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Best of Bachmann

The craziest things the congresswoman has ever said.

Recently, there’s been much political buzz that Michele Bachmann (yes, that Michele Bachmann) might just run for president. Could she make it to the White House? Probably not—but she could give other Republican hopefuls a run for their money. In light of Bachmann’s potential, we compiled her best quotes ever—and, by best, we mean craziest, embarrassing, and otherwise out there.

“It is a brand new, billion-dollar high speed train that is going to go from Disneyland up to Las Vegas. … Harry Reid, the senator from Nevada, was behind this measure, and it makes us wonder, is he more interested in making sure kids start gambling at younger ages?” –On the House Floor

“We will talk a little bit about what has transpired in the last 18 months and would we count what has transpired into turning our country into a nation of slaves.” –Speech to the Western Conservative Summit in Denver

“I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it’s an interesting coincidence.” –Interview with Pajamas Media

“The big thing we are working on now is the global warming hoax. It's all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax. …The tax cap and trade system for limiting emissions is just another tax on businesses. By 2012, incandescent light bulbs will be no more. Fluorescent bulbs are more.” –At a meeting of Sherburne County Republicans

“The President of the United States will be taking a trip over to India that is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day.” –On CNN

“Michael Steele! You be the man! You be the man!” –2009 Conservative Political Action Conference

“Take this into consideration. If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I’m not saying that that’s what the administration is planning to do but I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the Census Bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans.”Interview with Fox News

“It’s under the guise of—quote—volunteerism. But it’s not volunteers at all. It’s paying people to do work on behalf of government. … I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums.” –On Minnesota radio station KTLK-AM, about the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act

 “I’m a foreign correspondent on enemy lines, and I try to let everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington.”–On a Minnesota radio show

 “I don’t know where they’re gonna go to get all this money, because we’re running out of rich people in this country. … Under Obama, big evil is now anyone with a joint income of $100,000 or more. I truly believe that’s probably gonna lower to anyone with a joint income of $65,000 or more—will be considered big evil and taxed to the hilt.” –On Chris Baker’s radio show

“Speaker Pelosi ... has been busy sticking the taxpayer with her $100,000 bar tab for alcohol on the military jets that she’s flying.”—At the Values-Voter Summit

“They will be in charge of going door to door and collecting data from the American public.” –On ACORN and the census

“To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies? You wanna talk about the nanny state, I think you just got ... a new definition of the nanny.” –On “The Laura Ingraham Show”

Eliza Gray and Alexander C. Hart are reporter-researchers at The New Republic.

Follow @tnr and @AlexanderHart on Twitter.