Posted on 06/08/2011 7:00:37 AM PDT by perfect_rovian_storm
This is a follow-up to my post yesterday, Michele Bachmann's First Big Mistake - Hiring Ed Rollins, regarding Rollins out-of-the-gate attacks on Sarah Palin:
Hiring Rollins is an enormous mistake for Bachmann. It could be campaign killing. The people who hate Palin are the same people who hate Bachmann, and no amount of trashing of Palin by Rollins will change that. Bachmann needs to focus on building, not tearing down.The profound mistake Bachmann made by bringing Ed Rollins on board cannot be overstated.. (Several commentators to my prior post think Bachmann is a stalking horse, but I'll prefer to call the Rollins hire a simple mistake.)
Salon.com gets it right, Rollins is instigating a fight which is damaging to each candidate and the Republican Party:
For weeks commentators have tried to set up Tea Party darlings Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, both of whom may end up launching presidential bids, in opposition. Both women have, however, fought the catfight narrative. Bachmann, for example, told "Good Morning America" last week, "I like Sarah Palin a lot, we're friends."Bachmann and her supporters are kidding themselves if they think bashing Palin will immunize Bachman from the treatment. The mocking of Bachmann started long ago, but now will kick into full gear. They will portray every slip of the tongue or error by Bachmann as reflective of a lack of intelligence and wingnuttia.
But that was before Ed Rollins, Bachmann's new campaign manager with a checkered path of dirty and aggressive tactics, entered the scene.
Witness TPM's article about Bachman's hire of Rollins:
Of course, this has often lead to some amusing off-the-cuff fumbles. She once told a conservative rally at the Capitol: "It's the charge of the light brigade!" (The Light Brigade lost) She also misplaced the historic Revolutionary War towns of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, into New Hampshire. And in an infamous House speech, she blamed Franklin Roosevelt for something call the "Hoot-Smalley" tariffs.
But at the end of the day, the same qualities that often lead Bachmann to the edge of rhetorical cliffs, are the same that ignite fervor among her base in the far right wing of the GOP.A successful career and lifetime of achievement is turned into a caricature based on a handful of misstatements or mistakes. That's what Rollins is doing to Palin, and it's what will be done by others to Bachmann.
Update: Nice job Ed (h/t commenter Viator), is this how you wanted to launch your campaign, Michele?
And I say this as a Bachmann supporter.
Of course I'm also a Palin supporter which makes this whole episode even more disconcerting.
I dropped Michelle Bachman a comment on her website re bashing Sarah Palin. Her campaign will be dead in the water within a week unless she cans that guy and publicly apologizes. Nobody disses Sarah Palin and gets my vote.
I dropped Michelle Bachman a comment on her website re bashing Sarah Palin. Her campaign will be dead in the water within a week unless she cans that guy and publicly apologizes. Nobody disses Sarah Palin and gets my vote.
MB does need to dump Rollins immediately, I agree. If she does, there will still be the issue of what it was inside of Bachmann that allowed her to make this huge mistake in the first place.
Putting aside the stalking horse theory, which I find interesting - but do not buy into just yet - one has to wonder how she could hire someone who has been so openly disdainful of her core constituency. What was she thinking? And will that kind of thinking be gone by reversing this mistake?
Rollins is a poor manager, he’s past his prime
I bet Rove or Romney are paying for him.
Rollins’ first move out of the gate- attack Sarah Palin?
Go negative on other republicans and conservatives?
This is an example of Bachmann’s judgement in selecting associates?
Why not just hook up with Nicole Wallace and the McPain loooser team?
Being inside the beltway brings on a debilitating ego disorder, doesn’t it :-(
I dump Ed Rollins every morning.
I’ve already said this a number of times...
Ed Rollins is an idiot!
Comparing Palin to Bachmann is like comparing a WW-II Normandy vet to a state-side Fort Dix recruit! Period!
I Read Ed Rollins’ book. Very funny. The funniest part had to do with Frank Sinatra.
That's the entire problem here - you have a near-complete overlap of Palin and Bachmann support. What on earth is Bachmann thinking by allowing an attack dog to get after Palin? She is dissing her own base in the process. You don't enlarge a coalition by knifing your base to get more supporters from elsewhere.
(backstabber poser RINO-Bachmann):
"Oh, how I love you, Mitt.
Mission accomplished.
Now treat me like Kerry Healy. Or Seamus. Or the Maucks."
No, let him stay for another month or so. When she finally fires him, Sarah will be in the lead and it will boil down to a Palin-Romney primary fight.
If brother killing brother is “fratricide”, is this “Sororicide”?
Michele Bachman was always my second choice in online GOP presidential polls until she fires Ed Rollins my second choice will now become Herman Cain.
If she doesn’t fire him TODAY she’s toast in my opinion.
The first mistake Michele made was running for president. The second was pitching herself as a constituionalist/originalist and then putting Lexington and Concord in the wrong state. The Ed Rollins disaster merely clinched what should already be clear:
The next “smart” thing she will do is drop out of the race for a nomination she has no shot of winning.
and wipe my Obama.
Bachmann needs to drop out now. She has NO chance.
What did Rollins say about Frank?
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