Bachmann signs vow that compares slave era, today

Michele Bachmann famously called America under President Obama a "nation of slaves."

Then she got into trouble for suggesting that the Founding Fathers "worked tirelessly to end slavery." (She meant John Quincy Adams, the abolitionist president who was 8 years old when the Declaration of Independence was signed.)

Now the Minnesota Republican has signed an Iowa Christian group's "Marriage Vow" that reads in part:

"Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President."

The pledge, prepared by the Family Leader group, also commits signees to banning pornography and same-sex marriage. She is the only presidential candidate to sign it so far.

To Bachmann's detractors, the language on slavery represents a misreading of history. Apart from the intimation of better conditions in the antebellum South, the vow seems to overlook a brutal historical record of African-American slave families being broken up for sale.

The Family Leader's pledge also calls for the rejection of Sharia Islam, the recognition that married people enjoy "better sex" and that "robust childrearing and reproduction is beneficial to U.S. demographic, economic, strategic and actuarial health and security."

Bachmann's office did not respond to a request for comment.

And so far, there's been no word from the campaign of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who desperately needs a good showing in Iowa.