Well at least I haven't gaffed, says Michele Bachmann, the woman who confused the birthplace of John Wayne and John Wayne Gacy, the state where the first shot of the Revolution was fired with New Hampshire, Elvis' birthday with the day he died and vaccines with the cause of mental retardation - all in the past year.

That doesn't even include the time she joked that God was sending a message about spending via deadly hurricane.

It's not like she hasn't put her foot in her mouth on stage, like Rick Perry - it was standing on stage right after a debate that Bachmann whipped out the vaccine = retardation thing.

And, of course, there are many, many more.

Nevertheless, Bachmann told Greta Van Susteren Thursday that she's keeping away from the gaffes that are upending opponents for the Republican presidential nomination like Rick Perry and Herman Cain.

"I haven't had a gaffe or something that I've done that has caused me to fall in the polls," Bachmann said, adding, "And when it comes to the best Republican who take on Barack Obama and not have any clunker in my record to be able to take him on, it's me."

Amazingly, Bachmann is actually making this line of reasoning a campaign strategy. This week, her campaign released this web ad cataloging many of the top gaffes of her fellow candidates and selling Bachmann as the reliable one when it comes to conservative talk:

Here's Bachmann explaining the distinction between "clunker" and whatever it is she does in speeches on Fox:

VAN SUSTEREN: So you're talking about clunker - you mean the allegations - underline allegations, no proof of Mr. Herman Cain that there were two women who said that they were sexually harassed, and you had the Governor Perry's unfortunate 53-second gaffe at the - one of the debates - is that the clunker that brings people down? BACHMANN: Those clunkers show that people - that that hurts candidates in the polls. I haven't had something like that. But what I've been… VAN SUSTEREN: Well, you've had a few - you've had a few little gaffes, maybe not recently, but you had the historic reference in Massachusetts, I think, and I think you had one… BACHMANN: Well, I got Elvis Presley's birthday wrong, but I don't think that's a disqualifying factor for being president of the United States. What I did do is stand up loud and clear and I was the lone voice last summer when we were dealing with the debt ceiling, and I said, Let's pay off the interest on the debt today, but let's also prioritize our spending. Let's not do the Super Committee.

Check out the video here.

Republished with permission from TalkingPointsMemo.com. Authored by Evan McMorris-Santoro. Image via AP. TPM provides breaking news, investigative reporting and smart analysis of politics.

