Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party favorite in the 2012 GOP primaries, believes she could have gone all the way if only she didn't stumble over the biographies of two American icons: Elvis and the Duke.
"I was right on all the others," she said of the hundreds of questions and issues she faced during the primaries, won by Mitt Romney.
Bachmann spoke this week in Purcellville, Va., at Patrick Henry College, created for the children taught at home. Before students, she talked about her campaign and was asked if there were any questions she wanted another shot at.
"I wish I would have gotten John Wayne's birthplace right and I wish I would have gotten Elvis' birthday right," she said. During the campaign, she got both wrong, even wishing "Happy Birthday" to Elvis on April 16, the anniversary of his death.
She called her presidential run a "very good experience," but conceded it was tough. "It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life," she told the students at the school 50 miles from the White House. "I would give 10 speeches a day. I would do probably four fundraisers. I'd be up at four in the morning. I wouldn't go to bed until after midnight. I had to raise millions of dollars. I would have to answer questions and I was a girl, so I had to look good too."
