The Bachmann Awards

Who Really Lost Iraq?

by Dominic Tierney

Obama didn’t turn victory into defeat. There was no victory.

Missouri GOP Representative: Japan Didn't Invade U.S. in World War II Because of Armed Populace

There are good reasons to bring Japan into the gun control debate in the United States: the relative success of firearms regulation in Japan, the recent rise of gun violence connected to organized crime, the history of weapons-carrying elites, etc. But WWII had nothing whatsoever to do with gun rights, gun control, or the 2nd Amendment.

Obama's Faulty Lincoln Quote

Barack Obama addressing a joint session of Congress in 2009. Credit: Pete Souza.Barack Obama, in what was surely neither the first nor the last time in his political career, invoked Abraham Lincoln in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. "While I'm proud of what we've achieved together, I'm far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, 'I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go.'"

NY Rep. Yvette Clark: Dutch Brooklynites Owned Slaves in 1898

The debut Bachmann Award does not, surprisingly enough, go to Michelle Bachmann herself. Instead, the honor goes to Democrat Yvette Clark, who represents part of Brooklyn in the U.S. House, for her apparent believe that the Dutch owned slaves in Brooklyn ... in 1898.To be fair to Clark, she made her remarks while appearing in the "Better Know a District" segment on Comedy Central's Colbert Report, which gleefully skewers representatives and tries to coax them into saying absurdities (in the past, host Stephen Colbert prodded former Florida representative Robert Wexler, who was running unopposed for re-election, into saying "I enjoy cocaine because it's a fun thing to do") but the sheer factual incorrectness of her statement still boggles the mind.Asked by Colbert what she would say to Brooklynites to change if she could go back in time to 1898 (starts at 3:04 in the video), the year Brooklyn was incorporated into New York City, she responded:Clarke: Slavery.Colbert: Slavery. Really? I didn’t realize there was slavery in Brooklyn in 1898.Clarke: I’m pretty sure there was.

The Bachmann Award: Key

1 Bachmann: An honest misstatement, like saying the Civil War started in 1961.2 Bachmanns: A more serious misstatement, but relatively minor, like getting the dates for the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence mixed up.3 Bachmanns: Real confusion over history, like saying FDR was president at the start of the Great Depression, but which doesn't challenge conventional historical wisdom.