[View the story "2012 presidential election: The gaffes that made us wince" on Storify ]2012 presidential election: The gaffes that made us wince Here's what the contenders got the wrongest. Storified by Digital First Media · Sun, Nov 04 2012 05:30:24
Running for president is like signing up for a reality TVshow: Cameras will be trained on you, every day, for more than a year. It'sinevitable that candidates will slip up from time to time. Below, some of thegoofier things that candidates said this year. We've rated them on a scale ofone to five potatoes, after the time Vice President Dan Quayle incorrectlyspelled the word during a visit to an elementary school.
Five Potatoes: MicheleBachmann : "Let's all say, 'Happy Birthday' to Elvis Presley today."
Michele Bachmann Wishes Elvis A Happy Birthday On Anniversary Of His Deathsuchislifevideos
It wasn't Elvis' birthday. It was the anniversary of the day he died.
Barack Obama : "Three proud words: Made in the U.S.A."
President Obama's "Three Proud Words" Are Actually Four WordsPatrick MacRoe
That's four words. The worst
part was that this was a pre-writtenspeech. Perhaps it's
contagious .
Mitt Romney : "Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's theirroute to the sea."
Newyorker
We'll admit it: We had to look that one up. But here's a quick geography lesson, courtesy of the Internet:
Typepad
Four Potatoes: Rick Perry : Turkey is ruled by "whatmany would perceive to be Islamic terrorists."
Rick Perry Calls Turkish Leaders Islamic Terrorists and asks to kick out Turkey out of NATOalan131210
Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952,and is a
secular state currently applying for membership in the European Union.
Rick Perry : "I trust those independent school districts tomake those decisions better than eight unelected, and frankly, unaccountablejudges."
Rick Perry: I Know There Are Nine Supreme Court Justiceselectad
Thereare nine Supreme Court justices. Bonus: There's no Justice "Montemayor."
Barack Obama : "When I meet with world leaders whether it'sin Europe, or here in Asia."
Obama: Hawaii in AsiaEd Morrissey
Obama was in Hawaii, which is either part of the United States (politically) or Polynesia (geographically) but not Asia. As someone who grew up in Hawaii, you'd think Obama would know that.
Three Potatoes: Joe Biden : "Where's it written we can't lead the world inthe 20th century in making automobiles?
Biden: 'Where's it written we cannot lead the world in the 20th century...'washingtonfreebeacon
Maybe we did. But we're in the 21st century now...
Michele Bachmann : "If you lookat one of the founding fathers, John Quincy Adams he tirelessly worked throughouthis life to make sure that we eradicated slavery."
Bachmann Spars with Stephanopoulos over whether John Quincy Adams was a "Founding Father"freedomslighthouse
John Quincy Adams did work to eradicate slavery, but he wasn't a founding father. Born in 1767, he was just 20 years old during the Constitutional Convention.
Two Potatoes: Joe Biden : "We can win North Carolina!"
Campaigning in VA, Joe Biden Says "We Can Win North Carolina"goprapidresponse
Biden wasin Virginia at the time. He also earned an extra demerit because he seems to have a lack ofspecial awareness.
Biden Confuses Which University He Is Atgoprapidresponse
Michele Bachmann : "Theysee the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and ourloss militarily going forward."
Michele Bachmann, 18/08/11: "Rise of the Soviet Union"PalinGrifter2012
The Soviet Union hasn't existed since 1991. Then again, she wasn't the only candidate to
make that mistake .
One Potatoe: Rick Perry : ""I want to say it was over $500 million that went to the country Solyndra ."
Rick Perry and the country Solyndradmregister
Solyndra's a company, but we'll chalk that one up to a slip of the tongue.
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