Wayne movie, score, I’m settling in to watch.
But in real life, John Wayne (along with Ronald Reagan) was a draft dodger who sat out WWII because he didn’t want to interrupt his movie career, while, say, George McGovern was a much-decorated war hero who flew numerous combat missions over Germany.
Guess which one the wingnuts love?
jim
I want to live in John Wayne’s America as well. Higher taxes on the wealthy, stronger Unions, a smaller gap between workers and CEOs salaries, respect for scientists and teachers, and all the other stuff Michele hates.
Nellcote
Leave it to the Washinton Times to get that wrong too. Gacy was born in Chicago and moved to Waterloo as an adult.
LanceThruster
I sincerely feel Bachman knew exactly who she was referencing when she spoke of wanting to live in “John Wayne’s America.”
John Wayne Gacy is exactly the predatory icon that mirrors the GOP “War on Americans” (of any age).
The only difference will be that they’ll have the proper permits to use bulldozers to shove us into mass graves instead of having to bury us in the crawlspace.
Politically Lost
OT: Cat caught red handed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP3gzee1cps&feature=share
bkny
uh, shouldn’t ed rollins be vetting his candidate’s comments… esp this candidate?
Stefan
Interestingly, people who knew him claim that he felt really guilty about not signing up, and that’s what motivated a lot of the politics he became known for. According to his wife, “He would become a ‘superpatriot’ for the rest of his life trying to atone for staying home.”
Very true. There was a war movie about the PT-Boats he did with John Ford right after the war, “They Were Expendable”. In the credits most everyone used their old military rank, except Wayne, who didn’t have any. It killed him.
Catsy
@nancydarling:
Feature, not bug.
See also: Bush, George W; Cheney, Dick; Limbaugh, Rush
jl
@63 Stafan,
I have a theory about the love of USians for conservative frauds, or at least successful conservative men (edit: people, sorry for the inadvertent sexism) whose real life does not match their public persona, and in some ways is the opposite.
My theory has one major disadvantage: I really have to admit I have no idea how true it is. But I entertain it from time to time.
My Theory: There is an extreme form of the ‘American Way of Life’ that is an impossibility, both for individuals and for society as a whole. That is the myth of 100 percent self made self reliant individual who never go no help from nobody. It is a fraud. People who buy into that myth have to deal with great cognitive dissonance, and many begin to ‘love the lie’ as a path to self acceptance. They love successful people who are just like them, that is, in some ways, frauds.
My theory is not anti-American (or anti-USian, propertly speaking). The extreme version of this myth lives in bogus historically illiterate claims that the Founders and Framers would ‘roll over in their graves’ at every moderate or liberal advance since the 1790s. This is simply wrong. Thomas Paine was rolling over in his grave UNTIL Social Security and Medicare became law. It also lives in disguised, soft soap, form, in Mr. David Brooks genteel fantasies about US history.
Larkspur
Here is the headline from James Fallows’ reaction to it: Bachmann’s ‘John Wayne’ Gaffe: In the Reagan Tradition?
I haven’t read the article yet, but (a) Michele says I don’t hafta read all of the words, so shut up, and (b) whatever the article says, the mere invocation of Reagan can be used by wingers, for the holy name of R—-N healeth all wounds, and, I’ll guess, woundeth all heels.
Triassic Sands
Unfortunately, it looks like the big screw-up here belongs to Think Progress, not Bachmann. They really should have been more careful. It took me less than a minute to find out that Gacy was born in Chicago and Wayne in Winterset, not Waterloo, Iowa.
It’s important for Lefties to be accurate, whereas the Wingers are free to say anything they want to without being held accountable. Even when someone tries, like Bob Schieffer did in his incredibly weak style on Face the Nation, Bachmann and her fellow
LiarsRepublicans just keep on lying.Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
word on bachmann’s street is, abba and napoleon dynamite are also from waterloo.
Svensker
@ freelancer
Did you make that up? I suggest psychiatry, stat, because you are channeling the Golden Grifter, big time. Skeeeerrryy!
PaulW
She’ll just ignore it with a “haters gonna hate” mantra and move on to the next atrocity. As long as the teabagger base of the GOP loves her, they will forgive all sins. Except taxes. She says one thing about taxes being good and FORGET IT, her career is over.
Villago Delenda Est
86: I think that another good example of a movie star who “played himself” was James Stewart…but in his case, that’s what was great about him…many of his roles played off that style of performance, particularly his work with Hitchcock which is why Hitchcock casted him in those roles in the first place.
srv
That needs to be a damned bumper sticker. Can’t we get that at the BJ store?
Georgia Pig
Actual WWII combat marines loath John Wayne.
I know my Dad (1st Marine Division) did. In fact, my Dad called him a “swishing pansy” (which is an insult to swishing pansies everywhere). Story was that he was booed off the stage at an appearance at a naval hospital when he started mouthing platitudes about the glory of war.
Redshift
This is probably the only time I’ll ever say this, but TP should have read the source article in the Washington Times more carefully. They actually got it right — Gacy started his life of crime in Waterloo; he wasn’t born there.
(In all honesty, I suspect it’s more likely that Bachmann — or whoever she heard this from, since I doubt she actually researched it — mixed up Waterloo and Winterset rather than Wayne and Gacy.)
CaliCat
LOLOLOLOLOLOL This is the funniest shit I’ve heard in a long time.
jl
Wikipedia says Gacy was born in Chicago. Gacy moved to Waterloo IA after marriage.
Waterloo is definitely associated with Gacy.
NOT with John Wayne, except for ridiculous weak reed one commenter mentioned that Morrison’s (Wayne’s) parents lived in Waterloo briefly before his birth.
Lojasmo
I don’t live in the sixth CD (go Tim Walz!) and have never, and will never, vote for her, but as she is likely to be the GOP nominee, I am happy that we are the state to send the candidate to get clobbered by Obama in the upcoming election.
NonyNony
Triassic Sands
Actually the screw up is the Washington Times – they’re the ones who reported it and Think Progress is just citing them.
And I’m unsurprised that the Washington Times got it wrong. Though I AM surprised that they’re picking on Bachmann. Which means that Moon must not want to have a President who is crazier than he is or something …
Tuttle
I installed two-way mirrors at his pad in Brentwood, and he came to the door wearing a dress.
You’re nuts. That doesn’t mean he was a homo. A lot of straight guys like to watch their buddies fuck. I know I do… Don’t you?
Brian R.
Has anyone pointed out that John Wayne Gacy was actually born in Chicago and then moved to Waterloo?
I’d hate for that really important detail not to be brought up once here.
Catsy
@Triassic Sands:
You should’ve kept reading for the whole minute.
John Wayne Gacy: “Gacy and his wife moved from Illinois and settled in Waterloo, Iowa.”
Which is where he resided until incarcerated for the first set of sexual assaults.
Triassic Sands
NonyNony, the fact that the source was the Washington Times strongly argues that Think Progress should have done their own fact checking. Trusting the Washington Times is probably not the best idea in the world.
Although, as you point out, it’s surprising the Times would go after Bachmann — apparently they have another favorite candidate — and that may be why Think Progress let their guard down.
freelancer
@ Brian R et al.
This resolves some of confusion I’ve had. Because Sufjan Stevens had a concept album called “Illinois”, and all his songs were about Illinois, so when this was reported, I thought of his song “John Wayne Gacy, Jr” and was confused or thought maybe Stevens was confused.
Ana Gama
Hoot Smalley!
Lest you forget where that came from….
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/historian-michele-bachmann-blames-fdrs-hoot-smalley-tariffs-for-great-depression.php
wasabi gasp
I want to live in John Wayne’s America.
Bender
When she goes to the 57th state to give the Medal of Honor to a living “Corpse-man” (who was actually dead) and says she’ll cut the cost of health care 3000% and says a tornado killed 10,000 people in Kansas, then laughs that gaffe off by quipping, “It was like the Special Olympics” in “Austrian” while signing a document and missing today’s date by 3 whole years…
…then Bachmann will be as qualified for high office as El Presidente “Gunrunner” Obomber
Nutella
Waterloo, Iowa has always been a wholesome kind of place, the kind of place a presidential contender should be proud to be from.
from Wikpedia
Ah, the American heartland! It’s where the real Americans are, not like those corrupt and unAmerican cities.
Rihilism
@YellowDog
What da hell! Michele (Rep-MN) says somethin’ stupid so let’s bash Iowa? She might be from Iowa, but she found a home in MN. Sure, Iowa has its Steve King (Dipshit-IA), but he’s from western Iowa which is a lot like most of Minnesota, ;) …
BTW, John Wayne was a vicious homophobe and red-baiter, a horrible actor and generally despicable person. No wonder Bachmann likes him. Hope you’re enjoying burning in hell, Duke…
Evolved Deep Southerner
Has anyone pointed out that John (Wayne?) Cole left off the superfluous “n” on the end of Bachmann’s name in the headline?
Just saying. If we’re picking nits, let’s pick ’em all.
KG
And that is different from now, how?
JPL
Here’s my disappointment.. While in NH she was only approximately sixty miles wrong. Today she appears to be off by 163 miles. As president she could confuse the two Georgia’s and bomb the state instead of the country.
BO_Bill
Add your own:
1. “Let me say this as plainly as I can: by Aug. 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.”
2. “There is no place that I would rather be on my birthday than Lansing Michigan.”
3. “There will be no lobbyists in my Administration.”
Studly Pantload, a full-service troll
@Tuttle
Hey, Tuttle! Loved ya in the one episode of M*A*S*H!
Studly Pantload, a full-service troll
@Lojassmo
Exceptin’, unlike Mondale, what are the chances she can carry MN?
Mustang Bobby
IIRC, John Wayne wore a toupee out of vanity, abused drugs, treated his several wives like chattel, and ostracized his children.
Yeah, that’s the kind of America we need again.
vtr
You would have to be about 50-what to have admired John Wayne as an “actor?”
retr2327
Way up thread, Elizabelle pointed out that Bachmann wasn’t totally off-base: John Wayne did have some connection to Waterloo, i.e., his parents moved there shortly after their wedding (IIRC). Now, if you bear in mind that for wingers, life begins at conception (and ends at birth, but that’s another story), then she could well could well have meant that John Wayne “got his start” in Waterloo, even if he wasn’t born until after his parents had left.
You think I’m joking? Just wait . . . .
Angry Geometer
Woo-hoo! Flog that strawman! Flog ’em good!
Too bad Austrian really is a language, and there really were 57 Democratic primaries.
I’m sure Bachmann sounds like a genius to you, and Obama a fool. A maggot crawling around in shit like you is more impressed by the chicken he can see than the eagle far above him.
Ken
ThatLeftTurnInABQ @60: Case in point: The Illinois legislature just completed the redistricting map, and it is brutal to Republicans in the Chicago collar counties. The Republicans are planning a challenge, but that will be difficult, since the Supreme Court ruled only a few years ago (after Texas redistricted between censuses) that the state legislatures have complete control over the process.
Larkspur @93: They might be correct, if by “In the Reagan Tradition” they mean “suffering the effects of Alzheimers.”
Redshift
Triassic Sands & Nony Nony:
Amazingly enough, if you click through the Moonie Times actually got it right, ThinkProgress just transcribed it wrong.
Which does make you wonder why the Times is going after Bachmann…
Bender
Her campaign says correctly that the Duke’s parents met and married in Waterloo. They then moved to Winterset where the Duke was born. It’s just one of those “I have a claim to you guys!” thing that some politicians feel like they have to do to rev up a crowd.
Who can forget (besides Big Media, of course) how Barack Obama asserted to a crowd, “Don’t tell me I don’t have a claim on Selma, Alabama!” during a speech there, explaining that the marches on Selma inspired the Kennedy Foundation to give US scholarships to Africans, Barack’s father among them, who met the candidate’s future mother while a student in the US.
Only one slight problem: At the date of the first march on Selma, Barack was already four years old. So we see that candidates aren’t above a bit of lying to “rouse the rabble.”
PurpleGirl
vtr — Well, I’m 59 and missed his early and middle period films. I’d say it would be people over 65 who’d admire him as an actor.
The only film of his that I like is Donovan’s Reef and that’s for the co-stars and secondary actors, not all him or his character.
Mike in NC
Would that be a bad thing?
UncertaintyVicePrincipal
Okay this woman is clearly on drugs.
Bach’s not here, mann.
Once again I’m reminded of that Simpson’s episode where Bart is the kid with all the gnarly powers, as Otto puts it, taking after the Twilight Zone episode, and Miss Crabapple is saying “Okay class, once again things have been renamed to match Bart’s answers on yesterday’s test, so the US is now “Bonerland”, founded in 1942 by “Some Guy”, and….”
Just imagine what a Bachmann/Palin administration would mean, they’d be scrambling to rewrite everything.
Bender
@Angry Geometer:
Uhhh, no, Apologist Geometer, it’s not a language. And he didn’t say “57 primaries,” did he? Even if he did, he said he still had a 58th yet to visit, didn’t he?
Go ahead. Rationalize some more.
Nope, they both sound like politicians, trying to convince gullible idiots that they are “eagles” and not just hustlers.
Stefan
You would have to be about 50-what to have admired John Wayne as an “actor?”
I’m under 50, and I’ll say this: Wayne was a great screen actor. There are different styles of acting, and it’s not always intense Method Pacino-Hoffman ACTING that wins the day. Wayne, like Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, etc., essentially always played the same character — but man, people kept watching. It’s hard to do, very hard, which is why there are so few people who can do it well. And the ones who do it really well make it seem as if they aren’t acting at all.
harlana
the stupid just flash-fried my head to a crisp
Bender
And is Balloon Juice the Least Self-Aware Blog on the Intertrons?
Just yesterday, Kay posted:
You see, just yesterday, these frequent gaffes were humanizing and endearing, according to all Democrats (“real live?” — distinguishing from the famous “fictional dead ACORN-registered Dems,” right?).
So why get on Bachmann’s case? It’s almost like, I don’t know… I think the term is… IOKIYAD!
UncertaintyVicePrincipal
Bender at 128
Uh, right, nice try. People aren’t accusing Bachmann of doing this intentionally or being disingenuous. They’re accusing her of being an ignorant religious fanatic who doesn’t pay attention to facts. She does this constantly.
If she actually knew that she were getting her historical references totally, laughably wrong in New Hampshire do you really think that she would have said it anyway? Please.
I mean hey, I have criticisms of Barack Obama and being too much a politician at times is high on the list.
Bachmann isn’t doing that, she’s just being stupid. That is one thing I would never accuse Obama of being, sorry.
Catsy
Oh goody, here comes Bender to issue the usual parade of false equivalencies and transparent “yeah-but-Obama” deflections. I guess it’s time to turn the pie filter back on.
harlana
Aw, Minnesetoans here, don’t feel bad. At least you have Franken. My Senator is Chinless DeMinted
jl
The BidenGaffe is usually inappropriate language, the classic ‘Michale Kinsley’ type of gaffe which is stating the truth too frankly and baldly, and acting stupid. Biden knows what he is talking about, and rarely makes the kind of gaffe that assumes, implies, or otherwise peddles incorrect factual information.
To be honest, I heard that Biden recently did commit a fact challenged gaffe. Supposedly he made an announcement about shutting down a supposedly wasteful government internet site about the desert tortoise. Which the crack Wonkette reporting crew determined cost the US government 125 bucks per year and was created in spare unpaid time.
So, a few more things like that, and yeah, Krazy Train Joe will damage his reputation along the line of making serious gaffes.
Edit: go search below for link:
Joe Biden Loves $125,000,000,000 Lost War, Mocks $125 Tortoise Website
Wonkette June 14, 2011.
Note: can’t put long link in edit.
Dennis SGMM
@Stefan
I’m over 60 so my parents and I went to some of Wayne’s movies when they were in theaters. My recollection is that people went to a “John Wayne Movie.” It didn’t matter whether it was “The Barbarian” or “The Alamo,” it was a John Wayne Movie and the audience knew just what to expect. I’ll leave it to others to judge Wayne’s acting abilities because I still laugh at the Three Stooges.
harlana
Minnesotans, sorry
Lojasmo
@studly pant load #121.
Chances are exactly nil. Obama will carry every CD except six, two, and three. Probably every CD except six, in reality.
harlana
If John Wayne were alive today, he would be on Celebrity Rehab
someguy
Hey, so she’s a serial killer fan. Big deal. Lighten up. At least she doesn’t choke b1tches, like some Supreme Court judges we know about. So by the Republicans’ diminished expectations, she’s pretty good. More viable than a fetus in Indiana, really.
As for John Wayne – he was a draft dodging p#ssy of a right winger who would have been comfortable in the Bush / Cheney / Romney wing of today’s Republican Party. His only really good role was playing himself – a bitter, misogynist old right wing racist, in The Searchers. He was good at that for some reason.
Gene McCarthy, written off as a p#ssy friend of draft dodgers, was a war hero. Compare/contrast.
someguy
Comment moderation hell… apparently, Cole doesn’t like people calling John Wayne a Right Wing P_ ssy.
Bender
Oh, really? No kidding? Write to Ripley’s! VP Gird-Your-Loins assumes that he has a knowledge of history that is rock-solid, because he’s been in Washington so long, and his ignorance is buried there by a compliant and credulous press.
For example, he can sit across from CBS’s Old Lefty Katie Couric and state that when the stock market crashed, Pres. FDR went on TV to calm down a troubled nation. Of course, Couric is not mentally equipped to say, “Joe, are you on crack?” but that such a bizarre thought can come from a adult American’s head, and that this head is supposed to lead us, and that the media can’t/won’t refute that insane notion, is soul-crushing.
AAA Bonds
LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
SiubhanDuinne
@Evolved Deep Southerner: John Cole made up for his omission of the superfluous N in her last name by giving her a superfluous L in her first name.
Bender
“False equivalence?” How? Besides “Shut up, that’s how!”
And I prefer π.
Yurpean
Guess which fair and balanced ‘News’ organisation went with this headline for their report:
Bachmann Bungles ‘John Wayne’ While Stumping in One of Obama’s 57 States
They just can’t help themselves can they?
CaliCat
This isn’t about Bachmann making a gaffe. She does it all the time. This is about the splendid irony in this particular gaffe.
To the people here straining themselves to make false equivalencies between Bachmann and Biden – you’re missing the point. Bachmann deserves this mockery…every bit of it…due to her history and the things she advocates for. Don’t worry, though, I’m sure you’ll find other opportunities to defend Republicans and their gaffes in the future.
CAfan
The importance of Bachmann’s gaffe isn’t so much as an example of her stupidity.
It is that she is unable to hire competent speechwriters for her campaign.
She probably insists that her staff share her anti-intellectual, brainless religious beliefs. Fact checking is anathema to such people.
If this is how Bachmann chooses staff now, imagine how she would staff the Executive branch if she were elected.
Bender
So you’re saying she’s a Biden, not an Obama? Being ignorant as to whether John Wayne was born before or after his parents left Waterloo seems such a small thing. Is that all there is, then (Besides the very silly Gacy ridiculousness — as if anyone would mistake Wayne for Gacy, who was from Chicago)? Someone should be outraged by that?
CaliCat
Yurpean – That was their “Nener-nener, Obama says stupid stuff too” headline. You’re right, they just couldn’t help themselves.
JPL
She made a gaffe about where John Wayne was born..no mention of Gacy.. BTW I do not like Bachmann, I think her evangelical beliefs are dangerous to a healthy society but her knowledge of history is weak and she probably doesn’t know who Gacy is.
Ash Can
Someone’s awfully sensitive about his sweetheart embarrassing herself in public. Since she does it so often, life must be pretty miserable for him.
MarkusR
I’m currently reading the book Intern Nation and it makes a good case for how our political system, among others, is based on ’employment’ of unpaid interns.
Makes me wonder if the intern that pulled this for her (I certainly didn’t know of any John Wayne from Waterloo) did it by accident or on purpose.
CaliCat
Bachmann/Palin 2012!!! (I can dream, can’t I?)
jl
@146 Bender: Your are a malicious idiot. I said they were rare, I did not say that they did not exist.
But I feel like playing ‘conservative troll, concern or otherwise’:
” Well, how do you know Biden meant the 1929 crash? Maybe Biden meant the 1937/1938 mini crash the ushered in the recession caused by conservative policies that Bender likes so much? I think Biden did mean that, therefore he did. Proving that Bender is a malicious demagogue, and also proving that conservative policies are wrong.”
It’s an easy game to play. But better not to. When the campaign season starts, Cole is right, everyone work to crush the reactionaries, so this nonsense will be amusing, rather than dangerous.
Edit: Bender, face it, Bachmann, spews nonsense on a regular basis, and given instant cred by the media, so it is important to note it.
harlana
Chris Wallace whimpers out an apology to Bachmann and Bachmann says, FU anyway! beautiful
Cain
BJ is full of teh ghey ads. and with it, republican ads. What does that portend?
Cain
they can call it the crazy train!
Tehanu
@PTirebiter 43: Ah, those “honest stories of working people played by rich Hollywood stars!”
The funny thing is that John Wayne was an actor , first and last. He liked musicals and played chess, which would pretty much make Michelle The Crazy Lady’s head explode if you could actually get the information into her brainless head.
Suffern ACE
Stupidest discussion topic of the week. I’m gonna turn into comic book guy soon, and its only Monday.
Stefan
I’m over 60 so my parents and I went to some of Wayne’s movies when they were in theaters. My recollection is that people went to a “John Wayne Movie.” It didn’t matter whether it was “The Barbarian” or “The Alamo,” it was a John Wayne Movie and the audience knew just what to expect.
No one went to see “The Barbarian”. It was a huge flop.
Triassic Sands
Catsy
I am aware that Gacy lived in Waterloo. That’s isn’t the issue. This is a minor blip (where a blip starts out being minor). If Bachmann had done her homework, she wouldn’t have had John Wayne (sheesh, how I disliked The Duke) being born in Waterloo.
And Think Progress wouldn’t have reported that Gacy was born in Waterloo.
Both TP and MB made silly mistakes that could have easily been avoided. My hating Bachmann doesn’t elevate the seriousness of her mistake to anything important. Think Progress should have considered the source, and done a quick fact check. Fortunately, no one was injured in the making of these mistakes.
Redshift
Ordinarily, I would suspect that their going after Bachmann would signal that they have another favorite candidate, which is weird, because Bachmann seems like just the kind of wack-job that the WT would like.
Now, can we get back to Weiner’s weener?
maya
stefan@
Genghis Wayne was a stretch.
RalfW
About 51% of us are in constant face-palm mode. About 40% seem to love teh crazy. Clearly her district likes her, they’ve sent her back for 3 terms (or maybe they want her in DC and not in town…)
Janeane The Acerbic Goblin
I liked Wayne as an actor. His best work was done with John Ford. But when Ford retired in 1966 (their last film was the underrated Donovan’s Reef), he became a caricature of himself and the substance of the roles diminished badly. True Grit was probably the only decent thing he did after Ford retired. The Shootist had its moments, but I never liked it very much.
Janeane The Acerbic Goblin
I liked Wayne as an actor. His best work was done with John Ford. But when Ford retired in 1966 (their last film was the underrated Donovan’s Reef), he became a caricature of himself and the substance of the roles diminished badly. True Grit was probably the only decent thing he did after Ford retired. The Shootist had its moments, but I never liked it very much.
Janeane The Acerbic Goblin
The film where Wayne played Genghis Khan wasn’t “The Barbarian”, it was “The Conqueror”.
Will Tracy
John Wayne (Marion Morrison) was born in Winterset Iowa.
John Wayne Gacy was born in Chicago (1942)and moved to Waterloo Iowa about 1965. And since it was the New York Times that said John Wayne Gacy was born in Waterloo,(not Bachman) Bachman was correct. The John Wayne’s America she wants is, the John Wayne (Gacy) who (in her own words) “was from Waterloo Iowa.”
Stefan
My recollection is that people went to a “John Wayne Movie.” It didn’t matter whether it was “The Barbarian” or “The Alamo,” it was a John Wayne Movie and the audience knew just what to expect.
But you know, this is true of pretty much most of the major male stars of the time — Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, etc. People went to see “a Bogart movie” or “a Gary Cooper movie” and they knew just what to expect (alienated urban anomie and plainspoken aw-shucks rural decency, respectively).
Stefan
I liked Wayne as an actor. His best work was done with John Ford. But when Ford retired in 1966 (their last film was the underrated Donovan’s Reef), he became a caricature of himself and the substance of the roles diminished badly.
Yeah, but let’s not forget that by the point that Ford retired John Wayne himself was 60 years old and had been a major star for over 25 years. It’s the rare actor who doesn’t sink into a form of self-parody after that long doing the same thing.
One could say the same of most major modern actors (De Niro, Pacino, etc.), that their later parts had sunk into self-caricatures and that their acting never again approached the peak of their first brilliant parts. (I mean, Meet the Parents versus Taxi Driver, or Ocean’s Thirteen versus the Godfather?).
Janeane The Acerbic Goblin
@Stefan…
Absolutely. De Niro and Pacino (and I would include Nicholson to some degreee) have become caricatures of themselves in the same way that Wayne did.
It’s a shame, too, especially about Pacino, Nicholson, and De Niro, who are far better actors than Wayne ever was.
Hard to believe Travis Bickle is now doing the Fockers movies.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
So, we have those who have already bowed out as potential Republican candidates: Thune, Daniels, Trump, Huckabee, Barbour, et al. And it’s pretty clear that some of those still standing will falter (or never catch fire): Santorum, Gingrich, probably T-Paw…
Will it truly come down to Mittens and Crazy Eyes? Will Palin come thundering in on a white horse (or on the back seat of a black Harley)?
These don’t sound like formidable opponents… However, I envision King Theoden before the seige of Helm’s Deep (I paraphrase): “Is that all? Is that all you can muster, Saruman?”
In general, regarding the conservative movement of this country, I think another Theoden quote fits: “What can men do against such reckless hate?” The modern Republican party: squealing, rampaging orcs….
Kurzleg
Well, she doesn’t represent my district, so… Also too, she represents the whitest, richest district in MN. Go figure.
kathy
hahahahha …that is so funny…and what about the one Obama said about his daughters birthday…13 0r 12 ??/ and hahahhah waht about the one that Obama said that we have 57 states or was it 51???? LOL you are so humorous to point out someones gaffes ! what about “put your foot in your mouth BIDEN !!!!! YOU PEOPLE ARE THE STUPID A$$ES THAT SCREWED THIS COUNTRY UP AND YOU THINK WE AMERICANS WILL PUT OBAMA BACK IN THE CONTINUE ??!!! YOU ARE RUNNING SCARED THAT OBAMA WILL LOSE SOOOO YOU “HATE VITRIOL” SPILLS OVER LIKE NIAGRA FALLS….RUNNING,BECASUE THE REAL AMERICANS ARE TIRED OF YOUR LEFTIST ,ELITISM AND PROGRESSIVE CRAP….DSAD REALLY THAT THIS IS ALL YOU CAN POINT YOUR SORRY,NO GOOD FINGERS AT AND INPUNE BACHMANS NAME …PATHETIC,BUTLEFTIST SOCIALIST ALWAYS ARE !