Posted on 09/14/2011 6:05:05 AM PDT by freespirited
Up to now I’ve thought Michele Bachman was the most impressive performer in the GOP field, going toe-to-toe with the “big boys” in the field, out-arguing them on several occasions, and introducing serious constitutional arguments that the rest of the field (even Perry) are too timid to attempt. She’s right to go after Rick Perry on the issue of mandating the use of the Gardisil vaccine, along with the issue of “crony capitalism,” both of which get at the issue of a potential president’s sense of the reach and limits of state power. Perry is a mixed bag on this (as is Romney obviously) and he should be pressed hard to explain himself and refine his views.
But her embrace of the wacko idea that the vaccine is dangerous or causes autism, mental retardation, or other risks is simply irresponsible. Is Bachman, Glenn Reynolds quipped, trying to go after the Jenny McCarthy vote? (Glenn also links to Jonathan Adler’s quick take on this, which is the same as mine.)
Bachman passed along with complete credulity the claim of someone who she says came up to her after the debate attributing her child’s mental issues to the vaccine. I’ve heard a few people speculate darkly about whether such a person actually exists, or whether Bachman made it up or is trimming a bit from something she was told another time. You’d think our inquisitive news media would find this person and investigate, or that the person would now step forward (or that other people with similar claims would now step forward). Above all, this is a political mistake as well as a scientific one, as it has shifted the focus from Perry’s use of power to Bachmann’s scientific credibility—a lose-lose for everyone.
Which raises the last point. NBC Nightly News last night went to some trouble to attack Bachman’s views on the Gardisil vaccine. Fine; but why doesn’t NBC or the other major media perform the same service when anti-vaccine quackery comes from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or Jenny McCarthy? No mystery here.
I agree with you: good voting record, believes the rights things, but not ready for the big time. She was obviously emotional and petty in her hammering of the vaccine issue. Legit issue? Yep, but coming from an ethanol supporter, crony capitalism is a rock and she lives in a glass house. Ethanol is a far more damaging scam than gardicil, and she still supports it from what I can tell (if not true, let me know).
And the heart string tug by continuing to use “innocent 11 and 12 year old girls” and by trying to make it sound Nazi-esque was simply over the top. She hurt Perry, but she did not help herself.
Obama wasn’t ready for prime time but that didn’t prevent him from being elected.
Sorry, I am not ready to buy into the Rino, party big-wig, and anti tea party narrative that says “Bachmann is finished”, “Giving up on Bachmann”....sorry if a repub can win in NYC then Bachman can landslide the kenyan!
Watch for this rino narrative to really take off this week.
So true. But Obama had the lamestream media pulling out the stops for him. Not something Michele would ever see.
Bachmann doesn’t have thugs to clear the field either.
I was not enthused with Bachmann.
Thanks for posting.
She also alarmed many girls that were given the vaccine with her mental retardation remark....this did it for me....she was in my top 3 choices
C. Edmund, my exact same feeling re Bachman, whom I had liked until I heard clips of her from the debate. I thought she was over the top on the vaccine issue, and she did go on and on, WAY too much, covering her points.
I agree with your conclusions regarding the viability of Michele Bachmann as a Republican presidential contender. Monday night was a Pyrrhic victory for her and she will probably slip into second-tier status very soon. If Sarah Palin runs for the nomination, Bachmann will fold her tent. I’m good with that scenario.
Give Sarah a chance !
I like her voting record and she has a nice smooth professional delivery (when she’s not going over the top), but I wouldn’t choose her as a president in this field except for over Paul, Huntsman, Perry, Mitt and, of course, Obama.
She won't let go of the executive order thing. Perry admitted a mistake and wishes he had done it the right way. There was an Opt-out path, but Michelle will not let go and keeps reminding us that she is a Mother and how badly she feels for those poor innocent 12-year old girls.
Enough already, Ma! You are supposed to be "Presidential".
Her character is the biggest question! Hiring Ed Rollins, then defending his comments at first as “no big deal” only to feign outrage once the story snowballed.
Many things she has said and done....I this and I that has come across as very unattractive, she implies that she has perhaps even started the Tea Party almost.
The patting of herself on the back about her 23 adoptive children...our charity is supposed to be in secret, would have been better if others had spoke of it.
I would not be surprised to learn that she has stretched this past the truth anyway, it was all in a six year period I read, and it has been quite some time now.
Her run from the getgo was ill fated and simply self serving
The same must be said for any of the Pauls. Ron Paul is just as loony. It seems these candidates either set DU as their homepage, or www.vigilantcitizen.com
A bit odd how some people “thought Michele Bachman was the most impressive performer in the GOP field” but she can’t seem to pass Mitt Romney or Rick Perry. Obviously those in the “conservative” media who are “giving up on her” weren’t actively supporting her and it wasn’t enough anyways. She kept coming in so-called “polling” nationwide in third or fourth. But where it counted, Iowa straw poll, she won. I guess my point is all that matters is who a few states vote for.
But my second point, the media is all over the place with Bachmann. Some, like this author, say she was all that, but they never were promoting her. Some people in the “conservative” media are promoting Rick Perry.
Look, they are doing to her similar stuff they do to Palin. Either Buttering her up then attacking her or riding her off. Or making her as a scapegoat for their upsetness that the “front-runners” are being questioned.
I predict once she gets out that she will not endorse Sarah, I hope to be proven wrong!!!!!
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