Bachmann: Close US Embassy In Iran. Ermmm, derp. D'oh.

[Schneibster]

Michele Bachmann would close the US embassy in Tehran over what the Iranians allowed to happen to the UK embassy.

Minor problem: there is no US embassy in Tehran. Nor anywhere else in Iran, since they took 52 US citizens hostage in November 1979. We have not maintained a diplomatic presence there because they have not apologized and have not restored the embassy. Until they do so we will not.

She is a naif.

http://twitter.com/#!/JamieNBCNews/stat ... 5071302656

[Ian]

It makes me sad to hear things like this. Not because it indicates the state of the Republican Party since it has her as a Presidential candidate (and was a leading one for a little while), but because I really wanted her to get the nomination. With statements like this, the chances are increasingly nil. Obama could win all 50 states against her.

[Schneibster]

Her response looks suspiciously like "Errrmmm, Congresscritter Bachmann is fully aware there's no US embassy in Tehran, hrrrrmph." I'm gonna guess her handlers screwed up. And if that's not scary I dunno what is.

[Jesus_of_Nazareth]

Maybe she is confusing Iran with Iraq...........

[Warren Dew]

While it's possible she had momentarily forgotten about the 1980 hostage crisis, what I've been able to find indicates this is more likely a matter of the press putting words into her mouth. The actual direct quote from Schneibster's link, for example, doesn't talk about "closing" the embassy in Iran; it says, "we wouldn't have an American embassy in Iran." Rather than being mistaken, that's perfectly possible and pretty easy to do: just don't open one.

The other source I found literally put words in her mouth. When she answered a question regarding the UK's closing their embassy in Iran, she says, "That's exactly what I would do" - a perfectly sensible response, most naturally read to mean that's what she would do if she were David Cameron. However, they turn it into a wrong statement by adding words that she didn't actually say:

According to reports, Bachmann applauded the U.K.’s move, adding, “That’s exactly what I would do [if I were president]. We wouldn’t have an embassy in Iran. I wouldn’t allow that to be there.”

Further evidence that it's a misinterpretation is the fact that Bachmann normally speaks based on the assumption that she will be elected, so if she was really saying what she would do if elected president, she would word it, "That's exactly what I will do" rather than "... would do".

Seriously, taking what the press says about Republican candidates at face value is like taking what Rush Limbaugh says about Obama at face value. Unfortunately for Bachmann, more of the swing vote probably watches ABC than listens to Limbaugh.

[Schneibster]

It's a tweet from a journalist following her on the campaign trail.

It's pretty straightforward and pretending someone's making it up is fairly transparent. But whatever.