On at least three occasions Michele Bachmann has announced that she is in the running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. On the one hand, she seems to be a legitimate grass roots pundit and a superb activist,
but on the other hand, she may be in well over her head in the real world of politicians and candidates for high office.
Bachmann, a third term House member from Minnesota, ran into more than she could handle when she agreed to be interviewed by FoxNews anchor Chris Wallace last Sunday. Bachman opened with a mantra, saying, “The people know about me, they know I say what I mean, I’m a fighter…,” all good, but some would say lacking in substance. She went on, “I'm very sincere in what I say. And I will fight, whether it means taking on Washington, even sometimes my own party.”
Wallace saw an opening, and didn’t hesitate, “By implication, are you suggesting that Mitt Romney [is] not sincere?” Romney is shown in many polls as tied with Rep. Bachmann for the Republican nomination.
Bachman even at this early point began to show some flustering. “What I'm talking about is, what I'm going to do as president of the United States. And in the course of this campaign, I look forward to getting to know more people and explaining more about our plan.”
Wallace said, "All right. We're going to talk about the other candidates a little bit later. But let me ask you about yourself..." At that point in the interview, Chris Wallace made some remarks, accusations perhaps, about a clinic run by Bachmann’s husband, and about a dairy farm in Wisconsin in which the Bachmanns have some interest. Before we review those remarks and accusations, we should further examine the rift between Bachmann and Mitt Romney, and we might preface that discussion of the Romney rift with a few insights.
Michele Bachmann’s very inception into the political world was founded on her feelings toward abortion, and the right to life of the unborn child. While in college at the William and Mary School of Law, she met and later married Marcus Bachmann. Marcus now runs a clinic with a staff of counselors and clinicians and devotes his life to children and young people with problems running the gamut of anger management, problems of adjustment, and even eating disorders. The Bachmanns now have 23 or more young people, teenaged girls, living as foster children in their home in Stillwater, Minnesota. They have five children of their own. Their home is defined as a “treatment home”, and they receive a daily reimbursement rate per foster child from the state.
Article comments
1 - Steve
Wallace was pretty tough on her and insulted her with the Flake question. I like her better than Palin although Palin is probably more popular at this time with voters.
2 - Tommy Mack
When the editor Weekly Standard says her position on the debt ceiling is silly and irresponsible, the word hubris comes to mind.
Tommy
3 - Baronius
Reporters are trying to get the candidates to attack each other (mostly, to attack Romney), but there's very little of it happening so far.
4 - Diana Hartman
"The Bachmanns now have 23 or more young people, teenaged girls, living as foster children in their home in Stillwater, Minnesota."
This statement isn't true.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services licensed Bachmann for foster care in 1992, a license she held for 7.5 years until 2000. She was allowed three children at a time for a total of 23 children. All of them arrived as teenagers. The last one arrived in 1998
5 - Baronius
Diana - Yeah, that sounds more reasonable.
6 - Glenn Contrarian
Hey, guess what? Ms. Bachmann now says that the Founding Fathers "worked tirelessly to end slavery."
She also said that John Quincy Adams, who was a small boy during the Revolutionary War and did indeed eventually work to abolish slavery, should be counted as a “Founding Father.”
Of course, not long after all this took place, Ms. Bachmann's "fans" decided to start editing the Wikipedia's entries on the founding fathers and on John Quincy Adams to reflect her particular version of history.
Interestingly enough, the same fans decided to change John Wayne's birthplace from Winterset, Iowa, to Waterloo, Iowa. Why? Because Ms. Bachmann told a Fox News reporter that she was proud to be in the town where John Wayne was from, because she embodies his ideals. Problem is, John Wayne was not born in Waterloo...
...but "Killer Clown" serial killer John Wayne Gacy was.
Yes, this is the same Michele Bachmann who is now running second behind yawner Mitt Romney...and who is considered by many pundits to be the most likely GOP presidential candidate for 2012. Woo-hoo!