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.
“The media has its eye on Romney and Perry and if anyone else in the herd seems both threatening and vulnerable, the media will jump in and try to bring them down.”
Yeah. For example, they are ignoring Herman Cain.
But, on the one hand, I agree that Bachmann has done a few things in this race that can be seen as head scratching. So the media has used it to knock her down.
I figure that if she is toast, it is because she had too much against her and she fell into a trap of not knowing what to do to get support back.
It was a mistake to never attack Romney with the same gusto as Perry. She didn’t do enough in the first debates.
Yup! Perry must shape up. I just heard Bill Bennett say the same thing.
Truly, I think this is the heart of it.
Maybe. But crazy Perot never made it to the White House and Trump won’t either.
Or when the government completely takes over our entire health care system? What's one little shot compared to the death panels euthanasia agenda?
I'd rather get a shot and live rather than an Oboma pill and die!
I totally agree re the vaccine. However, I don’t think she’ll get a majority of US voters on that one, is all I am saying. Plus, she just ragged on and on about it, in a haranguing sort of way, which I found very unappealing.
I had liked her very much in print.
“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”
yup and she has to be held responsible for playing politics with health issues. great you want to take digs at Perry because he’s the frontrunner. We get it. Go after immigration if you want.
But if even ONE girl dies of cancer because she was scared out of taking the vaccine...I don’t want to say what will happen.
Probably true.
Would be nice though, if more on our side listened to what he’s saying.
He’s right. Even if orange.
MY time? i like her far better than i like Palin for the job, but as a woman myself, i am not going to excuse her from the consequences of her own foibles. I also believe the ones you list NEED winnnowed, as they cannot WIN. I am hopeful that others may still enter the field with more electability going for them.
I use my conservative non-freeper friends and twenty something children as a gauge on who is electable. If one never leaves FR and uses this forum as barometer, one gets a very unrealistic view of the voting populace, IMO. The “folks” are nowhere near as engaged or informed as freepers are, and they look at these candidates very skeptically.
I hope you’re not trying to use Obama’s incompetence as an excuse for Bachmann.
You do bring up a good point. Neither of them have a track record of either legislative or executive success.
Being well-spoken is not a qualifier for higher office.
Nor is getting oneself elected.
Good catch...I hadn’t heard about that one. Is there a link you can point me to?
They will say that they want a Margaret Thatcher but if Mrs. Thatcher was an American presidential candidate, they would be attacking her helmet hair, her handbag, her high-pitched voice (sans her cultured British accent) and her “Margaret Thatcher-Milk Snatcher” past.
What is it Rush says? I know these people like every inch of my naked, glorious body. I won’t go that far but you get the message, lol!
I want consistency in the outrage. Either it's OK to mandate all vaccines, or it's not. One should not be singled out.
Its the principles, folks. Not the candidate.
Very good points re: not using FR as a barometer of the electorate.
Same with those who watch only Fox News and take pride in being ideologically pure and unmolested by contrarian views.
We must toughen up, educate and expose ourselves to the mood of the country, arguing points against us, and what’s at stake.
Frankly, Newt is the consistent winner of these debates.
All true.
However we’ve come long enough down the road of ever more laws, frankly we do not need any more.
Seriously. Why have a full-time congress, and 50 full time governments, collecting tax money to MEDDLE IN OUR LIVES.
We have enough laws. About everything. We do not need any more.
None.
This is important for people to realize. Gardasil only protects against a small number of the numerous strains of the STD that cause cervical cancer. The vaccine gives a false sense of security to girls and encourages the hook-up culture. There is nothing worthwhile about this vaccine. Yes, there is unfounded paranoia about some vaccines. But in the case of Gardisil, the paranoia is warranted.
I was open to anyone but Oboma. As a woman, it was great to see her doing so well, but she blew it. When she did that "innocent little girls" skit over and over and over with a shrill voice and a rabid look on her face, she lost me. It literally turned my stomach.
It was like sitting on a bus for hours with someone who wouldn't shut up about their rectal surgery.
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