Politifact: Michele Bachmann and the Truth-O-Meter

[ErikJ]

Michele Bachmann and the Truth-O-Meter
By Angie Drobnic Holan
Published on Wednesday, May 29th, 2013 at 11:32 a.m.

We've been fact-checking Michele Bachmann since 2009.

PolitiFact's staff woke up to shocking news on Wednesday: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has decided not to run for re-election.

Bachmann, a tea party favorite, had a knack for making eyebrow-raising statements that the media loved to quote. Sometimes, though, those statements veered away from verifiable fact.

Take, for instance, our first fact-check of Bachmann, back in 2009. She issued a press release claiming that then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was considering abandoning the U.S. dollar. "Bachmann Demands Truth: Will Obama Administration Abandon Dollar for a Multi-National Currency?" We rated the claim False.

Bachmann later made opposing President Barack Obama's health care law one of her signature issues. She said the law banned private health insurance after a "date certain," even naming the page number of the bill that contained the clause. We checked page 92, though, and found Bachmann was wrong. Pants on Fire!

She had a remarkable streak: Her first 13 ratings were False or Pants on Fire.

Bachmann went on to compete in the 2012 Republican primary for president. She earned her first True rating for a statement she made during a 2011 debate that then-Sen. Obama "refused to raise the debt ceiling because he said President Bush had failed in leadership."
.................................. clip

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/may/29/michele-bachmann-truth-o-meter-politifact/

[Buzz Clik]

1. Daffy.

[napkinz]

2. Epic Fail ....