Michele Bachmann, queen of the summer news quizzes

Were U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann to give a school speech of her own — “What I Did During My Summer Vacation” — she could confidently state that she cemented a place for herself in the national news media’s consciousness. The latest evidence: Bachmann figures prominently in two end-of-summer news quizzes from The Atlantic and the New York Times.

Neither quiz question will tax regular readers of the Minnesota Independent, but here they are for the record.

From the “Summer 2009 Political Vocabulary Quiz” by the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder:

8. “Michele Bachmann” is:
A. an invention of the liberal blogosphere
B. a Republican member of Congress from Minnesota who aspires to run for the presidency
C. a family doctor in Tupelo

From “An End of Summer Quiz” by the New York Times’ Gail Collins:

III. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota or Sarah Palin?
A) “Right now we are looking at reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom in this country.”
B) “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’. …”
C) Refuses to fill out her census form.
D) Urged people to be “armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax.”
E) Going to China to address an investors forum sponsored by a Hong Kong brokerage firm.
F) “Only dead fish go with the flow.”