Hmm, is Herman Cain trying to take the spotlight back from Michele Bachmann?
Cain is set to make a campaign stop this Sunday in a special town: Winterset, Iowa, the hometown of actor John Wayne — whose name has suddenly re-entered the American political psyche, thanks to a gaffe during Bachmann’s campaign rollout.
And that’s not all: Cain will be visiting a Godfather’s Pizza restaurant — the corporation that he used to head up — on John Wayne Drive in Winterset.
John Wayne’s ghost popped up in the campaign this past week, when Michele Bachmann was announcing her candidacy from her original hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, and told a Fox News reporter: “But what I want them to know, just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, that’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.”
In fact, John Wayne (real name, Marion Morrison) was not from Waterloo — only his parents had lived there for a brief period, before he was ever born, and then moved to Winterset, which is about 120 miles away. Unfortunately for Bachmann, another “John Wayne” had links to Waterloo: Serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who lived there for a few years in the 1960s, and was sent to prison for sexually assaulting two teenage boys, before later going on to commit over 30 murders in the Chicago area.
(Via the Des Moines Register)
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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