Posted on 07/11/2011 1:42:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
As a conservative activist in an area of the country largely believed to be a remote suburb of the Twin Cities, I am increasingly encountering a general assumption — at family gatherings, on the air, and in casual conversation — that I am a big supporter of Michelle Bachmann. I fully realize, of course, that I am supposed to be. I'm just not.
The problem with Tea Party-type Bachmann supporters is that they haven't been paying attention. You'll hear it said that, "At least, she's better than Barack Obama." So was John McCain. You'll hear it said that, "At least, she doesn't have all the negatives of a Palin candidacy." That's because she doesn't have Sarah's record, or her guts, either. If she did, Bachmann would never have been proffered an apology for merely being called a "flake." The former governor of Alaska is a conservative. Her would-be political clone only plays one on TV.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying that Bachmann is insincere. Her voting history and her life story all indicate that she is. What I am saying is that, if you listen to her words and not the hype, you will easily perceive that Michelle's stock in trade is playing both sides of the Republican divide. Allow me to explain.
In scams, you have the role called, "cooling out the mark." It's kind of like the "good cop — bad cop" thing, where one person's job is to make sure that the person being scammed doesn't realize it, or at least doesn't try to do anything about it. This, by default or on purpose, has become the Bachmann role on the national Republican scene.
Whenever the GOP leadership decides to stab its base in the back, to let us down, to put political expediency above principle — and one could set one's clock by this phenomenon — it is Bachman who goes all over the airwaves making excuses for them. Listen for it. It will always be Michelle who is there to "cool out the" — well, "remark." I remember Bachmann being at the forefront, for example, of the "Repeal and Replace" groundswell that helped drive the huge Republican victories of last November. Now that that uproar has died down, her silence is as deafening as anybody else's.
On Hannity a while ago, Bachmann was touting herself as a "unifying" figure. There are Democrats and independents who approach her to express their support, she contended. The obvious question arises: Why? Why, at this extremely early stage in the game, would that be the case? Are they schizophrenic, or do they also perceive that she is not who she claims to be?
The only unity it is possible to achieve is the unity of a return to our national identity, based as it is on the Declaration and the Constitution, with their ineluctable recognition of the sovereignty of our Creator, God. The quixotic attempt to bridge the gap of the American political divide in any other way has already been attempted. Just ask Newt. The famous definition of stupidity as doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result, applies to conservatives as well as liberals.
As the primary season unfolds, I have diligently been trying to give Bachmann the benefit of the doubt, but in order to do that, there has to be some doubt there to work with. And as I say, I understand why people tend to assume that I back the bright, family-friendly, Palinesque-but-not-actually-Sarah-herself conservative activist from my own geographical region, who is ever ready to carry the Tea Party banner as far forward as serves her own political purposes.
I know I am supposed to like Michelle Bachmann.
I just don't.
Check post #46, where I wrote it all down.
Here is another bit, that really upsets me, and no one seems willing to acknowlege here on FR...
As mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin increased the town budget from 4 million to 6 million. This is a town of 5,000. We need government to cost us less, not more.
She also pushed for an increase in the sales tax. (there are local taxes but no state taxes) She charged ahead with the Menard sports arena, without doing any research, which cost the town millions to fight for clear title to the land. Here is the disturbing thing: the town, under Sarah’s leadership, and after she left, of course; fought a private landowner, Gary Lundgren, to grab his property under the “imminent domain” position! He didn’t want to sell it for what they wanted to pay, so they went to court and took it. This is wrong, and in my opinion UN-American. It is everything we hate about government!
So, as mayor, Sarah Palin took private property; she raised taxes and she increased the government budget and supported pork barrel spending. Why would I vote for this?!
Sarah lists as one accomplishment, a raise in taxes on the major oil companies. A decidedly liberal policy. And one that has proven to be the WRONG move! At the time Sarah Palin was elected governor, Alaska was pumping 759,000 barrels of oil per day according to Alyeska Pipeline Company. Sarah worked to pass what is known as “Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share”, ACES for short. This is a base rate of 25 percent, witha progressive SURCHARGE, when a company's profits top $30 a barrel.
When Sarah left office in 2009, oil production had dropped to 672,000 barrels per day. The oil company executives say that it is directly associated to Palin’s tax increase. BP, just one of the companies invested in the pipeline, invested 20 billion dollars around the world, and none of it was in Alaska! The tax has stymied investment in the state. Which is why the new governor and the state legislature repealed the Palin tax. Only Democrats supported ACES...tells you something doesn't it.
ACES was very much NOT a REAGAN “conservative” legislation
Also, three years later and her much touted gas pipeline plan has become an expensive failure. A huge flop! Sarah touted her plan and was excited to say: “we're building” ...but in fact all she did was actually obligate the state of Alaska to pay up to $500 million to a company who has no chance of building a natural gas pipeline because they have no gas, no customers and no credit.
People, she doesn't have a clue as to what she is doing. She doesn't have the experience or the education that Bachmann has. She has NOT proven herself to be a “leader” in the least. Her “accomplishments” led to her RESIGNATION, STAGNATION in the state, and OBLIGATION to pay for failure; and I fear if she became President, we would be a hurting nation!
Wasilla had $23 million in long term debt when Palin(™) left office.
Her utter screw-up of a simple land deal that would have cost Wasilla less than $300K if she knew what she was doing ended up costing the town almost $3 million after years of legal battles and the use of emminent domain.
The real reason to look at her time in that position is because the palinistas trot it out as proof of her stellar executive abilities. The one big deal that would illustrate that was the ice-rink-to-nowhere. It was her project from day-one, and it was a fiasco.
Exactly. Also the huge mess of the natural gas pipeline.
She has ideas and doesn’t know how to make them work. She spouts slogans, but offers no solutions.
We already have a guy in office like that. We need someone else. I am not even saying Bachmann is that person. I see her also as a person with ideas...she offers solutions, but doesn’t seem to be able to push them through. she also has no military experience or knowledge.
I am losing hope. I think I would like Condi Rice.
Even though she had to read a script, things got pretty “messy” here and she didn’t even know it.
Really, she had the worst staff of any politician ever...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJd_vm9VhpU
No problem....and there’s more than enough in the Trademark’s slim resume that should be explored...like SBS, the ice-rink deal, the Palin(™) house, Palin’s(™) paid TV commercials for them and their sponsorship of the first dude’s racing team.
I am only vaguely familiar with those issues. My focus has been on her lack of ideological consistency, but would like to hear more of these other concerns. I think that it is important to closely scrutinize anyone who is being touted as the shining star of the conservative movement.
ARe you being disingenuous, thinking we're stupid, or do you not even understand your hollow argument?
If you're interested in truth, read this post
on FR thread
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/2748551/posts
“Sarah Palin saw Republican officials involved in corruption in the oil and gas conservation commission mainly involving Randy Ruedrich.
1.She complained to the ethics chief, he did nothing
2. She went to the Chief of Staff of Mukowski, he did nothing
3. She then sent a letter to the Governor himself and he did nothing
She by law could not publicly discuss what was going on in the commission, but she was warning everybody in the Administration on what was going on and that the news agencies were asking questions
She then resigned in frustration that nothing was being done involving the violations and that the public wasn’t properly being notified of the corruption case
The Daily News and KTUU-Channel 2 sued in February to force open the evidence. On April 6, while those lawsuits were pending, Palin’s lawyer, Wayne Anthony Ross, gave an ultimatum: move to a public resolution of the ethics case in 10 days or Palin would call a press conference “for the purpose of setting forth, publicly, what she knows about this entire matter and why she chose to resign from the Commission.”
State Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and former prosecutor, had called for an independent investigation from the beginning. When the case was made public, French wasn’t satisfied
French said he came to respect Palin and got to know her as she attempted to bring forward the facts of the case.
“Sarah has been tortured by this for a long time,” French said. “I feel she has never had a chance to let her story out.”
34 posted on Thursday, July 14, 2011 4:28:02 PM by Bigtigermike “
That is, as I say, If you're interested in the truth - which, reading your posts, one could question. Sounds more like you're pushing half truths, hoping others will swallow them.
the'pattern' you see may be one of half-truths being spewed -over and over - by the poster.
You might want to add this info to the 'story' - cheers
posted by Bigtigermike on another FR thread
"Sarah Palin saw Republican officials involved in corruption in the oil and gas conservation commission mainly involving Randy Ruedrich. 1.She complained to the ethics chief, he did nothing 2. She went to the Chief of Staff of Mukowski, he did nothing 3. She then sent a letter to the Governor himself and he did nothing She by law could not publicly discuss what was going on in the commission, but she was warning everybody in the Administration on what was going on and that the news agencies were asking questions She then resigned in frustration that nothing was being done involving the violations and that the public wasn’t properly being notified of the corruption case The Daily News and KTUU-Channel 2 sued in February to force open the evidence. On April 6, while those lawsuits were pending, Palin’s lawyer, Wayne Anthony Ross, gave an ultimatum: move to a public resolution of the ethics case in 10 days or Palin would call a press conference “for the purpose of setting forth, publicly, what she knows about this entire matter and why she chose to resign from the Commission.” State Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and former prosecutor, had called for an independent investigation from the beginning. When the case was made public, French wasn’t satisfied French said he came to respect Palin and got to know her as she attempted to bring forward the facts of the case. “Sarah has been tortured by this for a long time,” French said. “I feel she has never had a chance to let her story out.” this was on FR thread
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/2748551/posts
the'pattern' you see may be one of half-truths being spewed -over and over - by the poster.
You might want to add this info to the 'story' - cheers
posted by Bigtigermike on another FR thread
"Sarah Palin saw Republican officials involved in corruption in the oil and gas conservation commission mainly involving Randy Ruedrich. 1.She complained to the ethics chief, he did nothing 2. She went to the Chief of Staff of Mukowski, he did nothing 3. She then sent a letter to the Governor himself and he did nothing She by law could not publicly discuss what was going on in the commission, but she was warning everybody in the Administration on what was going on and that the news agencies were asking questions She then resigned in frustration that nothing was being done involving the violations and that the public wasn’t properly being notified of the corruption case The Daily News and KTUU-Channel 2 sued in February to force open the evidence. On April 6, while those lawsuits were pending, Palin’s lawyer, Wayne Anthony Ross, gave an ultimatum: move to a public resolution of the ethics case in 10 days or Palin would call a press conference “for the purpose of setting forth, publicly, what she knows about this entire matter and why she chose to resign from the Commission.” State Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and former prosecutor, had called for an independent investigation from the beginning. When the case was made public, French wasn’t satisfied French said he came to respect Palin and got to know her as she attempted to bring forward the facts of the case. “Sarah has been tortured by this for a long time,” French said. “I feel she has never had a chance to let her story out.” this was on FR thread
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/2748551/posts
Amen
and
AMEN
You ARE aware that the presidency is an EXECUTIVE job, don't you? Sarah's experience is executive.
What executive experience does Bachman have?
We have a POTUS now who had no executive experience. Ain't working out too good...
Where are the Viking Kitties when you need them?
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