She said a woman told her that their daughter suffered mental retardation as a result. Are saying there was no woman who told her that?
That is essentially the same thing as Bush saying the British told him Saddam was seeking yellow cake from Niger and then everyone calling Bush a liar... Never mind that they did tell him that and said as much...
I'm saying any candidate who quotes some unnamed person, making unverifiable claims, isn't showing a whole lot of good judgement. I'm sure nutjobs say all kinds of things to her on the campaign trail.
She said a woman told her that their daughter suffered mental retardation as a result. Are you saying there was no woman who told her that?"I read to that point. As far as I know that was an outright lie."It isn't a lie:5 posted on 09/17/2011 3:50:19 AM PDT by Flag_This"Appearing on Fox News after the debate, Bachmann recounted a conversation with a woman in the audience. 'There’s a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine,' Bachmann said. 'She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result . . .' "
That is essentially the same thing as Bush saying the British told him Saddam was seeking yellow cake from Niger and then everyone calling Bush a liar... Never mind that they did tell him that and said as much . . .
Up to that point, you are absolutely correct. But then she went further,"There are very dangerous consequences.'”
At that point, Bachmann crossed a line from strict reporting of a statement she had heard, and went into her own editorializing.When she concludes from the anecdote that the vaccine in fact is dangerous, she is going into the realm of scientific probabilities, and she is responsible for her statement. Anyone who thinks that the belief in a causal relation between the vaccine and those "serious consequences" is a typical bunch of pseudoscientific twaddle (of the sort which journalism would love in any other context) will draw unfavorable conclusions about Ms Bachmann's judgement.