Posted on 09/15/2011 6:50:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
On Wednesday night, Anderson Cooper took some time to address how Michele Bachmann‘s recent comment about the danger of the HPV vaccine — relaying a story about a Tampa woman who supposedly shared that her daughter had developed mental retardation following the vaccination — fits in with other misleading and incorrect comments she had made in the recent past.
Said Cooper:
Now it’s certainly not a new phenomenon for politicians to stretch the truth and manipulate facts. But Bachmann is spreading an all-out falsehood here — a dangerous falsehood at that. It’s not the first time she’s done this by any stretch of the imagination.
He then played various clips of Bachmann making inaccurate statements — such as that President Barack Obama had traveled on a taxpayer-funded, $200 million-a-day trip India with 2,000 people and that he’d released all the oil from strategic reserves — and misleading statements, like the “observation” that swine flu broke out in the 1970s under a Democratic president as well.
So. Do voters care about the truth? Does the fact that Bachmann has slipped in the polls recently have anything to do with these type of statements? To answer these questions, Cooper brought on Bachmann’s former Chief of Staff, Ron Carey, who offered a fairly fascinating theory for why Bachmann has a tendency to share and perpetuate erroneous statements:
Well, Michele is very impulsive from a personality standpoint and, to her credit, she reads an awful lot of information, but sometimes I’m afraid that she reads maybe 80 or 90 percent and leaves out or forgets the ten or 20 percent that can change the outcome, so her impulsive nature coupled with the fact that she sometimes doesn’t digest information as carefully as she should leads to these kinds of impulsive statements that sometimes are just off the mark enough that it makes her into more of a provocative, controversial figure.
He continued:
One of the challenges I’ve found with working with Michele, and it’s consistent with other people who have worked with her, is the fact that she doesn’t use her staff well. She’s pretty much independent and does her own research. She’ll be out there on the stump, preparing her remarks and speaking off the cuff with no staff intervention or involvement whatsoever, so it’s really difficult to prep her and help her kind of back-check before she goes out speaking because she will be out there speaking and you’ll say, “Where did this come from?” and it’s something that she maybe heard on TV.
CNN political analyst David Gergen then shared his theory on what her statements have to do with her views on science.
Take a look, via CNN:
oxymoron: impulsive conservative
So, someone says something to her, she repeats it, it’s incorrect, so she’s a liar?
Anderson Cooper is not who I’d consider a reliable source for anything outside the Obama agenda.
Considering our current situation, I would take even ronpaul or jon-boy over nobama. That is not the point, we are not faced with ONLY that option.
I would not take an impulsive conservative over a non-implusive conservative, that IS the point.
The only way Bachmann is going to get the nomination, is if she impulsively snuffs the candidates who keep pulling further in the lead, as she continues slipping further downward.
Impulsiveness could be a factor in her rapid staff turnover. IIRC Carey lasted a couple of months as her chief of staff, and I recently heard that if you count acting COSs, she’s on her eighth in five years.
We need a president who can retain staff better. But I would like her to stay in Congress, she has a good voting record.
Amazing how willing many here are to lap up leftist agitprop when it suits their own political tastes.
One thing is certain. We can cross off the list hitting Obama on his abuse of Executive Orders.
This is not about whether the drug is good or bad, but it is about bypassing the representives of the people in order to impose your will.
It would also be a great idea for any future politicians to make all out efforts to never take a nickel, or have people on staff, that lobby for an interest that produces a product you want to mandate.
It has the appearance of impropriety, and many people are left doubting the sincerety of your professed good intentions.
Romney - advocated mandated state run health insurance.
Perry - came out strongly against SB 1030.
Bachmann - impulsive.
For me the choice isn't hard.
I like her views. A lot.
Should would; however, NOT make a good presidential candidate. That doesn’t mean she would not be a good president, but her political campaign on the big national presidential stage, with the left wing media waiting to pounce on any slight verbal misstep, would be a train wreck.
For me the choice isn't hard.
(Liberal response) So, you want somene with poor impulse control with a finger on the nuclear button?
The last time I disregarded that particular advise things worked out pretty well.
What does Bachmann's conduct in this matter have to do with "depending on handlers"?
If I were a handler, it would never occur to me to say to my client, "You know, if, in the future, a total stranger comes up to you and makes a wild-sounding claim, do not repeat that wild-sounding claim on prime-time TV on the national stage unless you have confirmed the truth of that claim."
For a handler to say that is an insult to the intelligence of the average candidate and, if my client were dumb enough to require that advice, I should not be trying to get them elected to anything.
Any average person on the street with the common sense of a box of rocks knows that you should not do that. A "handler" would not have to tell them.
Michele Bachmann turned herself into the Joe McGinniss of the debate by pushing unproven gossip on the national stage. Actually, it is worse. At least, Joe McGinniss takes the time learn the gossiper's name and a little bit about them before passing on the gossip.
Now, Bachmann is the subject of well deserved ridicule. If you can find that woman so that her claim can be evaluated by medical professionals, there is a $10,000 reward.
Bioethicist Offers $10,000 Reward For Proof of Bachmann Vaccine Claims
I’ve never soured on a politician so quickly, in such a short amount of time. I can barely stand to watch and listen to her now.
I did not know that the choices were limited to:
A.) Liberal
B.) Impulsive conservative
When you impusively make decisions without any study of the matter whatsoever, you do not have a "conservative". You simply have a quarter being flipped while "heads or tails" is randomly called.
For those of us who have lived with an impulsive female....well I’m not sure that I am comfortable with one in the White House.
No, she is not a "liar".
At best, she is just functioning at the level of an irresponsible, immature child who is old enough to know better.
At worst, she is functioning as Joe McGinniss.
In a prime-time Presidential debate, on the national stage, you need to prove yourself responsible and trustworthy. What kind of a person repeats a wild accusation, with significant health care implications, told to them by a perfect stranger, without any fact checking, at such an occasion?
Only an extremely irresponsible or immature person or a scumbag in the mold of Joe McGinniss.
Think about it.
"Hello, I am Polybius. Your children's immunizations against whooping cough, measles, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis can cause mental retardation. A total stranger that I never met before and never saw again told me so in a crowd. Vote for me for President of the United States."
Michelle did not make the claim herself but was repeating what a woman told her after The Tea Party debate. But let's not let the facts get in the way of a good lynching.
If a woman had told Bachmann that Gardisil caused her daughter to spontaneously explode, would you have excused her for repeating the claim?
Repeating lies and misinformation does not absolve you of responsibility simply because you're repeating something you heard.
“Amazing how willing many here are to lap up leftist agitprop when it suits their own political tastes.”
It’s easy to dismiss the message if you attack the messenger. The problem for Bachmann is that Anderson Cooper didn’t create this issue, Bachmann did, and everyone saw it themselves. So, saying that Bachmann impulsively says things that are not accurate isn’t propaganda, it’s a statement of fact that rings true with what many have already observed.
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