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You have to walk that line very carefully and be VERY clear about what you (Bachmann) means. Obama's personal coldness doesn't matter (except to his own popularity I hope).

But we need to keep our eye on the ball and our message clear. It is LIMITED, DECENTRALIZED republican government that allows the freedom and wealth to do what people do best - live their lives and privately help others do so as well. AND NOT because government tells you too. It doesn't matter how personally "warm" the POTUS is. That was Bush's thing - "compassionate conservatism."

Things get very confused when politicians start claiming a need for "empathy" -that's how the liberal's make headway. The candidate must communicate that his/her policies are the most compassionate/empathetic thing they could have. We don't need "personal empathy" from government.

"You have to walk that line very carefully and be VERY clear about what you (Bachmann) means."

Agreed. Given Bachmann's record of opposing big government, I have no doubt that she clearly understands the distinction. It also is important to point out that the socialist approach is more about social engineering and turning individuals into mere cogs in a socially constructed utopia than it is about personal empathy. In order to have personal empathy, one must see the other as an individual human person and not as a member of a victim group or an oppressor group. My guess is the part of the reason why Obama lacks empathy is an ideological fixation of seeing people as either members of a victim group or an oppressor group, rather than as individuals.

But we need to keep our eye on the ball and our message clear. It is LIMITED, DECENTRALIZED republican government that allows the freedom and wealth to do what people do best - live their lives and privately help others do so as well.

This is true, but it is also true that a virtuous citizenry that is able to exercise benevolence and empathy toward one another are less likely to turn to "big mama" government to play a role that it was never meant to play.

While we do not need another President who makes a show of "feeling our pain", we do need someone capable of seizing the very powerful bully pulpit that comes wit the Presidency and explaining to the American public the difference. They have to realize that real empathy cannot come for a far off bureaucrat in Washington D.C., but in face to face encounters with their family, friends and fellow citizens. Conservatives need to reclaim the meaning of these terms from the left and show the publec that the conservative agenda IS compassionate.