In an interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting network, U.S. Rep Michele Bachmann said that she was "extremely careful" in what she said said during her presidential campaign and got through with just two mistakes.
One was when she wished Elvis Presley happy birthday on what was actually the anniversary of his death. The other was when she said the both she and Hollywood legend John Wayne were born in Waterloo, Iowa. (Actually, it was the serial murderer John Way Gacy who was born in Waterloo.)
Other than those two silly flubs, she said,she got everything right. The CBN interviewer wasn't about to let her get away with that. Here's the exchange:
David Brody: You ran pretty much an impeccable campaign, in terms of a mistake-free campaign.
Michele Bachmann: Thank you, it really was.
David Brody: It pretty much was.
Bachmann: It really was, we were extremely careful, and we were almost mistake-free, but for those two points, Elvis Presley’s birthday and John Wayne’s birthplace. I’ve apologized, and we moved beyond.
One doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Here's the full interview, both audio and transcript.
And here's the first page worth of the Bachmann statements that were fact-checked by Politifact. They aren't all from her presidential campaign, but plenty of them are.
I'm not sure who holds the record for getting the most "pants on fire" ratings from Politifact, but Bachmann is surely in the running.
It's weird enough to have someone in Congress whose relationship to factual accuracy is so tenuous, but downright bizarre to have her congratulating herself on her bodacious facticity. And that is almost a fact.