Posted on 06/27/2011 11:54:18 AM PDT by RummyChick
Rep. Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign on Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, and in one interview surrounding the official event she promised to mimic the spirit of Waterloo's own John Wayne.
The only problem, as one eagle-eyed reader notes: Waterloo's John Wayne was not the beloved movie star, but rather John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer.
Mrs. Bachmann grew up in Waterloo, and used the town as the backdrop for her campaign announcement, where she told Fox News: "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."
(Someone has already posted the clip to YouTube under the name BachmannLovesGacy) John Wayne, the movie legend, is in fact from Iowa and the John Wayne birthplace is a celebrated landmark — only it's in Winterset, which is a nearly three hour drive away from Waterloo. Gacy, though, had his first taste of the criminal life in Waterloo, where he lived for a short time, and where he had his first criminal conviction for an attempted homosexual assault, which landed him in prison for 18 months. He would move back to Illinois, where his killing spree started, and lasted about six years. In 1980 he was convicted on 33 counts of murder, and was executed in 1994.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I love it!
Perhaps I haven’t a sense of humor. I don’t find this funny at all. I find it unfortunate. She’s in the running to replace an incompetent screwup as the President of the United States of America.
Hiring Rollins was her first mistake. This is #what?
Screwups don’t cut it when one is running against a screwup.
She will cut, slash, and hack the federal budget in the spirit of serial killers everywhere.
This could kill her campaign.
Obama has made plenty of stupid mistakes and gotten a pass.
Bachmann will not get a pass.
And the very nature of this stupidity gives fodder for lots of late night comedy.
I am really laughing at some of the headlines I am seeing on this as I surf the internet.
It must be some tradition that when you announce that you are a Presidential Candidate, you then do/say something stupid that the Press can blow out of proportion.
Psst! Over here.
How could she NOT know that the “Duke” was from Winterset and not Waterloo?
The media is going to ravage her for this screw up.
She’s been on my short list, so I hate to see something of this caliber happen. It’s more serious than Crain’s ‘Right of Return’ gaffe. Not knowing something about Israeli/Palestinian issues is one thing, but mistaking the ‘John Wayne’ that’s associated with the town you lived in is something else; regardless of how long she lived there.
Time will tell, but I hope she gets people more attuned to what they’re putting in speeches, and she not taking things for granted...
Napoleon’s defeat was actually outside the village of Plancenoit,which was more than four miles from Waterloo.
John .Wayne is from Iowa but not Waterloo. So the mistake isn’t that bad!!
Deservedly so. This isn't some off-the-cuff comment that she simply botched (who hasn't at some point?) -- this was, arguably, the most important political speech of her life, and this is a major flub.
No, it was an off the cuff comment to a reporter.
Don’t think she said it in the speech but I havne’t checked.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, or both! Everyone makes mistakes, but at an official Presidential kick-off announcement?
Wouldn’t someone already be aware if one shared the same hometown as someone as hugely famous as John Wayne to begin with? And then to mix the facts up with that horrific homosexual killer is a pretty darned embarrassing gaffe, to put it mildly.
Yeah, but that would’nt have made as good a song for ABBA.
i yi yi yi yi.
But John Gacy?? Come on. Whose screw up was this?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.