LOS ANGELES — It may not be a question of life and death. Actually, it really is a question of life and death.
GOP presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, who
received a lot of unfavorable press for comments that some claimed
mixed up movie icon John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy, was
campaigning in Spartanburg S.C., on Tuesday when she urged her
supporters to wish Elvis Presley happy birthday.
Unfortunately, Tuesday was the 34th anniversary of the death of Presley. He was born on Jan. 8, 1935.
Bachmann uses Presley’s music at some of her
appearances and in South Carolina said she had played a bit from his
“Promised Land” album.
“Before we get started, let’s all say ‘happy
birthday’ to Elvis Presley today,” Bachmann said, according to a video
posted by Politico. “You can’t do better than Elvis Presley.”
As the campaign has grown more stressful, the media
coverage has become more intense. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has found
himself on the wrong end of such comments as calling Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke treasonous if the central bank launched another
round of quantitative easing.
Bachmann, who has been a rising star climbing from
relative obscurity to a first-place finish in Iowa straw poll, has seen
her words carefully tracked.
In formally announcing her presidential run from her
birthplace of Waterloo, Iowa, the Minnesota congresswoman cited the
spirit of John Wayne. “That’s the kind of spirit I have, too,” she said.
Wayne, however, was born Marion Morrison in
Winterset, Iowa, more than 100 miles to the south. The most famous John
Wayne from Waterloo was John Wayne Gacy, the notorious “killer clown” of
Chicago, who was convicted of killing more than 30 young men in the
1970s.
Bachmann’s campaign later pointed out that the parents of John Wayne, the actor, lived in Waterloo for a time.
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