Michele Bachmann's John Wayne serial killer gaffe

The GOP presidential candidate confuses John Wayne, icon of the American West, with John Wayne Gacy, creepy clown serial killer. Cue the witty remarks

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) got her presidential campaign off to an inauspicious start on Monday by inadvertently suggesting that she has the "spirit" of a serial killer.
(Image credit: Brooks Kraft/Corbis)

Whoops! Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign get off to a rough (but amusing) start on Monday. On the same day as her official campaign announcement for the Republican presidential nomination in Waterloo, Iowa, the Tea Party favorite told Fox News, "John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That's the kind of spirit that I have, too." (Watch it here.) There was just one problem. John Wayne, the iconic American movie star, isn't from Waterloo, but rather Winterset, Iowa. Waterloo's famous John Wayne is John Wayne Gacy, a sadistic serial killer who dressed as a clown, and raped and murdered 33 men in the 1970s. This latest gaffe, which Bachmann later owned up to on Fox News, has commentators cracking wise. Here, a sampling:

Too easy

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