Michele Bachmann Gets The American Revolution Wrong

Well, this has got to be at least slightly embarrassing:

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s visit to the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire got off to a rocky start on Saturday morning when she misstated a key fact about the American Revolution in a speech to a group of local conservative activists and students.

“What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty,” the potential GOP presidential candidate said. “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord. And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors the very first price that had to be paid to make this the most magnificent nation that has ever arisen in the annals of man in 5,000 years of recorded history.”

The Battle Of Lexington and Concord occurred, of course, in Massachusetts.

As she continues to explore a presidential run, Bachmann said that the Republican Party needed to nominate someone who would usher the country back to its founding principles.

“What we need in our nominee is this,” Bachmann said. “We need someone who understands and comprehends the seriousness of the times we live in, and second, we need someone who knows what to do. They know what the proper solution would be to get us back to liberty.”

It strikes me that if you’re going to base your campaign on the American Revolution, you at least ought to be able to get the basic facts right.

Perhaps Congresswoman Bachmann didn’t watch Schoolhouse Rock as a child:

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. I am, of course, Shocked that she would get a basic fact incorrect.

    And what’s worse, the real locale of the battles in question is the Land O’ Liberals.

  2. In fairness, the Schoolhouse Rock toon doesn’t mention Mass. 🙂

  3. anjin-san says:

    Bachmann is an ignorant twit? Who knew?

    On the other hand, that explains her popularity in tea party circles.

  4. John Peabody says:

    Not my circle, friend. You don’t have to love Ms. Bachmann to support tea party ideals.

  5. PD Shaw says:

    I’ll cop to thinking the Concord was in New Hampshire when I was younger. I blame School House Rock.

  6. ALP says:

    You’re right of course Doug. But I’ll bet that most
    students of today from grade school thru college,
    would not know the significant places during
    our revolution. I would say that even goes for the past
    couple of generations.

  7. anjin-san says:

    > You don’t have to love Ms. Bachmann to support tea party ideals.

    Just curios, who do you feel the leaders of the tea party are?

  8. Of course, the Schoolhouse Rock video isn’t very accurate either. Of the three riders who set out that night, Revere was the one who actually did the least to warn the militias, getting captured before making it even to Lexington.

  9. smintheus says:

    Bachmann made the very same mistake in a different speech on Friday in NH. So it’s not a slip of the tongue. She’s an ignoramus and can’t even be bothered to correct the most egregious errors.

    http://www.unbossed.com/index.php?itemid=2831

  10. jwest says:

    Are there any School House Rock videos that would help Obama know there aren’t 57 states, how to pronounce “corpsman” or that people in Austria don’t speak Austrian?

  11. Murray says:

    Exactly why I wish she will seek the Republican nomination. It’s South Park on steroids.

  12. Smooth Jazz says:

    “Michele Bachmann Gets The American Revolution Wrong”

    What is it about you and Conservative women???. Sarah Palin. Christine O’Donnell. Michelle Bachman. Sharon Angle. Carly Fiorina. Meg Whitman. Etc Etc Etc. They’re all the scum of the earth as far as you’re concerned, but you can never find a Lib, Dem politician to criticize. Doesn’t anybody else (other than the left wing commenter flunkies that follow this guy around) find that odd?? That he only zings Rep women. You’re starting to sound like Chris “Thrill Up My Leg” Mathews with your weird obsession with GOP woman. Btw, I didn’t hear you sqealing when Obama talked aout our “57” states.

  13. matt b says:

    Revere was the one who actually did the least to warn the militias, getting captured before making it even to Lexington.

    This is perhaps taking it a little too far. First Revere did warn a number of militias on the initial ride to Lexington where warned Adams and Hancock (and met Dawes and Prescott — the other two riders) — reaching there by midnight. The three headed out to Concord. Its on that way that the three were met by the Brits. Dawes and Prescott escaped — though neither was particularly effective in alerting Militias.

    The irony — of sorts — is that Revere’s fame was for the initial warning of militias that too place *before* the initial ride (and the fact that he was generally better connected/networked than the other two riders).

    Well, that Wadsworth’s poem — in which the three, and countless other riders were condensed into poetic body of Revere.

  14. matt says:

    Smooth : Obama’s goof was off the cuff in the middle of a grueling campaign. Bachmann’s goof came during a well prepared speech that could of been easily fact checked before hand (they might of).

  15. An Interested Party says:

    Are there any School House Rock videos that would help Obama know there aren’t 57 states, how to pronounce “corpsman” or that people in Austria don’t speak Austrian?

    And yet, Mr. 57 States won the presidency and will probably do so again…that must really burn your britches…

  16. tom p says:

    What is it about you and Conservative women???. Sarah Palin. Christine O’Donnell. Michelle Bachman. Sharon Angle. Carly Fiorina. Meg Whitman. Etc Etc Etc.

    Smooth J, do I really have to explain it to you? Ok… here goes:

    S Palin is a half term governer who pimped herself for the “bridge to nowhere” then said she never… but laid herself out for a reality show in which she could not kill the caribou….

    C O’Donnell said that she “is not a witch”, she is just like you… Nuff said?

    Michelle Bachman… where do I begin? Google her, you will find plenty.

    Sharon Angle? She is so whacko even the voters of Nevada could not elect her (she can’t tell the diff between Asian and Hispanic…. How stupid can one be?) over Harry Reid….

    Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman,,, my favorites….. spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get a job that pays $174,000 a year…. How stupid does one have to be? How stupid does one have to be to vote for some one so irrelevant?

    Really SJ, you have to ask?

  17. tom p says:

    spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get a job that pays $174,000 a year…. How stupid does one have to be?

    Ooooops my bad… I forgot to say “spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get a job that any politician would whore himself (herself?) out for for a hundred thousand dollars?”

    Really… How stupid does one have to be?

  18. anjin-san says:

    Smooth is really hanging his hat on “57 states”. Well, I guess you have to go with what you’ve got. And that’s all he has.

  19. wr says:

    Yes, Obama has an entire lifetime’s work as a lawyer, a writer, a politician and a president. And the only thing Smoovie can find to criticize in that entire lengthy record is a dumb thing that came out of his mouth in the middle of a campaign.

    Talk about bitter clingers…

  20. celebs4truth says:

    It’s really sad to watch the corporate media and all it’s feeble minded sheeple echo the trivial misinformation to the brainless idiots that eat it up like hungry vultures and then dance around pointing fingers and singing nanny-nanny-boo-boo! LMAO Losers!

  21. narciso says:

    He was a trainer for ACORN, was a party to one case, which opened up the subprime fraud
    scam, taught Alinsky principles instead of law at Chicago, and voted present 140 times in
    the state senate,

  22. jukeboxgrad says:

    taught Alinsky principles instead of law at Chicago

    Naturally. That’s why Randy Barnett (Cato Institute/VC blogger/conservative law professor) reviewed Obama’s course materials and said that “what they [the course materials] do tell us about Obama, the teacher, is generally favorable.”

    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/inside-professor-obamas-classroom/
    http://volokh.com/posts/1217443634.shtml

    And for some odd reason Barnett said nothing about “Alinsky” or “Alinsky principles.” But I’m sure you know a lot more than Randy Barnett, right?

  23. jukeboxgrad says:

    jwest:

    57 states

    Smooth Jazz:

    “57″ states

    This has been explained:

    http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/57states.asp
    http://volokh.com/posts/1211248667.shtml#372812

    He was trying to say 47, but he slipped by starting to say 50 first. Have you ever actually watched the actual tape? That’s why there’s a pause.

    Sorry to burst your precious bubble that you cling to so fervently.

  24. Pug says:

    … was a party to one case, which opened up the subprime fraud
    scam

    Man, you people are dumb. Where do you come up with this stuff?

  25. sam says:

    Good morning everyone in radioland. Welcome to another edition of, As The Smooth Moves, your nation-wide early morning show on all things feminine and political. I’m your host Smooth Jazz, and I’m here to take your calls. What’s bugging you ladies today? I see the phones are lit up. Caller number one — I see that’s Jill from Oklahoma. Ok, Jill, what’s on your mind?

    Jill: Thanks for taking my call, Smooth. I go to college, and there’s this real cute guy in one of my classes. I think he wants to date me. But he’s a liberal I think. Should I go out with him if he asks me?

    Smooth: Well, Jill, I generally counsel against dating liberals. In the first place, they think they’re smarter than everyone else. Always looking down their noses at people who haven’t drunk the leftist kool-aid.

    Jill: But he’s really cute.

    Smooth: There’s only one way to be safe. Is he shorter than you?

    Jill: A little.

    Smooth: Well then you might take a chance. Just make sure that every conversation you have with him, you both are sitting down. It’ll be very hard for him to look down his nose at you then.

    Jill: Ok, thanks.

    Smooth: Alright then. Ah, here’s Michelle from Wisconsin. Go ahead, Michelle.

    Michelle: Thanks, Smooth. I got laughed at the other day because I said the battles of Concord and Lexington took place in New Hampshire.

    Smooth: You’re kidding.

    Michelle: No. It really happened.

    Smooth: I’ll bet it was some leftist male, right?

    Michelle: Right. A whole bunch as a matter of fact.

    Smooth: Well, Michelle, just consider the source. Leftists have a very shaky grasp of American history. For instance, when you tell one that the final battle of the Revolutionary War was the Battle of New Orleans, and the British were defeated by an ingenious use of alligator cannons. he’ll look at you like you’re crazy.

    Michelle: Alligator cannons?

    Smooth: Yeah. It was one of General Andrew Johnson’s finest momemts. I remember an old folk song about it: “They took a gator and powered his behind — and when they touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.”

    Michelle: Gosh, I didn’t know that. I’m giving a speech in New Orleans next month. I’ll work that in.

    Smooth: You’ll be a hit there, Michelle.

    Michelle: Ok, thanks, Smooth.

    Smooth: Hmmm, I see we have Sarah from Alaska on the line. Good morning, Sarah.

    Sarah: Hi, Smooth. Love the show.

    Smooth: Thank you. What can I do for you?

    Sarah: Where to begin…

  26. jwest says:

    Jukeboxgrad,

    I’ll assume you’re still looking for something to explain “corpsman” and speaking Austrian.

  27. jukeboxgrad says:

    Some things are so trivial that they don’t need to be explained. But since you asked, what Austrians speak can be considered a separate dialect from German. Which is why you can find an “Austrian to German Translator” and “select an Austrian word or expression from the following drop-down list to find the German (Hochdeutsch) equivalent.”

    http://german.about.com/library/bldialect_aus01.htm

    Since there is such a thing as “an Austrian word or expression” it’s not terribly surprising to hear someone say what Obama said (“I don’t know what the term is in Austrian”). It would be silly to expect him to make the longer statement: ‘I don’t know what the term is in the Austrian dialect of German.’ And it actually shows sensitivity and awareness on his part to acknowledge that the term for what he was talking about (“wheeling and dealing”) might not be the same in both dialects. Do you happen to know that it is? I bet you don’t.

    Anyway, I’ll assume this is your way of letting us know that you can’t address what I said about “57 states.”

    And I’ll also assume that this is your way of letting us know that you actually think those trivial extemporaneous errors are more serious than repeatedly misstating basic facts about American history in a prepared speech.

    And good luck convincing anyone that a person who graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and then taught (successfully, for years) at another top law school is something other than smart. But it’s helpful to notice your urgency in trying to make that absurd argument, and how far you reach to try to make that argument. You do this because your frontrunner went to five mediocre colleges in six years and shows lots of evidence of being something other than smart.

  28. An Interested Party says:

    And good luck convincing anyone that a person who graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and then taught (successfully, for years) at another top law school is something other than smart.

    Didn’t you know? He did all that because of affirmative action…or at least that’s what some people who can’t accept reality keep telling themselves…

  29. jukeboxgrad says:

    Yup, that’s it. Obama got top grades at a top law school on account of AA. Even though HLS uses blind grading:

    http://www.hlrecord.org/2.4463/grading-the-curve-at-hls-1.579572?pagereq=2

    Makes perfect sense!

    And speaking of law professors, here’s what Jim Lindgren said about Obama:

    Barack Obama is smart enough and writes well enough to be a tenured law professor at any law school in the country.

    http://volokh.com/posts/1217470913.shtml#408078

    Anyone unclear about Lindgren’s conservative credentials should just read some of his posts at volokh.com. But at least he was honest enough to admit that Obama is smart. Other people suffering from severe Obama Derangement Syndrome can’t stop muttering about “57 states,” as if they think this mantra has some magical powers.

  30. steven c. says:

    WHY do we criticize one another for mis-speaking, are the ones in the mirrors so perfect? This Godless world is falling apart and we sit around pointing fingers at each other? the lack of compassion for our fellow human being is amazing.