Michele Bachmann gets her Elvis anniversaries mixed up [Video]

It may not be a question of life and death. Actually, it really is a question of life and death.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, who received a lot of unfavorable press for comments that some claimed mixed up movie icon John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy, was campaigning in Spartanburg S.C., on Tuesday when she urged her supporters to wish Elvis Presley happy birthday.

Unfortunately, Tuesday was the 34th anniversary of the death of Presley. He was actually born on Jan. 8, 1935.

Bachmann uses Presley’s music at some of her appearances and in South Carolina said she had played a bit from his “Promised Land” album.

“Before we get started, let’s all say ‘Happy Birthday’ to Elvis Presley today,” Bachmann said, according to a video posted by Politico. “You can’t do better than Elvis Presley.”

As the campaign has grown more stressful, the media coverage has become more intense. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has found himself on the wrong end of such comments as calling Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke treasonous if the central bank launched another round of quantitative easing.

Bachmann, who has been a rising star climbing from relative obscurity to a first-pace finish in Iowa straw poll, has seen her words carefully tracked.

In formally announcing her presidential run from her birthplace of Waterloo, Iowa, Bachmann cited the sprit of John Wayne. “That’s the kind of spirit I have, too,” she said.

Wayne, however, was actually born Marion Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, more than 100 miles to the south. The most famous John Wayne from Waterloo was John Wayne Gacy, the notorious “killer clown” of Chicago, who was convicted of killing more than 30 young men in the 1970s.

Bachmann’s campaign later pointed out that the parents of John Wayne, the actor, lived in Waterloo for a time.

michael.muskal@latimes.com