Tea Party Favorite Misfires, Puts Lexington And Concord In NH

March 12, 2011 5:41 PM

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) speaks at TurboCam, a machine manufacturing company in Barrington, New Hampshire. Bachmann, popular with conservatives and Tea Party activists, is in New Hampshire this weekend on a multi-stop trip attending fundraisers and meeting with members of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire. (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

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NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota stood before New Hampshire Republicans with a tea bag clutched in her hand Saturday, but her grasp on Revolutionary War geography wasn’t quite as tight.

Before headlining a GOP fundraiser, the possible presidential hopeful told a group of students and conservative activists in Manchester, “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord.”

But those first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in Massachusetts, not New Hampshire. Though Bachmann probably wasn’t the first to confuse Concord, N.H., with Concord, Mass., her mistake was striking given her roots in the tea party movement, which takes its name from the dumping of tea into Boston Harbor by angry American colonists in December 1773, 16 months before the Battle of Lexington Green.

Some 30 miles to the north and with tea bag in hand, Bachmann was greeted with applause when she asked the crowd, “How about a United States president that gets what the American people want in 2012?” and later proclaimed, “Are you in for 2012? I’m in!”

She later clarified that she is committed to denying President Barack Obama a second term, not necessarily running herself. That decision will come by early summer, she said, adding that she was no closer to making it Saturday than she was before her first political trip to New Hampshire.

For the state that holds the earliest presidential primary, it was another day, another Minnesota politician with possible White House aspirations. Bachmann’s trip overlapped one day with former Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s latest visit, offering voters a glimpse of their contrasting styles.

Pawlenty, a former two-term governor, has taken a more tradition path to exploring a White House bid: traveling to key states, spreading money to potential allies through his political action committee and publishing a memoir as he left office. On Friday, he brushed off reporters’ attempts to get him to criticize fellow

Republican Mitt Romney on health care, and in remarks at a New Hampshire hospital, offered subdued criticism of Obama’s national health care law saying “I know the country just had a huge debate about all of this, and my side lost, at least for now. But I hope we can have a continued discussion.”

To be sure, Pawlenty faced a roomful of skeptical physicians in one of the most liberal corners of the state, while Bachmann spoke before an enthusiastic, conservative crowd that included tea party groups from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. She called Obama’s health care overhaul the “ultimate example of arrogance.”

“The real problem is the arrogant elites in Washington, D.C., who think they know how to run your lives far better than you,” she said. “You can’t be trusted to run your lives, they have to run your lives for you.”

She said the bill included $105 billion in spending that Obama and Democrat leaders intentionally hid.

“Did he just forget to mention that, oh, by the way, we’ve got $105 billion in this bill that we’re going to implement socialized medicine? No, this was intentional.

“It needed to be implemented immediately to get its tentacles all through your lives and our government and our institutions so that no matter who was elected in the future, your franchise, your vote would be neutralized. Because they would get their way.”

Bachmann, who only recently has begun traveling to early nominating states, rose through the Minnesota ranks on social issues and is a favorite of the tea party in Congress, where she is in her third term. A formidable fundraiser, she’s also built a national following through her blunt commentary on cable news shows.

Her speech was briefly interrupted by protesters who had been allowed in the room after portraying themselves as civic-minded college students who wanted to hear Bachmann. Less than half an hour after they were publically welcomed by the event organizers, they marched across the conference room, holding signs and chanting

“Michele Bachmann we insist, end the AIDS treatment waiting list.”

The protest was an apparent reference to the state- and federally-funded AIDS Drug Assistance Program. Many cash-strapped states have taken steps to cap enrollment, drop patients or institute waiting lists. Bachmann thanked them for the “love,” as they were quickly ushered out.

“We’re seeing this kind of response because the left knows we’re coming and we’re serious about 2012,” she said.

Tea Party Favorite Misfires, Puts Lexington And Concord In NH

Thomas Hood

Moron. I hope she runs. “Bachmann/Palin 2012 – Bringing a new kind of stupid to the nation!”
DUKE

oBAMA THOUGHT THERE WERE 57 STATE!!

Thomas Hood

No, Obama thought there were 57 primaries which there are. Or did you not know about Guam and the Marshall Islands and Puerto Rico, etc.

Swamper

He said 57 STATES, so now you know what he meant in his mind?
Swamper`

Here’s his exact quote: “I’ve now been in 57 states — I think one left to go.”

He never set foot in Guam or the Marshall Islands during the campaign.

Nice try.

WalkerTR

DUKE thought you didn’t need to add an “s” to pluralize the word “state!!”
JMK

He didn’t actually think there were 57 states. He meant to say that he’s visited 47, with one left to go in the contiguous united states. While Obama just misspoke, Bachmann actually had her facts wrong.

jakrdy

That’s correct. He had been to 47 states and he corrected immediately afterwards. Uncle Rupert must be proud of Duke.

It can’t be guarantted though, Duke, that your Uncle Rupert won’t hack you have a 13-year old girl who’s been kidnapped.

You’re then fair game, Dukey.

jakrdy

Dukey, hang in there. Your Uncle Rupert is hamble! He’s feelin’ roit hamble, Dukey. He’s far ya! He’s fixin’ to put some shrimp on the barbie and give ya a call to your cell phone, Dukey! Uncle Rupert’s ya friend by a**-cracky.

Alan

The Tea Party has the right (or should I say moderate) idea. However they show how fatally flawed they are by electing people such as Bachmann. This country is in desperate need of a solid moderate party with idea’s from both the left and the right, Surely it can find better candidates!

jakrdy

The teabaggers are a bunch of irate ignorant bigots who claimed they were going to “teabag” the White House and did no April 15, 2009 – when the middle class paid less in Federal Taxes than they’d been paying for decades. They are a bunch of idiots.

That’s why they’d vote for a woman who has as many brain cells as Tammy Faye Baker, and I don’t mean when she was a live, I mean as many as she has after getting exhumed.

Swamper

Gotta love the biased WBZ-TV. I didn’t see anything here when Obama said he’d visited 57 states. No wonder you’re at the bottom of the local TV ratings for most time slots.
Thomas Hood

Maybe its because he’s actually intelligent and it’s clear what he meant whereas this clown has repeatedly shown she has no idea what shes talking about. She’s an idiot plain and simple.

swmaper

How can you possibly say Obama is intelligent? Saying he visited 57 states and he had one more to go is intelligent? Holy Smokes man, stop drinking the Kool Aid. He has made more stupid comments than Dan Qualye:

”In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.”
—Barack Obama, on a Kansas tornado that killed 12 people

“UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” –attempting to make the case for government-run healthcare, while simultaneously undercutting his own argument, Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 11, 2009

“It was also interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There’s a lot of — I don’t know what the term is in Austrian, wheeling and dealing.” –confusing German for “Austrian,” a language which does not exist, Strasbourg, France, April 6, 2009

“I’m here with the Girardo family here in St. Louis.” –speaking via satellite to the Democratic National Convention, while in Kansas City, Missouri, Aug. 25, 2008

“How’s it going, Sunshine?” –campaigning in Sunrise, Florida

“No, no. I have been practicing…I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something.” –making an off-hand joke during an appearance on “The Tonight Show”, March 19, 2009 (Obama later called the head of the Special Olympics to apologize)

“One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world — Navy Corpse-Man Christian Brossard.” –mispronouncing “Corpsman” (the “ps” is silent) during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, Washington, D.C., Feb. 5, 2010 (The Corpsman’s name is also Christopher, not Christian)

Oh yeah, he’s REAL intelligent!

Juliane

Remember her speech on how the Founding Fathers abolished slavery? And one of the Founding Fathers lived until the Civil War?

She believes the Earth is about 5K years old, in addition to a whole bunch of other fundamentalist nonsense.

Oh, and her law degree is from Oral Roberts U, a ridiculous excuse for an educational institution.

So yeah, this isn’t some isolated incident. The woman is a moron.

In the face of the consistent idiocy and ignorance of the most basic facts of American history, the fact that the conservatives can only harp on one – ONE – mistake of Obama’s is hilarious.

Even funnier is that they fetishize the founding fathers, and yet they seem to get every single fact about them completely WRONG.
Swamper

And let’s not forget the latest and most disconcerting blunder of Obama’s: “It would be easier to be President of China”, finally coming out and admitting this POSER isn’t up to the job!!!!!!

HDRET

Swamper you are 100% right. I s that way his college transcripts are locked up?
Not many people remember him in school, except Dr. John Drew. Google him and learn alot.

http://homebrewedtheology.com/ok-eugene-im-calling-you-out.php Ok Eugene, I’m Calling You Out | Homebrewed Theology

[...] The textbooks our kids use in schools contain a made up version of history, as they do in Texas, so that they grow up not knowing where Lexington and Concord are like Michele Bachmann? [...]
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/03/16/keller-large-bachmann-others-testing-presidential-waters-in-nh/ Keller @ Large: Bachmann, Others Testing Presidential Waters In NH « CBS Boston

[...] proved shaky on her grasp of that story during a visit to Manchester, New Hampshire the other day, telling the crowd: “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world at Lexington and [...]
http://beingbuddhist.net/2011/03/23/lexington-and-concord-new-hampshire/ Lexington and Concord…New Hampshire? – Being Buddhist | Being Buddhist

[...] a widely reported gaffe, Minnesota Representative and Tea Party darling Michele Bachmann spoke to a select group in New Hampshire and congratulated [...]
John

What about when Obama said he visited 57 states? Didn’t see that in the news (had to go on youtube for that one). It was a gaffe, what is the big deal? Biden does this all the time and doesn’t get slack. Why, you ask? Because he is not a conservative.
http://glitteringopprobrium.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/shots-fired-16-year-old-girl-calls-out-michelle-bachmann/ Shots Fired: 16 Year Old Girl Calls Out Michelle Bachmann | glitteringopprobrium

[...] stated the Revolutionary War Battles of Lexington and Concord happened in New Hampshire. (She told a group of conservatives in Manchester in March: “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in [...]
http://ournewamericana.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/unformed-thoughts-sarah-palin/ Unformed Thoughts: Sarah Palin | New Americana

[...] the factual mistakes of Palin’s potential campaign challengers. Whereas Bachmann recently mixed up her New England geography, and Cain confused the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (the pursuit of happiness [...]
http://tvonenews.co.cc/can-michele-bachmann-cross-over/183.html Can Michele Bachmann Cross Over? | Breaking News Update

[...] many members of Congress did, too, and that a matter competence bear investigating. More recently, she proclaimed that a initial shots of a Revolutionary War were dismissed in New Hampshire, not [...]
http://www.newsinformed.com/politics/can-michele-bachmann-broaden-her-appeal-beyond-the-tea-party-exclusive-to-yahoo-news Can Michele Bachmann broaden her appeal beyond the Tea Party? (Exclusive to Yahoo! News) | NewsInformed.com

[...] many members of Congress did, too, and that the matter might bear investigating. More recently, she proclaimed that the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in New Hampshire, not [...]
http://www.leftwingpost.com/can-michele-bachmann-broaden-her-appeal-beyond-the-tea-party-exclusive-to-yahoo-news Can Michele Bachmann broaden her appeal beyond the Tea Party? (Exclusive to Yahoo! News) | LeftWingPost.com

[...] many members of Congress did, too, and that the matter might bear investigating. More recently, she proclaimed that the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in New Hampshire, not [...]
http://www.rocketnews.com/2011/06/can-michele-bachmann-broaden-her-appeal-beyond-the-tea-party-exclusive-to-yahoo-news/ Can Michele Bachmann broaden her appeal beyond the Tea Party? (Exclusive to Yahoo! News) | Stock Market News – Business & Tech News

[...] many members of Congress did, too, and that the matter might bear investigating. More recently, she proclaimed that the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in New Hampshire, not [...]
http://www.worldbulletins.com/can-michele-bachmann-broaden-her-appeal-beyond-the-tea-party-exclusive-to-yahoo-news Can Michele Bachmann broaden her appeal beyond the Tea Party? (Exclusive to Yahoo! News) | World Bulletins

[...] many members of Congress did, too, and that the matter might bear investigating. More recently, she proclaimed that the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in New Hampshire, not [...]
http://www.newsbulletins.org/can-michele-bachmann-broaden-her-appeal-beyond-the-tea-party-exclusive-to-yahoo-news Can Michele Bachmann broaden her appeal beyond the Tea Party? (Exclusive to Yahoo! News) | News Bulletins

[...] many members of Congress did, too, and that the matter might bear investigating. More recently, she proclaimed that the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in New Hampshire, not [...]
http://uselectionsnews.com/can-michele-bachmann-broaden-her-appeal-beyond-the-tea-party-exclusive-to-yahoo-news.html Can Michele Bachmann broaden her appeal beyond the Tea Party? (Exclusive to Yahoo! News) | US Elections News

[...] many members of Congress did, too, and that the matter might bear investigating. More recently, she proclaimed that the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in New Hampshire, not [...]
http://usnewstweets.com/2011/06/can-michele-bachmann-broaden-her-appeal-beyond-the-tea-party-exclusive-to-yahoo-news/ US News- Tweets » Blog Archive » Can Michele Bachmann broaden her appeal beyond the Tea Party? (Exclusive to Yahoo! News)

[...] many members of Congress did, too, and that the matter might bear investigating. More recently, she proclaimed that the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in New Hampshire, not [...]
http://www.newdeal20.org/2011/06/17/republicans-remain-poor-at-history-%e2%80%93-but-so-do-american-citizens-48659/ Republicans Remain Poor at History – But so Do American Citizens » New Deal 2.0

[...] few weeks? Sarah Palin couldn’t explain what Paul Revere’s ride was all about. Bachmann didn’t know that Lexington and Concord — the first battles of the American Revolution — were fought [...]
http://flapsblog.com/2011/06/20/president-2012-michele-bachmann-hones-strategy-and-orders-ed-rollins-to-apologize-to-sarah-palin/ President 2012: Michele Bachmann Hones Strategy and Orders Ed Rollins to Apologize to Sarah Palin | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

[...] And, Ed Rollins, while very capable and who has a track record of success, does have a habit of running off at the mouth. Putting the brakes on Rollins, while ingratiating yourself to Sarah Palin who, if she does not run, WILL do events and fundraising for you is a no-brain decision. It’s a near-certainty that Bachmann will slip as she did when she suggested that the battle of Lexington and Concord was fought in New Hampshire. [...]
http://academicbench.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/getting-engaged-to-the-public/ Getting Engaged (to “the public”) « The Academy's Bench Warmer

[...] take a lead role in bringing historical interpretation to the public. If we don’t, other people who don’t know a damned thing about the past will use it and abuse it. Second, this sort of thing can’t hurt when trying to land a [...]
http://libaw.com/christian-media-cross/politics/michele-bachmann-has-a-history-of-incorrect-statements/ Michele Bachmann has a history of incorrect statements | Christian Media Cross

[...] made a seemingly big verbal gaffe on the 2012 campaign trail. In a March trip to New Hampshire, she incorrectly stated that the Revolutionary War began in that state in the cities of Lexington and Concord, when its [...]