Opinion: Michele Bachmann confuses John Wayne Gacy with The Duke

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Michele Bachmann had planned for Monday to be a very special day.

The conservative Minnesotan representative expected to triumphantly return to her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, to formally announce her candidacy for president.

Fate had blessed her with a strong showing in the most recent local poll, and her confidence was so mighty that she didn’t even find it necessary to accept the apology of a veteran newsman who apologized for asking her if she felt she was a flake in the wake of so many gaffes and incorrect statements leading up to her bid for the GOP nomination for president.

And then it happened. A microphone was placed in front of her, and a statement that should have been ingrained in her head came out all wrong. She said that like the famous rugged cowboy star, John Wayne, she too was from Waterloo which was why she was picking the small town to announce her candidacy.

‘Well what I want them to know is just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too,’ Bachmann told a Fox News reporter.

One small detail: John Wayne Gacy, the infamous mass murderer is from Waterloo. The Duke, although his parents met in Waterloo, is from Iowa, but from Winterset, nearly three hours away by car. Gacy had his first run-in with the long arm of the law in Waterloo. The man who killed dozens of young men and boys over a six-year murder period was locked up in Waterloo for a year and a half for an attempted sexual assault.

It was when he moved to Illinois that Gacy began killing, which he was later executed for.

Add this to the growing list of gaffes from the only woman (so far) in the presidential race.

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-- Tony Pierce
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