Bachmann makes New Hampshire gaffe

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a possible presidential contender in 2012, made an embarrassing gaffe Saturday morning in a speech to a group of conservatives in New Hampshire.

Bachmann erroneously touted New Hampshire as the site of the first battles of the American Revolutionary War.

“What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty,” Bachmann told the audience. “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord.

{mosads}“And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors the very first price that had to be paid to make this the most magnificent nation that has ever arisen in the annals of man in 5,000 years of recorded history.”

Lexington, where British troops skirmished with local militia on the town green, and Concord, where a group of farmers turned back the Redcoats at the famous Old North Bridge, are located in Massachusetts.

The Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire hosted the event at the new Liberty Harbor Academy, a conservative educational institute in Manchester.

The historical mix-up is embarrassing for Bachmann who often invokes the founding of the nation and the Constitution in her political rhetoric. (New Hampshire’s WMUR has video of Bachmann’s gaffe.)

New Hampshire is an early contest in the 2012 Republican presidential primary.

During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last week, Bachman said she is still entertaining a possible White House bid.

“I think there’s a normal course of events when a decision like that will be made, and, and if I choose to go down that road, I’ll make the decision,” she said.