Posted on 07/05/2011 2:18:53 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
There's no question that Michele Bachmann has captured the imagination of the tea party, but is that a good thing for Republicans? Judging by the nervousness among them, they're worried she could turn out to be another Sharron Angle or Christine O'Donnell. Remember them? They were tea party favorites in the 2010 election, who lost Senate seats in Nevada and Delaware that the GOP could have won with less extreme candidates.
Bachmann performed well in a debate in New Hampshire earlier this month, but she has a history of making off-the-wall comments that in ordinary times would disqualify her from being seen as a serious contender for the presidency. But these are not ordinary times, and Bachmann's spirited style and often willful disregard for facts plays well with tea party Republicans even as more traditional Republicans fret that her candidacy could be a train wreck for the party.
The tipoff came when Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked Bachmann point blank, "Are you a flake?" Wallace later apologized for his less-than-artful phrasing, but the voting public deserves an answer to the question, if not from the candidate herself, then from the other contenders on the campaign trail, and from the journalists tracking her candidacy.
So far, Bachmann's competitors are treating her with kid gloves. They don't want to alienate her tea party fans, and they don't want to be seen as picking on a woman. As the only female on the stage, Bachmann has the advantage of standing out and benefiting from what appears to be a vestigial chivalry among the male candidates. They don't want to mess with a mother of five and foster mother of 23.
Bachmann is enjoying the same kind of meteoric rise that marked the entry of Sarah Palin onto the political scene, and with it comes increased scrutiny. Palin wilted under the attacks, retreating to Alaska and nursing grudges before emerging as a personality-based, anti-media candidate. Whether Palin intends to run remains a guessing game, though it appears she is more interested in cashing in on the political circus than actually throwing her hat into the ring. In the meantime, Bachmann is filling the void with a campaign that is highly professional, winning over voters who otherwise would have gravitated to Palin.
It's worth recapping some of the Bachmann-isms that have made her famous. She prides herself on being a Constitutional literalist, yet her knowledge of American history is so faulty that she credited the Founding Fathers with ending slavery and complimented residents of Concord, N.H., with sounding the first shots in the Revolutionary War.
More recently she has compared today's budget deficit with past deficits without taking into account inflation. In her indictment of the Obama economy, she claims gas prices have risen tenfold, when if today's dollars are measured against what yesterday's dollars were worth, it would be more like an increase from $2.60 a gallon to $3.90. But Bachmann doesn't let facts get in the way of a good rousing stump speech, and she's very good at rallying Republican primary voters who want to believe the worst about Obama and his policies.
She's running into some headwinds though as the facts catch up with her. She loves to rail against big government programs, but has benefited from agricultural subsidies paid to a farm owned by her late father-in-law. She insists she and her husband have never received a dime from the government, but financial disclosure forms she has filed as a member of Congress report receiving between $32,000 and $105,000 income from the Bachmann Farm Family LP between 2006 and 2009.
There have also been questions raised about her husband's counseling business which receives substantial payments from Medicaid, another big-government program Bachmann loves to lambast. Hypocrisy is not new in politics, but Bachmann is taking it to new heights, and if her rise to prominence continues unimpeded, the tea party may be following her over a cliff.
Make that ¨The GOP could have won with slow road to communism and slavery candidates¨.
Listen to your leftist masters in the media....
Vote secret democrat / communist RINOś.
This message has been paid for by marxists for Romney.
or she could turn out to be someone who talks a good game and votes with the establishment 99% of the time
Dole, McCain are moderates and we see how well they did
Written by Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift. Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.
Those 2 should not be paid to write, they should be paid to shut up
/bingo
McCain´s a moderate?
Is moderate leftspeak for marxist traitor?
Funny, I can´t tell him from Bernie Sanders or the rest of the
Democratic socialists. ;<)
Liberals....please spare us from trying to select the Republican candidate. We allowed you to do it to us in ‘08 and guess what, IT AIN’T GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN!
Except that Hitler was possibly Jewish, yet no one has ever accused Miss Clift of being a conservative!!
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-08-24/news/27073535_1_dna-test-relatives-samples
She’s wrong about O’Donnell.
But Bachmann won’t be there at the end so she’s right about that.
Does Eleanor still wear her Clinton Knee Pads?
This article is such a mishmash, who knows where to start.
Claims she has “railed against Medicaid” but her husband’s counseling service received Medicaid payments.
What, did she say Medicaid is bankrupting the states and should be changed? If so, that is true. You don’t have to be “extreme right” to know and say that. That’s “railing against”?
If her husband counselled someone whose sessions were covered under Medicaid, what was he supposed to do...counsel them for free because they couldn’t afford to pay, when all he had to do was file their insurance, which was Medicaid? I have seen this criticism referenced before, and thought then it was asinine and stupid.
I don’t get the part about the “family farm” subsidy thing. Article claims to know what her congressional financial disclosure papers say. I don’t know what they say. Appears to be a conflict in what Michele says and what this hit piece claims her financial papers say. Who knows...I don’t, but let her clarify that.
She got her Concords temporarily switched, but that’s nothing compared to saying there are 57 states. I also liked her comeback when that was told to her...she said Concord Mass was the place, ok, but it was in Concord NH that people still care about it. Touche.
She did not say the Founding Fathers ended slavery. So that part of the article is a distortion at best, a lie at worst. She said they worked to end slavery. She was right...several of them did. Stephanopoulus arguing with her that John Q Adams was not a Founding Father was simply absurd. She schooled him by pointing out that although a teenager at the time, he helped his father with the Founding. (In addition, Madison and others worked toward it.)
Won’t address each point, but this is clearly a hit piece. Question: Why are they worried enough about Michele Bachmann to do a hit piece on her? I thought she was nothing, and was going nowhere?
Why bother?
.
LLS
Christine O’Donnell was savaged by Team Romney
consisting of Krauthammer and Rove who called her a
witch.
Shame on them.
GOP-backstabbers upon which
the DNC KNOWS they can rely.
This article conveys one message more strongly than any other: that Clift and the rest of the Marxists have no fear of Michele Bachmann.
The left’s plan for normal American Palin supporters is to get them to switch to Bachmann, and then when Palin is out of the way, they proceed to take Bachmann out.
But one thing ruins their plan: at this point I like Bachmann about one tenth as much as I like Palin.
Hate to burst your bubble, but this is a hit piece trying to drive Michele Bachmann supporters away from her.
One of these two people is extreme left - Eleanor Clift. The other claims to be a moderate Dem but is showing himself to simply be a dupe of others by co-writing the hit piece on Bachmann.
Whereas you say the left is trying to manipulate people into supporting Bachmann in order to stop Palin.
Again, this is the Democrats writing a hit piece on Michele Bachmann. Its purpose would clearly not be to manipulate people into supporting her. Its purpose clearly is to hurt Michele Bachmann.
who lost Senate seats in Nevada and Delaware that the GOP could have won with less extreme candidates.
Read a RINO. I do not speak for the Tea Party but I think their goal is to elect conservative Americans not wishy washy
Rino’s. The goal is not only to win elections but to win with people that will return America to its rightful path..
Eleanor Clift is so concerned with Republicans. She really hopes we don’t screw up and lose to Obama. Uh huh.
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