Bachmann, Coleman featured in Politico’s list of top 10 ’08 campaign gaffes

Josh Kraushaar of Politico compiles a list of 10 campaign-changing moments from 2008 congressional campaigns across the country — and you won’t have to think hard to guess who wins the grand prize:

A case can be made that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) made the gaffe of the election when she went on MSNBC’s “Hardball” and suggested that Barack Obama and other Democratic members of Congress held anti-American views. Her comments changed what looked like an easy path to victory into a political dogfight with a very uncertain outcome.

Her little-known opponent, Elwyn Tink­lenberg, raised more than $1.3 million in a week — more money than most Democratic challengers raise in an entire year. And a newly released poll shows that a whopping 40 percent of voters in Bachmann’s district said they were less likely to support her after she made the comments.

But Sen. Norm Coleman makes the roundup as well: “Coleman’s ‘Angry Al’ ad…. Coleman ringed together Franken’s angriest and most expletive-filled moments in recent years for the public to see. The strategy backfired — though the ad brought down Franken’s favorability ratings, it also cost Coleman in a state where “Minnesota nice” prevails.”

Check out the list.