Michele Bachmann makes an embarrassing flub in NH

Tea party favorite Michele Bachmann appears increasingly serious about running for president in 2012, but she might want to bone up on her U.S. history before she launches a formal campaign.

As Scott Conroy reports at Real Clear Politics, Bachmann made a pretty big Revolutionary War gaffe while speaking at a GOP event in New Hampshire yesterday. "What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty," she said. "You're the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord."

Actually, the Battles of Lexington and Concord took place in neighboring Massachusetts. Bachmann's gaffe might not sit well with fiercely loyal New Hampshire voters.

Bachmann later took to her Facebook page to defend the flub. "So I misplaced the battles Concord and Lexington by saying they were in New Hampshire. It was my mistake," she wrote. "And by the way... That will be the last time I borrow President Obama's teleprompter!"

Except, as the Minnesota Post reports, Bachmann made the same gaffe in a speech in New Hampshire on Friday night.

As Politico's Jonathan Martin and Kendra Marr write, this isn't the first time Bachmann has made a "puzzling gaffe" about history and public events. In January, she claimed the authors of the Declaration of Independence sought to end slavery. Last week, she said the country should rely on Gen. David Petraeus's advice about what to do with Libya—even though, as head of the commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Petraeus has no say in the country's policy toward Libya.

A little ironically, Conroy points out that Bachmann's speech also included a riff on public education, in which she talked about the importance of teaching the nation's school children basic facts.

"I don't think that our public schools are necessarily the place where one fixed set of political beliefs should be imposed on students," Bachmann said. "I think that knowledge, facts, and information should be on the table, and let students decide what their beliefs should be."

(Photo of Bachmann in New Hampshire: Jim Cole/AP)