In Concord, New Hampshire, on March 11 and 12, 2011, apparently testing to see whether that little state has bad enough education standards before announcing a presidential bid, Michelle Bachmann butchered history and geography once again, according to the conservative Minnesota Independent:
“You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord,” she said, referencing Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn,” an ode to the lives lost at the start of the American Revolution in Concord, Massachusetts, not New Hampshire.
How many bites at the apple does stupid get? Has Ed Brayton picked up on this yet?
Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann
More:
- “Concord Hymn” read by Bill Clinton
- “Paul Revere’s Ride” 150 years old during National Poetry Month (2010)
- “Paul Revere’s Ride” and “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”
- Celebrating April 19: Paul Revere and the shot heard ’round the world
- Remember why it is important to watchdog Tea Partiers as they savage U.S. history, from this article by Erik Christiansen and Jeremy Sullivan in Inside Higher Ed
Tip of the old scrub brush to Pat Carrithers.
Update: Oh, yeah, others noticed:
- New American did its damnedest to explain it away as a slip of the tongue — either assuming Bachmann is too reckless not to use prepared remarks for her first foray into New Hampshire (maybe a more serious indictment), or not paying attention to her written remarks (Was it just one more in a long string of really stupid slips of the tongue? Loose tongues sink as many ships as loose lips . . .); in another article New American falsely claimed a worldwide ban on DDT, falsely claiming the ban killed 30 million kids, and said that it disrupted food growing in America, though food crops hadn’t been sprayed with DDT for nearly a decade when its use was banned on agricultural crops in the U.S. alone. Accuracy isn’t in that animal
- And that site for undiscriminating, miseducated people, American Elephants, thought Bachmann’s earlier distortions of history just lovely.
- Peter Fenn blogging at U.S. News and World Report asks, “Why does anyone take Michelle Bachmann seriously?”
- Politico notes the long history of Bachmann getting the facts wrong, and reveals that Bachmann repeated the error about the location of the Battle of Concord at least twice in that New Hampshire swing. Bachmann can’t hire competent aides, either? Politico questions Bachmann’s basic governing competence, noting that, while she is a member of the House Intelligence Committee and should know better, she urged President Obama to follow the counsel of Gen. David Patraeus about intervention in Libya. Petraeus isn’t in the chain of command on Libya since he took over the job in Afghanistan several months ago.
- The Concord (New Hampshire) Monitor took a hands-off approach, using the Associated Press story on the gaffe
- Cartoonist Jeff Danziger, one of America’s best, puts the event into pithy perspective (see below)
- Mike the Mad Biologist, who uses one of the greatest images for free speech as his avatar, lists Bachmann as “dumber than a sack of hammers”
- Even Little Green Footballs appears to take after Bachmann, but with an account that is, after all, just the facts
Jeff Danziger
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
And while I normally have some respect for the Independence party the fact that they also keep on running someone against her doesn’t help either because it keeps on splitting the votes that go against Bachmann.
I know one of the Independents that ran against her the last two times. She blogs on the Dump Bachmann blog. But she and I nearly got into an argument when I pointed out that it was better to get rid of Bachmann even if it meant, from the view of a member of the Minnesota Independent party, that the seat went to a Democrat then it was to split the vote against Bachmann and keep her in office.
Getting rid of that lunatic and incompetent moron should trump whatever differences there is between the MI party and the DFL in this state.
Not even my mom, a lifelong Republican, thought much of Bachmann. Bachmann is as antithetical to true Republicans as it gets and is one of the toxins keeping the Republican party from being a useful and worthy political party.
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She was supposed to face an opponent in the primary last time but it never got anywhere.
This is a very Republican very conservative district. Most people turn a blind eye to her…..machinations and her incompetence. Though there has been a bit more of a waking up among the population but still not enough to get rid of her.
The last time I wrote an editorial criticizing her for something I got threats.
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Nick,
Is Bachmann ever primaried by Republicans?
What truly boggles my mind is that she has repeatedly insulted her own district by doing things NO elected official with a lick of sense would ever dream of.
Our Congressman, Marlin Stutzman, is every bit as far to the right as Bachmann. But he would never hold his victory party on election night outside the district in which he was running. Yet Bachmann does this every two years. And what does this amount to? Jobs and work for a banquet facility and its workers…but not in her district. A small gesture, perhaps. But an insulting one.
Now, maybe if Representative Bachmann was one of the truly great minds in Congress on any given issue — maybe her constituents would forgive her. But she’s a dumb who has failed to demonstrate the most basic understanding of any issue.
Nick, you may have the only member of the HOR representing you who is actually less intelligent than my guy. I feel for ya!
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Pseudo writes:
[…] it’s all about the team … you’ll not find citations of liberals making errors in speeches […]
Oh I’m pretty sure the President made an error in a speech when he said there was 57 states.
Sorry, Pseudo, in my experience liberals are a lot more honest then conservatives. Case in point, Bachmann has said stupid crap after stupid crap after stupid craft…and yet her little flub on where the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” was her first ever admitting that she made a mistake.
As for Girly’s question, that answer is easy. The 6th district is a gerrymandered district that ensures that the Republican always always wins. Satan could run as a Republican and Jesus Christ could run as the Democrat and in this district Satan would win.
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[…] it’s all about the team … you’ll not find citations of liberals making errors in speeches […]
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[…] it’s all about the team … you’ll not find citations of liberals making errors in speeches […]
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And speaking as a resident of her district, if you Republicans would go find an intelligent and sane Republican to run against her and beat her in the primary I would be ever so appreciative.
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For f#%&’s sake – how is this woman a member of the house of congress? The mind reels!
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What irritates me most is that people are comparing Bachmann’s (and Palin’s) serial malaprops and historical & scientific errors to President Obama’s flubb about there being 57 states.
The truth and error of it are here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/57states.asp
Of course, the bottom line is that Bachmann has vomited more lies than Fact Check and Politifact can keep track of…in ADDITION to her fractured historical retorts.
Conservative friends, please…no more dumbs. We’ll be ever so appreciative.
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Ed, she was too busy studying the Constitution to pay much attention to history lessons.
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