"There are a lot of things I wish I would have said differently," said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., in a Sunday appearance on Face the Nation,referring to her 2008 remarks suggesting that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama holds "anti-American" views. Bachmann has been prone to gaffes--the latest being Monday's embarrassing mix-up over John Wayne's birthplace. And her signature outspokenness, which has made her popular as a tea party speaker and a magnet for campaign contributions, could prove to be a double-edged sword. Here are five statements that may come back to haunt her as she begins her presidential campaign.
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During her first campaign-inspired trip to New Hampshire, Bachmann told a crowd in Manchester, "You're the state where the shot was heard around the world at Lexington and Concord." Her comment was just the latest in a series of flubs about U.S. history, including one that insisted the Founders abolished slavery.
In 2009, she stated perhaps her most notorious claim to date, when she accused President Obama of running a "gangster government." Bachmann stood by her comment as recently as March.