Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann, a Republican representative from Minnesota, currently leads the Tea Party caucus in the U.S. House. Despite consistently claiming she believes in the Constitution and patriotism, she has a startling inability to get basic American history correct. She has also run into legal problems with continuing ethics investigations into her behavior.

Illiterate in History
Among more prominent examples of her misunderstanding of U.S. history is the fact she believed Lexington and Concord, where the Revolutionary War began, are located in New Hampshire (they are actually in Masachusetts). Bachmann also believes our Founding Fathers "worked tirelessly" until slavery was abolished - but they were all dead by the time the Civil War rolled around. She even specifically mentions John Quincy Adams as one of those Founding Fathers, but he was only 9 years old in 1776. She also conveniently ignores slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person in the U.S. Constitution and that some of the Founding Fathers themselves owned slaves.

Bachmann also blames swine flu on Democrats, mentioning flu epidemics occur during Democratic presidencies. However, blaming disease on a political party makes no sense - and as usual, Bachmann gets history wrong again (Republican Gerald Ford - not a Democrat - was actually President during the last outbreak).

Like history and medicine, economics is another of Bachmann's weak points. On the House floor she said the Hoot-Smalley tariffs, enacted by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, caused the Great Depression. The problem is no Hoot-Smalley tariff ever existed. There was a tariff bill - the Smoot-Hawley bill - authored by Republicans and signed into law by Republican President Herbert Hoover. Just don't expect Bachmann to get her facts right on this.

Hostility Toward and Fear of Media
Like many Republicans Bachmann believes a liberal media exists, saying that when her comments are reported it proves there is a media bias.

Bachmann has a fear of the media, routinely running away from reporters or people who want to ask her questions.

Bizarre Beliefs
Bachmann has actually stated all of the following:
 * Accused State Department officials of being tied to the Muslim Brotherhood
 * Suggested the Census was a method of rounding people up into internment camps
 * Compared financial regulation to fascism
 * Called health care reform socialism
 * Called the tax code a weapon of mass destruction
 * Claimed health reform will lead to sex clinics and abortions in schools
 * Believes scientists support intelligent design
 * Accused President Obama of wanting re-education camps for America's youth



On May 29, 2013, Bachmann began the day with the excellent announcement she will not run for re-election in 2014.