Bachmann's John Wayne Mix-Up
It wasn't just Michele Bachmann's iron clad credentials as a social conservative which were supposed to bolster her presidential campaign in Iowa, it was her familiarity and history with the state, which her family called home until moving to Minnesota when Bachmann was in sixth grade. On the eve of the official rollout of her candidacy in her hometown of Waterloo, Bachmann tried to put her Hawkeye know-how on display, telling an interviewer, "I want [voters] to know, just like John Wayne is from Waterloo, Iowa, that's the spirit I have too." Iconic silver screen tough guy John Wayne is from Iowa, but it was actually another famous John Wayne who was born in Bachmann's native city: John Wayne Gacy, the serial rapist and murderer known as "The Killer Clown."