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Subscribe to RSSWhat’s the difference between the actor who will forever embody the American ideal of craggy cowboy masculinity and the serial killer who forever made clowns way way creepier than they’d ever been before?
One answer turns out to be four letters and about 150 miles – not quite enough to keep Rep. Michele Bachmann from prompting a chorus of internet giggles for apparently mixing them up.
On the day of her presidential announcement, Bachmann, an Iowa native, told FOX News that she and John Wayne share a hometown. “John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa,” she said. “That's the kind of spirit that I have, too."
Bachmann repeated that idea to NBC News in an interview. "I'm not pining for nostalgia back in the 50s and 60s, that isn't it," she told NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. "But that sensibility about how we were grounded here is so important. For instance, another American that was born in Waterloo was John Wayne. We were a very patriotic 'yay rah rah America' city and nation and I think that's what America's looking for again."
The problem: While actor John Wayne – the gravelly-voiced Western film star known for his characteristic walk and his conservative values– was in fact from Iowa (and, Bachmann’s campaign later pointed out, his parents briefly lived in Waterloo), he was born in Winterset, about 150 miles away.
The famous similarly-named guy who did make his home in Waterloo: John Wayne Gacy -- the serial killer known for dressing as “Pogo the Clown” who buried over two dozen of his young male victims in the crawlspace of his Illinois home.
Gacy, who was born in Chicago, lived in Waterloo in the late 1960s before serving time for sodomy at Anamosa State Penitentiary. He would later go on to commit more than 30 murders.
The mix-up – which, considering the Iowa roots of both men, isn’t as baffling as some Bachmann critics may make it out to be-- isn’t independently the kind of gaffe that makes voters suddenly change their minds. But it’s certain to become late-night comedy fodder for a candidate who has already been ridiculed for a more serious historical mangling of details about the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
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This isn't late nite commedy fodder, it's Far Left media fodder. It's unbelievable how you Far Left Doorknob's eat this inane stuff up. Well, enjoy.
Hey Don't worry Michelle I get my Movie Cowboys and Serial killers mixed up all the time, but John Wayne the cowboy star was born in CA. so don't truly know what Waterloo has to do with that but in your tiny mind it must be important.
Sorry, Sfilutze, John Wayne was born in Iowa, and later grew up in Southern California. Why aren't your Far Left Doorknobs correcting you?
If Bachman were sure of her non-flakiness, then she would have been able to laugh off the question. That she had to publicly get her dander up just shows how vulnerable she is. Let her carry on with her "flub-a-day" campaign. The minute she gains any traction at all, mainstream Republicans will pull the plug on her. They are not going to repeat the Palin fiasco of 2008.
This women is a flake.the kind that wears foil on her head. What frightens me is that she could get the Republican nom and have her hand on that red button!!
We, in the Middle and on the Right, say the same about your Messiah.
Well Dave, see this is where you are wrong, I am not a hugh Obama fan. I thought he should have held off on the health care issue and done it in parts. I think he should stop trying to be in the middle and just do his job.
That has nothing to do with Bachman being a flake.!!
"I think he (Obama) should stop trying to be in the middle"? You may think she's a flake, but she's obviously a he!! of a lot smarter than you are.
What's funny to me is that Michelle Bachmann is consistent with her gaffs. She is dependable. You can count on her to make a "Gaff A Week". What amazes me is that neither she nor her campaign make efforts to insure that she is making accurate statements before she goes on stage. "I read it on the Internet" and "I was reading about it in an article" are not justifiable excuses for many of her gaffs. It makes one wonder if she would press the "Red Nuclear Button" if, as President, she herd an adviser make a claim about the Russians are going to invade Alaska without first checking with Sarah Palin. She should at least get Christine O Donnell to hop on her broom and over fly Alaska to verify.
I haven't looked at msnbc.com in quite a few months and see I have missed anything from the kool aid drinkers. With all the idiotic things Obama and Biden have said, you guys have been brainwashed by msnbc to accept mediocrity. But don't worry about covering up their gaffes for long, Obama and his sidekick Biden will be gone in 2013.
No one on your side or in mainstream media seems inclined to mention Barack Obama’s horrifying mistake last Thursday when, speaking at Fort Drum, he said that SFC Jared Monti was “the first person who I was able to award the Medal of Honor to who actually came back and wasn’t receiving it posthumously.” Alas, he was mistaken. He awarded the Medal of Honor to Jared Monti posthumously in 2009 and awarded the Medal of Honor in person to SSG Sal Giunta in person in 2011. Obama later apologized for this mistake, but it’s really dismaying that a president who spoke movingly and even eloquently in awarding the Medal of Honor made a mistake of this magnitude.
Now that's inexcusable for a sitting president, the commander in chief of the military. Don't you agree? Or do all of you kool aid drinkers live in one of the 57 states, speaking the Austrian language, worrying about your navy corps-man buddy in 2008 (whoops, I mean 2011)?
I would be embarassed to be a part of a party that can't tell the difference between the two. It's very obvious that she was talking about John Wayne and not John Wayne Gacy. Who goes by their first and middle name only??? Figure it out. This isn't rocket science.
John Wayne is his acting name ( the change was made in Hollywood Ca.)..his real name is: Marion Robert Morrison born in Winterset Iowa.
John,
I don't think she got that much Iowa history or current events growing up and going to school in Anoka, Minnesota.
Strange how MSNBC never points out the mistakes or errors or goofs of Obama even though they are 100 times more frequent. No Liberal Bias at MSNBC RIGHT?
If MSNBC started reporting half of the dopey stuff Obama says, on a regular basis, the doorknobs would consider it a Far Right racist station and start watching another Far Left channel.
Isn't she FROM Waterloo? HOW OUT OF TOUCH DO YOU HAVE TO BE to confuse fact about your OWN HOME TOWN regarding Gacy with Wayne? Give me a break already, this is way beyond a minor slip up.
Staal,
She hasn't lived there for FIFTY years.
Anyone can make a mistake or a faux pas...the trick is to admit it, correct it and/or apologize for it when you discover your error. That is something this woman is not capable of....she just tries to "lie and deny 'til the day she dies" or convince you it was really true or it was somebody else's fault....on and on...
You can forgive a mistake but how can you have any respect for someone like this?!
Amazing media bias. Obama makes so many mistakes - remember his bowing to the Saudi prince - and NBD. Yet let a republican say something, even something trivial, and NBC is all over it. If Obama got even 1/100 of the media scrutiny that Bush got he would never have been elected.
Yes, I do remember it...it was completely within proper protocol and etiquette to show respect to a foreign dignitary and ally...remember pictures of Bush walking around holding hands with him?
Well, I bet she knows that there are not 57 states, or that there's no such thing as an 'inhalator'.
I bet she knows Emperor Hirohito didn't sign a peace treaty with the Allies either.
WH-1949741
"I'm pulling for her. Taking in Foster kids, helping charities, etc. She has more compassion and selfless love in her little toe than most of her detractors will ever have in their entire life."
You are so right ! The Libs don't like Bachman because she works for a living ( Congresswoman / owns a business with her husband) and the Libs like hand outs, NOT WORK!
Oh, bull, she did it for paychecks just like she gets paid NOT to grow anything on her socialist farm!!!
Law enforcement better get out to her socialist farm and check it for shallow graves - how many pay-checks, uh, I mean foster-kids has she had out there? Kinda creepy!!!
As if "The Duke" would ever want to be associated with this twit.
John Wayne was a misogynist - he'd hate the idea of women in power!!!
This is a prime example of her organization/staff and work habit - failure of her staff to verify information as facts before using the information, resistance to acknowledging mistakes, and most seriously, her failure to independently/on her own vet the information she is handed to use. I recognize that she can't do this for every little fact, but is there any evidence that she has the capability to discern and question the information she is given to say? A quick google search would have shown the mistake! So, she is to make presidential decisions based on erroneous information that her staff don't even KNOW is wrong??? Everybody makes mistakes/gaffes. It is the acknowledgement that a mistake was made and corrected that is a sign of maturity and the ability to learn from new information.
And...IQ and common sense are NOT the same thing. You can have genius IQ score and have abysmal daily living skills.
Bachman was correct!
She was right, John Wayne's( the actor) family DID live in Waterlou, Iowa for a year while he was growing up.
Its scary when the only thing that this woman can do is cheerlead. Whether the President's number go up or down, it doesn't change the fact that M. Bachmann is unqualified, undignified, uneducated or wasted whatever education she professes (we don't need no education), that the possibility of this woman being the head of the United States makes me fear for the future. How sad for all of us.
And obama didn't proclaim that shovel ready jobs were ready in all 57 states. Maybe he was using Bachmann's staff.
"The Duke"
John Wayne was born Marion Mitchell Morrison, of Scotch-Irish descent, to Clyde and Mary Morrison on May 26, 1907, in Winterset, Iowa. He had one brother, Robert Emmet Morrison. He received his nickname "Duke" while still a child, because of his love for a dog of that name. His father was a pharmacist whose business ventures did not succeed. In 1914, when Duke was six, the family moved to California where his father was able to open a drugstore. In 1926 his parents were divorced.
Nowhere does Waterloo, Iowa come up...Flaky does not research for factual information
Read more: John Wayne Biography - life, family, parents, name, wife, school, information, born, college, movie #ixzz1QW9Xd64l
Are there still 57 states? I was not sure and thought all of the smart people on here knew the answer for me. The president said there was.
The Tea Party claims its members are steeped in the traditions and history of America, but for one darling of the movement, she may need to go and do her homework.
That’s because Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann in a stirring speech given to an audience in New Hampshire said the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in their state.
As any history student will tell you, the first shots were fired in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
Douglas, did YOU know where John Wayne was born? Did you know he lived in Waterloo, IA for awhile?
Oh and by the way, could you tell us all what the Obama Doctrine is please? Wait a minute now, you just HAVE to know it, after all, he's "your" guy.
Oh, that's right, just like when it was asked about the "Bush Doctrine", THERE'S NO SUCH THING.
But conservatives don't believe in making trash up in an attempt to embarass the other party. YOU guys are humiliating without anyone EVER asking you a thing.
Cheryl, The "Duke" never lived in Waterloo, his folks did for a few months BEFORE he was born. Now Gacy sure did live there. Looks like you fact-check using the bat-sh!t-crazy method, eh??!!
What is really scary is the liberals of this country, as expressed on this vine, consider this important. As long as your goverment hands you something for nothing you people are able, willing and ready to attack anyone or anything that says get off your arse. You people are pathetic.
Jim,
What is important is that she is presenting herself as a daughter of Waterloo, when if fact she hasn't lived there in fifty years. And this comment just sorta proves that.
ONLY MSNBC would take what is the FACTS that Bachmann talked about and attempt to twist it into something else.
John Wayne DID live in Waterloo (but wasn't born there), or did you libs NOT read the article but instead read about how she was "wrong" for saying John Wayne lived there and then tried to make it out that she meant Gacy? (and by the way, Gacy, who YOU and MSNBC try to say that she's talking about was NOT born in Waterloo either, or did you miss that in your ignorant attempt to attack her.
Only liberals celebrate the STUPIDITY of their own President as "intelligence" and then take twisted garbage that attacks conservatives and preaches it as the "truth".
Oh, by the way, do you think Obama will ever make it to that FIFTY EIGHTH STATE? The President of the United States of America and doesn't know how many states he's president over, and you haters jump on something that even YOU didn't know. (And could you tell us all what the "Obama Doctrine" is please? I hear it's similar to the "Bush Doctrine".)
The Duke never ever lived in Waterloo, you imbicile!!!
CherylLM,
When did John Wayne live in Waterloo? He was born in Winterset, where his parents lived until he was four years old. The family then moved to California and never came back.
Now, Gene Autry had an aunt who lived less than two blocks from my folks' home on Reber Avenue. He would come to visit once a year. He was a cowboy star. I guess I can see the confusion.
Actually Bachmann, nee Ambler, lived and went to elementary school in Cedar Falls, not Waterloo. Cedar Falls was a clean, quiet college town, 5-10 miles away, Waterloo was dirty, noisy, smelly and falling apart. One year of Junior High at Hawthorne which is kind of odd considering its location, but the school district was in the process of closing West Junior, which I attended.
This is *awesome*!! Fodder for the comics for months and months...Bill Maher is probably rolling on the floor, laughing out loud thinking of the myriad jokes he will be able to make at this silly nutjob's expense. Somebody make me a bowl of popcorn and get me a coca cola...I can't wait to watch the next few months unfold. Let the games begin!! :)
A "silly nutjob" is the person that spends TRILLIONS of dollars, says over and over that jobs are his "number one priority", has RECORD Trillion dollar deficits year after year, and then says we are in a recovery while we hove on the edge of another huge depression.
And to MOST Americans, it's NOT a "game". It's the future of this nation.
But to the idiots on the left in this nation, it's all about "a bowl of popcorn" and a "coca cola", because they don't give a damn about the country, as long as those "entitlements" keep coming in, right?
John Wayne's ( the ACTOR) family/ parents did live in Iowa. For a year, in the same city Bachman was born in.
That's a fact. If you bothered to investigate your story you would have know that dumbazz
Nobody's saying the Duke didn't line in Iowa, dipwad, She said he lived in Waterloo, and he never did, his parents met there BEFORE he was born, it was John Gacy that lived and started molesting boys there!!!
So.....Bachmann said John Wayne was from Waterloo and even the loons from the left admit his parents lived there, yet, somehow the crazies bring in John Wayne Gacy. Who, FYI, was born in Chicago.
http://jpgmag.com/photos/2626704
http://www.basicfamouspeople.com/index.php?aid=547
The loony left call Bachmann batsh!t crazy? Here's what's crazy. Crazy is making up sh!t like Gacy was born in Iowa.
Like the nutty witch hunt for the Palin emails, put this as another reason why sensible, non-crazy lefties, don't take your "journalism" seriously.
Really, you're just making yourselves appear juvenile.
No one except the loons even listen anymore.
Actually, Gacy started his perversion for boys while a member of the Waterloo Jaycee's!! The Duke's parents met in Waterloo, but he, himself never lived there, period!! Not hard to research. Took a whole 5 minutes. Try it sometime!!!
And?
You're a loon.
If you or any of the other loons knew anything and actually did some research you would know that Gacy considered Chicago his home. Take your own advise lemming and read something besides FR.
But......you know.....Obama was in Chicago during the Gacy years.......or close to it.
If one is to follow the thought process of the left wing crazies we can probably tie him to Gacy's debauchery.
It doesn't matter where Gacy called home, it coulda been Mars, But he lived in and molested boys in Waterloo, Iowa, Period, dipwad!!!
Hey "dipwad",
if your criteria is the number of boys and young men he killed then Chicago is his home.
Typical fool. Knows nothing but pretends he does.
You look as foolish as the left leaning media.
Stupid is as stupid does. Both she and Sarah are rewriting American History. God help us all. Next thing you know, she will say that Benedict Arnold wrote the National Anthem.
No Kitty, I believe Gore did that when he invented the internet.
Think Obama will ever get to that fifty eighth state Kitty? And tell us all about "stupid is as stupid does" as the leader of this nation doesn't know how many states he's the leader of. (Oh that's right, it's Obama, so it was just a "mistake" because he was tired. And in the meantime you attack a conservative woman because she doesn't know where John Wayne was born? Surely a fact that EVERY Presidential candidate should know MORE than the amount of states they would be president of, right?)
Never mind. The Texas School Board is already re-writing History for classroom usage to suit their Republican Party agenda thanks to Gov. Perry. California is also doing this. Pretty soon, maybe, Paul Revere will be listed as the First President.
Remember that the old "Dixie-Crats" tried this ploy back in the 50's before they left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party.