

Please note protective grip from husband of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.): Wweet or too much? (CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

On Monday, Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign with a speech from Waterloo, Iowa, her home town. She emphasized her roots to the breadbasket of the country, noting, “I know what it means to be from Iowa. I know what we value here.”

Unfortunately, she does not know it well enough to credit an Iowa hometown hero. Either that or she has really strange idols. In an interview with a local television station, Bachmann tells the newscaster she shares the same spirit with “John Wayne” from Waterloo, Iowa.

A Washington Times reader points out: The only John Wayne that ever lived in Waterloo, Iowa is the infamous clown serial killer, John Wayne Gacy. The cowboy movie star John Wayne hails from Winterset, Iowa, about three hours away.

A YouTube account titled BachmannLovesGacy has sprung up, and Gawker announced, “Bachmann compares self to gay rapist clown serial killer.”

While the gaffe may cause some giggles, Bachmann’s presidential aspirations are no joke. As the Post’s The Fix blog wrote this Monday, Bachmann is the Iowa frontrunner for president, after a Des Moines Register poll has her in “a statistical dead at with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.”