Currently viewing the tag: “Michele”
Rep. Michele Bachmann
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was on Hannity’s show last night to talk about the upcoming 2012 race and when she’ll make her decision.
Just today, numbers came out and Bachmann raised more money than Romney this first quarter.
I think it’s great that Michele Bachmann’s running for president. I really do. She’s so good for the GOP, so much a voice of the conservatism of today. Without her in the race, well, it just wouldn’t make sense.
Okay, she’s not officially running yet, she’s just planning on setting up one of those exploratory committees. But come on, you know she wants it, and she’s got God behind her, so it looks like a done deal.
Oh, you think she’s a joke, do you? Well, laugh if you wish.
With her impressive Tea Party bona fides, her reckless conspiracy theorizing, her self-focused faux feminism, and her general right-wing craziness, she’s just what a ridiculously weak Republican field needs. (Well, okay, maybe it needs Palin, but she’s just so self-absorbed and ignorant. Her “star” is brighter than Bachmann’s, to be sure, but it’s Bachmann who’s more determinedly Republican.
So I say again, with all the encouragement I can muster:
Run, Michele, run! You’ll do great.
(Cross-posted from The Reaction.)
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who revealed Thursday plans to run for president, is no run-of-the-mill global warming denier. Rather, she is what one might call a climate fantasist, tinged with an element of evangelical certitude, with a side of word salad. On the House floor on Earth Day, April 22, 2009, Bachmann argued that the threat of manmade global warming doesn’t make any sense because “carbon dioxide is a natural byproduct of nature“:
Carbon dioxide, Mister Speaker, is a natural byproduct of nature. Carbon dioxide is natural. It occurs in Earth. It is a part of the regular lifecycle of Earth. In fact, life on planet Earth can’t even exist without carbon dioxide. So necessary is it to human life, to animal life, to plant life, to the oceans, to the vegetation that’s on the Earth, to the, to the fowl that — that flies in the air, we need to have carbon dioxide as part of the fundamental lifecycle of Earth.
Her speech only gets better from there.
Watch it:
Rep. Blumenauer (D-OR), later in the evening, demolished Bachmann for “making things up on the floor of the House.”
Full transcript at the original 2009 Wonk Room post.
CNN reported this morning that Rep. Michele Bachmann will form a presidential exploratory committee later this year.
In our latest issue, TAC contributor Sean Scallon explores Bachmann’s roots in the Midwest, including how she was once a Democrat disillusioned with Jimmy Carter and later became one of Francis Schaeffer’s pro-life foot soldiers. Scallon shows that the story of Bachmann’s rise parallels the decline of the GOP of Bob Dole and Gerald Ford in the heartland — and the rise of grassroots evangelical politics in its place.
As Scallon writes,
Minnesota was just one battleground of a broader intra-party struggle that transformed Republican politics across the Midwest. In 1988, Pat Robertson’s presidential campaign mobilized Christians in Michigan and Iowa, making the evangelical vote an important constituency in the Hawkeye State, particularly in its heavily Protestant west. The Wichita Summer abortion protests and civil disobedience of 1991 helped create a powerful evangelical wing in the formerly progressive Kansas Republican Party, as detailed in Thomas Frank’s book What’s the Matter With Kansas, and laid the groundwork for Governor Sam Brownback’s career. Voters thought to be on the far right in the late ’80s and early ’90s became the party’s mainstream, and indeed its leadership after 2000, the year Bachmann first held office.
… [Today no Midwestern] Republican could get signatures on a ballot petition, let alone win a primary, as a supporter of abortion rights. That wasn’t true just over a decade ago. And the nearly forgotten Ford-Dole ticket of two famed Midwestern Republicans in 1976 wouldn’t elicit much support from GOP voters in the region today.
What made Michele Bachmann who she is today? Read Scallon’s profile and you’ll understand the political upbringing of the woman who may become the Tea Party’s standard bearer.
It looks like Rep. Michele Bachmann who seemingly threw her history book in the trash is about to throw her hat into the 2012 Presidential nomination ring: : CNN reports that she’s forming an exploratory committee for the 2012 Republican nomination — a phrase that is taken to be a buzzword for someone who’s running but not ready to formally announce yet:
CNN has exclusively learned that Rep. Michele Bachmann will form a presidential exploratory committee. The Minnesota Republican plans to file papers for the committee in early June, with an announcement likely around that same time.
But a source close to the congresswoman said that Bachmann could form the exploratory committee even earlier than June so that she could participate in early Republican presidential debates.“She’s been telling everyone early summer,” the source told CNN regarding Bachmann’s planned June filing and announcement. But the source said that nothing is static.
“If you [debate sponsors] come to us and say, ‘To be in our debates, you have to have an exploratory committee,’ then we’ll say, ‘Okay, fine…I’ll go file the forms.’”Three GOP presidential primary debates are planned before and during early June: The first one on May 2 at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California and another on May 5 in South Carolina. CNN plans a GOP presidential primary debate in New Hampshire in early June.
Meanwhile, CNN has also learned that Iowa Republican state Sen. Kent Sorenson will likely be hired to be Bachmann’s political director for the state – and that Bachmann aides hope to have a complete team together for Iowa by this weekend.
The AP report on Bachmann notes that some other key sources confirm: she’s likely to go for it.
One factor that may be overlooked in some reports is this: the fact that she is all but announcing that she’s going to run is yet another sign of how far former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has fallen in terms of being someone considered to be a serious and viable contender for the 2012 Presidential nomination.
If she had still been the Republican rock star sucking up all of the oxygen and the tea at the Tea Party, Bachmann would balk.
But Palin’s numbers have been going south faster that retired seniors in New York flying to Florida in September.
Bachmann is such a quote machine that she will be ensured press coverage — plus lots of face time on Fox News, “interviews” (in reality p.r.) with Sean Hannity.
She will be a Tea Party favorite and will likely battle it out with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who is all but dressing himself in a tea cup costume to win over the Tea Party vote.
Covering a possible 2012 presidential run by Michele Bachmann, Good Morning America's Juju Chang on Thursday spun the Congresswoman as "one of the most controversial freshmen [sic] members of Congress." Aside from the obvious error, Bachmann has been a representative for four years, GMA never identified hard-left former Congressman Alan Grayson that way.
Reporter Jonathan Karl singled out Bachmann as "uncompromising" and "as conservative as they come." This type of labeling isn't uncommon for the journalist. On August 24, 2010, Karl hit Republican senatorial candidate Joe Miller as a "hard-line, Tea Party conservative."
On September 22, 2010, he deemed Christine O'Donnell's comments about witchcraft to be "infamous." On January 4, 2010, Karl derided incoming House Speaker John Boehner as "harshly partisan."
Chang informed viewers that former Clinton operative George Stephanopoulos and World News anchor Diane Sawyer will host a debate between Republican presidential candidates in December of 2011.
A transcript of the March 24 segment, which aired at 8:02am EDT, follows:
JUJU CHANG: Turning now to politics, there are new signs that one of the most controversial freshmen [sic] members of Congress is considering a run for the White House. More now from Jonathan Karl.
ABC GRAPHIC: Tea Party Queen Eyes White House: Bachmann: 'I Am in for 2012'
JON KARL: They are the queens of the Tea Party. Tough, uncompromising, as conservative as they come, but with one big difference. [Over B-roll of Bachmann.] This one looks like she's running for President. Congresswoman, how are you?
MICHELE BACHMANN: Hello. How are you?
KARL: We caught up with Michele Bachmann at her hotel room in Des Moines and followed her everywhere.
BACHMANN: Hi there. I'm Michele.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Can't say your last name.
BACHMANN: Bachmann!
SECOND UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Thanks to coming to Des Moines.
BACHMANN: Well, I was born in Waterloo.
KARL: And she can out-tough talk Palin.
BACHMANN: [Giving speech.] I may be five foot-two, but I am one tough lady. [Talking to Karl.] We need to go toe-to-toe, eyeball-to-eyeball with the President and say, "Mr. President, you are wrong."
KARL: Bachmann would be a long shot, but few people fire up Tea Party activists more than she does. That's why the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party says she could be a force in the Iowa caucuses.
MATT STRAWN (Chairman, Republican Party of Iowa): They line up with her stated principles of limited government, economic freedom, shrinking the size of things at the federal level. So, I think there's an opportunity for her here.
KARL: So, will she run?
BACHMANN: I'm in for 2012 in that I want to be a part of the conversation of making sure President Obama only serves one term, not two.
KARL: She told us, she'll make up her mind by summer, regardless of what her friend Sarah Palin decides to do. For Good Morning America, Jonathan Karl, ABC News, Des Moines, Iowa.
CHANG: And, of course, ABC News is your campaign headquarters. Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will moderate the Republican caucus debate in Iowa this December, just weeks before the first in the nation caucuses.
— Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
They say anyone can grow up to be president. Michele Bachmann is apparently taking them at their word.
CNN (“CNN Exclusive: Bachmann to form exploratory committee in June, possibly earlier“):
CNN has exclusively learned that Rep. Michele Bachmann will form a presidential exploratory committee. The Minnesota Republican plans to file papers for the committee in early June, with an announcement likely around that same time.
But a source close to the congresswoman said that Bachmann could form the exploratory committee even earlier than June so that she could participate in early Republican presidential debates.
“She’s been telling everyone early summer,” the source told CNN regarding Bachmann’s planned June filing and announcement. But the source said that nothing is static.
“If you [debate sponsors] come to us and say, ‘To be in our debates, you have to have an exploratory committee,’ then we’ll say, ‘Okay, fine…I’ll go file the forms.’”
ABC (“Palin 2.0? Bachmann Tells ABC News, ‘I’m In!’“):
Just over ten months before next February’s Iowa caucuses Sarah Palin is returning from a recent trip to Israel. But Tea Party darling Rep. Michele Bachmann is already hitting the Hawkeye state capital.
Unlike Palin, all signs point to Bachmann running for the Republican presidential nomination later this year. In an Iowa version of ABC News’ “Subway Series” shot on the Des Moines city trolley, the Minnesota Republican told ABC’s Jonathan Karl, “I’m in.”
Well, sort of.
“I’m in for 2012 in that I want to be a part of the conversation in making sure that President Obama only serves one term, not two, because I want to make sure that we get someone who’s going to be making the country work again. That’s what I’m in for,” Bachmann said.
“But I haven’t made a decision yet to announce, obviously, if I’m a candidate or not, but I’m in for the conversation.”
She said the feedback she has gotten thus far about a possible White House run has been “encouraging.” And she thinks the president is beatable.
I don’t know which is funnier: That Bachmann thinks she’s presidential material or that she’s convinced ABC and CNN that they have an exclusive.
Lawrence O'Donnell on Monday accused people that voted for Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) last November of being "shockingly ignorant," and said one of the reasons was because her district is 92 percent white.
This happened as "The Last Word" host went on an almost seven-minute rant about Bachmann's gaffe this weekend concerning Lexington and Concord being in New Hampshire rather than Massachusetts (video follows with transcript and commentary):
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Time for tonight's "Rewrite.” Okay. This one does have the feel of shooting fish in a barrel, but so does anything involving fact checking Michele Bachmann. In fact, the phrase shooting fish in a barrel could be replaced with fact checking Michele Bachmann, or better put, mistake proving Michele Bachmann, because finding Michele Bachmann’s mistakes is as easy or perhaps easier than shooting fish in a barrel, especially for those of us that aren't exactly handy with guns. And mistakes is a kind word when it comes to Michele Bachmann. Many of the falsehoods she has spouted, such as healthcare death panels, must be lies because she must know, she must know that they are completely untrue.
But many of the things she says are truly breathtaking demonstrations of ignorance levels previously unimaginable in a member of Congress or a graduate of an American elementary school. Like when she said recently in prepared text that the Founding Fathers ended slavery, obviously having absolutely no idea that the Founding Fathers deliberately did nothing to end slavery, and that it was, in fact, the 16th President of the United States who issued the Emancipation Proclamation and fought and won a civil war to end slavery.
Actually, the ignorance on display here was O'Donnell's. Bachmann didn't say the Founding Fathers ended slavery. She said they – in particular, John Quincy Adams – worked tirelessly to end slavery. As NewsBusters reported on January 27, this is technically correct.
More importantly, to say "the Founding Fathers deliberately did nothing to end slavery" is 100 percent false, for as NewsBusters also reported in January, there was originally an anti-slavery clause in the Declaration of Independence that southern delegates to the First Continental Congress, led by South Carolina's Edward Rutledge, forced the removal of.
If members of the northern delegation led by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin did not accede to this demand, the Declaration of Independence never would have been signed. That O'Donnell made this mistake while chastizing Bachmann's knowledge of history was laughable:
O'DONNELL: She got off another one of those American history things this weekend. In New Hampshire, she pandered to more than one audience by saying, quote, “You're the state where the shot was heard round the world at Lexington and Concord,” end quote. The Lexington and Concord she was referring to, of course, are in Massachusetts, not New Hampshire, and unfortunately for her, there's no one in New Hampshire who doesn't know that. She said this on Friday night, and again on Saturday.
The question of how ignorant is Michele Bachmann is now unanswerable. Just when you thought you knew, she comes out with something shockingly – and I don't use the word shockingly lightly – shockingly ignorant about Lexington and Concord, two of the most famous sites in the Revolutionary War.
This was certainly quite a gaffe by Bachmann, but shockingly ignorant might be taking it a bit far. However, O'Donnell wasn't close to done pointing fingers:
O'DONNELL: Now, what fascinates me more than the question of how ignorant is Michele Bachmann are two other questions. One, how ignorant is Michele Bachmann’s staff, and two, how ignorant are her voters?
How pathetic. As a commentator, going after an elected official is one thing, but going after his or her voters is unhinged:
O'DONNELL: Remember, Michele Bachmann said this thing about Lexington and Concord twice. She said it on Friday and then her brilliant staff allowed her to say it again. And remember, it's the same brilliant staff that allowed her to say the Founding Fathers ended slavery. That means Michele Bachmann’s staff doesn't know that the Founding Fathers did not end slavery, and they don't know that Lexington and Concord are in Massachusetts. How and where did she find Congressional staffers who don't know that?
I hereby promise you based on my experience working in the Senate, there is no other staff in the history of the Congress that does not know that Lexington and Concord are in Massachusetts. Who are these people who work for Michele Bachmann? Who wrote that speech for her? Where does she find these people? There are many, many ignorant members of Congress, and many ignorant senators, but they are protected all day long from revealing most of their ignorance by staffs who are hundreds of times smarter than they are.
Perhaps all of Michele Bachmann’s staff come from her district, which may be the most ignorant Congressional district in America. In 2010, 52 percent of that district voted for Michele Bachmann to represent them in Congress. Now, she had already proven time and time again to her district and to America that she is unworthy of representing any Congressional district in America. But 52 percent, the same percentage in that district who voted for John McCain for president, voted for Michele Bachmann in 2010.
So, people in this district are ignorant because they voted for McCain in 2008 and Bachmann in 2010? Is this what the folks at MSNBC consider acceptable – attacking Americans that vote for candidates the commentators don't support?
Does that mean the 46 percent of Americans throughout the nation that voted for McCain in 2008 – including yours truly! – are also ignorant? Is this what MSNBC has devolved to?
Regardless of the answer, readers are advised to fasten their seatbelts, because things were about to get really ugly:
O'DONNELL: What makes those voters so ignorant? Well, for starters, they are whiter than the average district. 92 percent white in fact.
What? They're ignorant because they're white? Are you kidding? O'Donnell continued:
O'DONNELL: But that explains nothing. Missouri's 8th Congressional district is 91 percent white and has been represented by Jo Ann Emerson since 1997. We do not have a litany of imbecilic comments by Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson. In fact, we have none. If we’ve missed any, please submit them to our website, thelastword.msnbc.com, and we'll see if they compare to Michele Bachmann’s.
Well, if that "explains nothing," why bring it up? It's almost like O'Donnell and his staff knew they were going too far with the 92 percent white remark, and felt they needed to soften it a little by bringing up Emerson's district.
But the damage was already done. After all, imagine for a moment Bachmann was black, Emerson was black, these were black districts, and the commentator was a conservative:
What makes those voters so ignorant? Well, for starters, they are blacker than the average district. 92 percent black in fact. But that explains nothing. Missouri's 8th Congressional district is 91 percent black and has been represented by Jo Ann Emerson since 1997. We do not have a litany of imbecilic comments by Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson. In fact, we have none. If we’ve missed any, please submit them to our website, thelastword.msnbc.com, and we'll see if they compare to Michele Bachmann’s.
You think that would have gone over well in the black community, or would there be calls Tuesday for said conservative commentator's immediate termination?
I guess along with feeling comfortable attacking white women as long as they're conservative, O'Donnell now feels it's acceptable to go after all white people.
Let's continue:
O'DONNELL: The median income in Michele Bachmann’s district is $ 68,000, which is roughly the equivalent to the median income in Barney Frank's district, $ 66,000. So the money explains nothing, because Barney Frank's intelligence and expertise in public policy, not to mention his wit, is second to none in the House of Representatives. So those income levels in Michele Bachmann’s district are not the explanation for why her voters are so ignorant.
Barney Frank's intelligence and expertise in public policy is second to none in the House? Really? But isn't he white and therefore should be disqualified?
I guess O'Donnell missed the hypocrisy there:
O'DONNELL: And so tonight, I surrender, since I have no answers, I will leave you only with questions. Question one: How ignorant is Michele Bachmann and how did she get that way? And remember, this is a graduate of Winona State University and Oral Roberts University’s Coburn School of Law. Law school graduate. So do not overlook her academic achievement in trying to explain this. Doesn't make it any easier to explain. And two, where does Michele Bachmann find her shockingly ignorant staff? And three, perhaps most important of all, what explains the rank ignorance of the 52 percent of the voters in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional district? Good answers to any of those questions will be used on this show, and of course, you will get full credit.
For the record, Bachmann also has a degree in tax law from William & Mary Law School. I'm not sure why O'Donnell chose to omit that.
Regardless, as NewsBusters has been reporting the past few weeks, MSNBC is clearly in full campaign mode, and is willing to do anything to get Barack Obama re-elected.
O'Donnell on Monday demonstrated that includes attacking Americans that vote for candidates he doesn't support, and using race as a wedge issue when necessary.
The folks at NBC and Comcast must be so proud.
Lawrence O'Donnell on Monday accused people that voted for Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) last November of being "shockingly ignorant," and said one of the reasons was because her district is 92 percent white.
This happened as "The Last Word" host went on an almost seven-minute rant about Bachmann's gaffe this weekend concerning Lexington and Concord being in New Hampshire rather than Massachusetts (video follows with transcript and commentary):
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Time for tonight's "Rewrite.” Okay. This one does have the feel of shooting fish in a barrel, but so does anything involving fact checking Michele Bachmann. In fact, the phrase shooting fish in a barrel could be replaced with fact checking Michele Bachmann, or better put, mistake proving Michele Bachmann, because finding Michele Bachmann’s mistakes is as easy or perhaps easier than shooting fish in a barrel, especially for those of us that aren't exactly handy with guns. And mistakes is a kind word when it comes to Michele Bachmann. Many of the falsehoods she has spouted, such as healthcare death panels, must be lies because she must know, she must know that they are completely untrue.
But many of the things she says are truly breathtaking demonstrations of ignorance levels previously unimaginable in a member of Congress or a graduate of an American elementary school. Like when she said recently in prepared text that the Founding Fathers ended slavery, obviously having absolutely no idea that the Founding Fathers deliberately did nothing to end slavery, and that it was, in fact, the 16th President of the United States who issued the Emancipation Proclamation and fought and won a civil war to end slavery.
Actually, the ignorance on display here was O'Donnell's. Bachmann didn't say the Founding Fathers ended slavery. She said they – in particular, John Quincy Adams – worked tirelessly to end slavery. As NewsBusters reported on January 27, this is technically correct.
Also, to say "the Founding Fathers deliberately did nothing to end slavery" is 100 percent false, for as NewsBusters also reported in January, there was originally an anti-slavery clause in the Declaration of Independence that southern delegates to the First Continental Congress, led by South Carolina's Edward Rutledge, forced the removal of.
If members of the northern delegation led by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin did not accede to this demand, the Declaration of Independence never would have been signed. That O'Donnell made this mistake while chastizing Bachmann's knowledge of history was laughable:
O'DONNELL: She got off another one of those American history things this weekend. In New Hampshire, she pandered to more than one audience by saying, quote, “You're the state where the shot was heard round the world at Lexington and Concord,” end quote. The Lexington and Concord she was referring to, of course, are in Massachusetts, not New Hampshire, and unfortunately for her, there's no one in New Hampshire who doesn't know that. She said this on Friday night, and again on Saturday.
The question of how ignorant is Michele Bachmann is now unanswerable. Just when you thought you knew, she comes out with something shockingly – and I don't use the word shockingly lightly – shockingly ignorant about Lexington and Concord, two of the most famous sites in the Revolutionary War.
This was certainly quite a gaffe by Bachmann, but shockingly ignorant might be taking it a bit far. However, O'Donnell wasn't close to done pointing fingers:
O'DONNELL: Now, what fascinates me more than the question of how ignorant is Michele Bachmann are two other questions. One, how ignorant is Michele Bachmann’s staff, and two, how ignorant are her voters?
How pathetic. As a commentator, going after an elected official is one thing, but going after his or her voters is unhinged:
O'DONNELL: Remember, Michele Bachmann said this thing about Lexington and Concord twice. She said it on Friday and then her brilliant staff allowed her to say it again. And remember, it's the same brilliant staff that allowed her to say the Founding Fathers ended slavery. That means Michele Bachmann’s staff doesn't know that the Founding Fathers did not end slavery, and they don't know that Lexington and Concord are in Massachusetts. How and where did she find Congressional staffers who don't know that?
I hereby promise you based on my experience working in the Senate, there is no other staff in the history of the Congress that does not know that Lexington and Concord are in Massachusetts. Who are these people who work for Michele Bachmann? Who wrote that speech for her? Where does she find these people? There are many, many ignorant members of Congress, and many ignorant senators, but they are protected all day long from revealing most of their ignorance by staffs who are hundreds of times smarter than they are.
Perhaps all of Michele Bachmann’s staff come from her district, which may be the most ignorant Congressional district in America. In 2010, 52 percent of that district voted for Michele Bachmann to represent them in Congress. Now, she had already proven time and time again to her district and to America that she is unworthy of representing any Congressional district in America. But 52 percent, the same percentage in that district who voted for John McCain for president, voted for Michele Bachmann in 2010.
So, people in this district are ignorant because they voted for McCain in 2008 and Bachmann in 2010? Is this what the folks at MSNBC consider acceptable commentary now – attacking Americans that vote for candidates the commentators don't support?
Taking this further, does that mean the 46 percent of Americans throughout the nation that voted for McCain in 2008 – including yours truly! – are ignorant? Is this what MSNBC has devolved to?
Regardless of the answer, readers are advised to fasten their seatbelts, because things were about to get really ugly:
O'DONNELL: What makes those voters so ignorant? Well, for starters, they are whiter than the average district. 92 percent white in fact.
What? They're ignorant because they're white? Are you kidding? O'Donnell continued:
O'DONNELL: But that explains nothing. Missouri's 8th Congressional district is 91 percent white and has been represented by Jo Ann Emerson since 1997. We do not have a litany of imbecilic comments by Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson. In fact, we have none. If we’ve missed any, please submit them to our website, thelastword.msnbc.com, and we'll see if they compare to Michele Bachmann’s.
Well, if that "explains nothing," why bring it up? It's almost like O'Donnell and his staff knew they were going too far with the 92 percent white remark, and felt they needed to soften it a little by bringing up Emerson's district.
But the damage was already done. After all, imagine for a moment these were black districts, and that section read:
What makes those voters so ignorant? Well, for starters, they are blacker than the average district. 92 percent black in fact. But that explains nothing. Missouri's 8th Congressional district is 91 percent black and has been represented by Jo Ann Emerson since 1997. We do not have a litany of imbecilic comments by Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson. In fact, we have none. If we’ve missed any, please submit them to our website, thelastword.msnbc.com, and we'll see if they compare to Michele Bachmann’s.
You think that would have gone over well in the black community, or would there be calls Tuesday for O'Donnell's immediate termination despite his comment about Emerson?
I guess along with feeling comfortable attacking white women as long as they're conservative, O'Donnell now feels it's acceptable to go after all white people.
Let's continue:
O'DONNELL: The median income in Michele Bachmann’s district is $ 68,000, which is roughly the equivalent to the median income in Barney Frank's district, $ 66,000. So the money explains nothing, because Barney Frank's intelligence and expertise in public policy, not to mention his wit, is second to none in the House of Representatives. So those income levels in Michele Bachmann’s district are not the explanation for why her voters are so ignorant.
Barney Frank's intelligence and expertise in public policy is second to none in the House? Really? But isn't he white?
I guess O'Donnell missed the hypocrisy there:
O'DONNELL: And so tonight, I surrender, since I have no answers, I will leave you only with questions. Question one: How ignorant is Michele Bachmann and how did she get that way? And remember, this is a graduate of Winona State University and Oral Roberts University’s Coburn School of Law. Law school graduate. So do not overlook her academic achievement in trying to explain this. Doesn't make it any easier to explain. And two, where does Michele Bachmann find her shockingly ignorant staff? And three, perhaps most important of all, what explains the rank ignorance of the 52 percent of the voters in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional district? Good answers to any of those questions will be used on this show, and of course, you will get full credit.
For the record, Bachmann also has a degree in tax law from William & Mary Law School. I'm not sure why O'Donnell chose to omit that.
Regardless, as NewsBusters has been reporting the past few weeks, MSNBC is clearly in full campaign mode, and is willing to do anything to get Barack Obama re-elected. O'Donnell on Monday demonstrated that includes attacking Americans that vote for candidates he doesn't support, and using race as a wedge issue when necessary.
The folks at NBC and Comcast must be so proud.
Well, this has got to be at least slightly embarrassing:
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s visit to the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire got off to a rocky start on Saturday morning when she misstated a key fact about the American Revolution in a speech to a group of local conservative activists and students.
“What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty,” the potential GOP presidential candidate said. “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord. 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.”
The Battle Of Lexington and Concord occurred, of course, in Massachusetts.
As she continues to explore a presidential run, Bachmann said that the Republican Party needed to nominate someone who would usher the country back to its founding principles.
“What we need in our nominee is this,” Bachmann said. “We need someone who understands and comprehends the seriousness of the times we live in, and second, we need someone who knows what to do. They know what the proper solution would be to get us back to liberty.”
It strikes me that if you’re going to base your campaign on the American Revolution, you at least ought to be able to get the basic facts right.
Perhaps Congresswoman Bachmann didn’t watch Schoolhouse Rock as a child:
“There is a void out there that needs to be filled.”
I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of Palinista voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Bachmann has already met with prominent interest groups and well-placed officials in early caucus and primary states of Iowa and South Carolina, where both Tea Partiers and Republican regulars have been impressed […]
At the same time that polls continue to show Sarah Palin would be electoral poison for the GOP, another firebrand, Tea Party, female conservative is thinking about running for President:
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is increasingly serious about joining the wide-open race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
And a growing number of conservative activists, legislators and political operatives in key states stand ready to help her if she does.
Bachmann, the chairwoman of the House Tea Party Caucus, arrives in New Hampshire on Friday for a two-day barnstorm of the first-in-the-nation primary state, her first foray there since floating her potential White House candidacy back in January.
News of the trip immediately stirred up grassroots excitement: A Bachmann-headlined fundraiser Saturday for the New Hampshire GOP was re-located to a larger venue because of “a very strong initial interest in this event,” according to a state party official.
Bachmann has already met with prominent interest groups and well-placed officials in early caucus and primary states of Iowa and South Carolina, where both Tea Partiers and Republican regulars have been impressed by her easy rapport with conservative crowds.
The trips are having an acute impact on Bachmann’s thinking about the presidential race, those around her say.
“She is leaning more toward doing it,” one Republican close to Bachmann told CNN. “The people she’s meeting on the ground, they love her. She is definitely more encouraged when she makes these trips.”
Bachmann’s political advisers are quietly laying the groundwork for a dark horse campaign should she choose to join the Republican fray at some point in the spring or early summer, when she has said she will make a final decision about the race. She is returning to Iowa later this month, and has scheduled a swing through the South Carolina low country in April.
“She is seriously considering running and getting a full team lined up and making sure it’s the right one,” said Ryan Rhodes, the chairman of the Iowa Tea Party. “It will be different than everyone else. She will have a very good team behind her if she does decide to run.”
Of course Iowa is a state where a grassroots campaign often has the potential of taking off. Just ask Jimmy Carter in 1976, Pat Robertson in 1988, John Edwards in 2004, or Mike Huckabee in 2008. In each of these cases a non-traditional candidate was able to make use of Iowa’s peculiar procedures to stage a showing that was better than expected, thus thrusting them into the limelight for at least a brief period of time. Of course none of them other than Carter ended up winning their parties’ nomination. Bachmann has the potential to pull of a surprise “better than expected” finish in Iowa, especially if Palin doesn’t run, but she has nowhere to go after that.
In Bachmann’s case, there’s also the added liability of her own rather odd statements in the past.During her time in Congress, she has demonstrated her own unique brand of nuttiness:
– She introduced a “Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act” in response to laws banning the use of traditional incandescent bulbs in favor of compact fluorescent bulbs
– She has called global warming a “hoax.”
– She warned that an expansion of AmeriCorps would lead to “mandatory service” for the government and placed in “re-education camps.”
– She told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that “I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out are they pro-America, or anti-America. I think people would love to see an expose like that.”
– On Wednesday she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that President Obama’s trip to Asia was “expected to cost the taxpayers $ 200 million a day,” a claim that’s been widely debunked.
Bachmann has also blamed Democrats for the 1976 Swine Flu epidemic, which occurred while Gerald Ford was President; blamed the Great Depression on FDR’s decision to sign into law the “Hoot-Smalley Tariff”‘; claimed that 100% of the U.S. economy was private before the September 2008 TARP bailout; and, engaged in an insane crusade against Census. Quite honestly, the only reason that Michelle Bachmann doesn’t have Sarah Palin like disapproval numbers is because the American public doesn’t really know who she is. If she runs for President, of course, that will change.
Whatever kind of splash she makes in Iowa, Michelle Bachmann is not going to win the nomination, though, and she’s unlikely to be invited to be part of the eventual Republican ticket (John McCain demonstrated the dangers of picking a candidate like her quite well, thank you). What this run is likely to do, though, is cement her reputation in the conservative wing of the GOP and, of course increase her speaking fees, and isn’t that the real reason most of these people are running for President?
“I think this is a group of people who don’t want to see black people receive a dime” — John W. Boyd, Jr., leader of the National Black Farmers Association.
I’ve been a blogger at The Huffington Post for several years now and if you head over there sometime, you may notice that Rep. Michelle Bachman is featured quite often on the site — usually in a way that makes her appear either crazy or stupid or both. To be fair, the Bigs don’t go out of their way to make Nancy Pelosi look awesome, either. That’s the way the blogs bounce.
Still, I was somewhat surprised when I met the congresswoman at CPAC at how immediately I realized she wasn’t at all the person she’s portrayed — she’s smart, articulate, and her speech at CPAC about Pigford was pitch perfect in it’s focus on the real farmers as victims of Pigford fraud.
In this short interview, Rep. Bachmann and I discuss Pigford as well as an aspect of her life that — literally — not a single liberal friend of mine knew anything about: her commitment as a parent to her own five children plus over twenty foster kids. It seems to me that Rep. Bachmann’s opponents don’t want the image of her as that kind of person to be known because it would tend to make her seem human and likable.
As I say to the Congresswoman in the interview, she and I don’t agree on many issues, but there’s no reason for our fractured politics to mask our similarities. On the issue of the Pigford settlement, I’m proud to stand with Michele Bachmann.
