Candidate - Michele Bachmann

[Geee]

Michele Bachmann Does Founding Mothers — and the Rest of Us — Proud

 

I’m wont to laugh at liberal women who love to talk up our Founding Mothers, and how those evil, spotlight-hogging white men sliced and diced all the patriot women right out of our history books. Liberal women love to take this tack when shoring up their own spotlight-hogging contributions to our current politics.

 

But just let a conservative woman try to get her head in the discussion arena? Liberal women pull out their rhetorical guillotines before our conservative sisters can get in a single word. Yet these liberal women don’t seem to see their own hypocrisy as they hog the modern spotlight themselves.

 

Such has been the state of “feminism” in America for the past four decades — right up until the moment Sarah Palin burst through the liberal-feminist barricades with Mama Grizzly ferocity.

 

Now, Michele Bachmann picks up the torch with a genuine presidential candidacy.

 

And I must say — without equivocation — that Michele Bachmann does our Founding Mothers — and all the rest of us — darned proud.

 

If Ed Rollins doesn’t alienate the female voters Bachmann sorely needs to win, then I can see how Michele Bachmann might actually carry the day in 2012. Bachmann could close the gender gap, to great Republican benefit, for decades to come. That’s something to think about seriously.

 

Considering the women’s vote — and we women do now make up a majority of the electorate — I would have to say that Michele Bachmann became every mother’s heroine when she valiantly parried an ObamaCare heckler at her health care townhall in August 2009. Mrs. Bachmann, proud mother of five and foster mother to 23 youths, was conducting a townhall in her district with a local medical doctor. She highlighted, from a wealth of her very own experience, the vast disparity between the excellent maternal care she had received in a Minnesota hospital and the grisly accounts of maternity wards in the UK.

 

Rattling off recent headlines about UK women giving birth in hospital corridors for lack of bed space and adequate facilities, Bachmann fiercely denounced the Democrats’ intention to force the same benighted level of care onto American women. Then a male pro-ObamaCare heckler spoke up in defense of the socialized medicine model, only to be summarily brought to childlike humility by Bachmann’s brilliant scold: “I’ve probably given birth here (in America) more times than you, sir.”

 

Yes, Bachmann’s quick-on-her-feet response to her heckler’s arrogant ignorance on the matter of childbirth was simply impossible to refute. Said male heckler went straight to the corner in ignominious disgrace. And all of us mothers — both liberal and conservative — could hold our heads up just a little bit more respectably.

 

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/michele-bachmann-does-founding-mothers-and-the-rest-of-us-proud/

[Geee]

The Bachmann Fundraising Advantage

 

 

 

In 2009, months before James O’Keefe’s video sting was released, Michele Bachmann went on Glenn Beck’s Fox News show and denounced ACORN.

 

“Will members of Congress stand with ACORN, or will they stand with the taxpayer?” Bachmann said. “We have a fiduciary duty to look out for the best interests of taxpayers.”

 

Bachmann, who was alarmed about ACORN’s history of employees’ being indicted for voter fraud, had proposed an amendment in the House Financial Services Committee that would have banned taxpayer dollars from going to any organization that had been indicted for or convicted of voter fraud. Then–committee chair Barney Frank had originally supported the amendment, before switching positions.

 

A few days later, Bachmann highlighted the issue again, appearing on CNN’s Lou Dobbs program to debate Frank about the topic.

Around the same time, Bachmann used the media attention she’d generated and wrote a petition denouncing the taxpayer funding of ACORN. “If Congress can’t draw the line here — if they can’t say that an organization repeatedly charged with violating the law and public trust should not have access to federal funds — where will they draw the line?” Bachmann asked. “I urge you to sign this petition and join me in the fight to protect your tax dollars from being used and abused.”

 

While the ACORN defunding would have to wait a few months, Bachmann did get one significant boost from her ACORN activism: Her petition elicited 100,000 e-mail addresses, according to a source close to Bachmann. Later on, she could include those new supporters in the periodic fundraising e-mails her staff sends out.

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/270298/bachmann-fundraising-advantage-katrina-trinko

[Geee]

Michele Bachmann, the GOP, and the Race Conversation

 

Recently, while speaking at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Michele Bachmann fervently argued that President Obama has failed the African-American community and the Hispanic community. Bachmann went further to affirm that, in the event of her election as president of the United States, her goal would be to create jobs in these heavily saffected minority communities -- and create jobs for Americans as a whole.

 

While these were merely passing remarks made during her speech, she created seismic waves due to the fact that she deviated from the traditional pusillanimous GOP approach to minority communities by daringly intermingling race with her public policy arguments. As was noted by liberal Salon, Michele Bachmann is the only GOP candidate to have mentioned the 16.2% black unemployment thus far. One would think that such an obvious policy weakness of Obama's would be something all serious GOP candidates would be hammering at with unyielding ferocity. Except, of course, none of the other candidates possess the brass that Michele Bachmann has to take on the tough racial issues against America's "first black president."

 

Curiously, many people believed that simply because Herman Cain possessed black skin that he would be vigorously articulating public policy arguments highlighting Obama's catastrophic failure in catering to the black community. To the contrary, however, insofar as Herman Cain has mentioned race, it has been to injudiciously deride the black community as being "too poor" to attended white-dominated tea parties. Herman Cain's reluctance to meaningfully articulate on the issue of race is demonstrative of the folly of demographic politics. Just because someone possesses black skin does not mean that the black community is close to their heart -- or that such a person will appeal to the black community.

 

So while GOP candidates are being tight-lipped on the issue of race -- or, in the case of Herman Cain, making cringe-inducing statements on the issue -- Michele Bachmann is confidently articulating in public what most other conservatives are too timid to whisper in passing conversation. More disconcerting than the other candidates' silence on the crisis in urban America is the manifestly misguided conservative reaction to Bachmann's very shrewd racial public policy arguments.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/michele_bachmann_the_gop_and_the_race_conversation.html

[Geee]

For Bachmann, Iowa is make or break

 

The fate of Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign rests with Iowa, where an upcoming straw poll will either catapult the Republican congresswoman into the top tier of contenders or cut the legs out from beneath her campaign before she even has a chance to compete, Republican strategists said.

Though unofficial, the Aug. 23 straw poll is expected to draw the state's most conservative Republicans and prominent GOP donors to Ames, and is considered an early test of a candidate's strength in the state's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses in February.

 

"Evangelicals and Tea Party conservatives are going to be the majority of the people who make up that vote, and she is the loudest voice and the sharpest candidate competing for those voters," said Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak.

 

Bachmann, a congresswoman from Minnesota, founded the House Tea Party Caucus.

 

"I have absolutely no doubt if she finishes strong in the straw poll -- if she places within the top two -- that she can win Iowa," Mackowiak said.

 

Winning the Iowa caucus isn't essential to winning a party nomination, but it provides a significant shot in the arm to candidates heading into the early primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina.

 

"It's a heck of a springboard, and then she's immediately a rock star and a threat to [Republican front-runner Mitt] Romney," said GOP strategist Cheri Jacobus.

 

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, is skipping the Iowa poll and instead focusing on New Hampshire -- making former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty Bachmann's strongest competition in the Hawkeye State, according to recent polls.

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/06/bachmann-iowa-make-or-break

[Valin]

Queen of the Tea Party

The presidential campaign of Michele Bachmann

Matthew Continetti

 

 

(Snip)

 

What Bachmann lacked until recently was mainstream credibility. And the skepticism was bipartisan. Democrats loathed her—and still do—because she’s about as far from an apologetic conservative as you can get. But plenty of Republican officials and consultant types also didn’t like Bachmann. Republican elites muttered that she was a show horse, not a work horse. Her fame alienated colleagues. One congressman recently told me that Bachmann had been upbraided during a House GOP conference meeting for undermining the leadership’s message on fiscal issues. Bachmann’s tendency to shoot from the hip is said to limit her appeal. “I think Bachmann’s chances of landing on Jupiter are higher than her chances of being nominated,” Republican strategist Mike Murphy told me in an April interview for Washingtonpost.com.

 

Well, get ready for an interplanetary expedition. Bachmann is a far more serious candidate for the Republican nomination than her reputation would suggest. She’s a talented fundraiser who raised $13.5 million for her 2010 reelection campaign. She’s a television star who appropriately tailors her message to her audience. Her combativeness will delight conservatives eager to fight Barack Obama. Her movement credentials—she founded the House Tea Party Caucus—put her at the cutting edge of right-wing politics. And in a primary campaign where authenticity counts, no other candidate has Bachmann’s unique history: an Iowa native who put herself through law school, raised her five children and took in 23 foster children, and has never lost an election for state or federal office.

 

Since 2009, millions of Americans have attended rallies, joined Tea Party groups, and become involved in politics. They’re scared for the future of the country, and they want to stop America’s decline. Many of these activists are parents or grandparents who simply weren’t political before government policies drove them into the arena. Michele Bachmann is uniquely positioned to speak to these voters—because she’s one of them.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

]Hot Air: Great moments in journalism: “Are you a flake?”

Ed Morrissey

6/26/11

 

I can understand why Chris Wallace asked this question. Given his guest’s propensity for gaffes, such as picking the name of a dead hero as a live Medal of Honor winner, botching a toast to Queen Elizabeth II, discussing the high points of the Austrian language, and several references to a military medic as a “corpseman,” it might be hard to take the person seriously.

 

Oh, wait — Wallace wasn’t interviewing Barack Obama after all:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOoCB-nw9TU

 

(Snip)

 

Did any of the national media ask Barack Obama in the summer of 2008 if he was a “flake”? Bachmann has not been without her gaffes, although she has improved her media interactions substantially since the “anti-American” comment in November 2008. But given Obama’s track record both before and after his election to the presidency, it would take a superhuman effort to vault into his league. And the media still mainly ignores Obama’s gaffes, which have grown into the hundreds, without a single outlet ever asking Obama if he is a “flake” on that same basis.

 

(Snip)

 

 

Click on Link for more

from the Community Organizer in Chief

[Casino67]

"Chris Wallace On Michele Bachmann’s ‘Flake’ Question: ‘I Messed Up, I’m Sorry’"

 

Source

[Geee]

Michele Bachmann zeroes in Iowa

 

 

The Des Moines Register poll released Saturday confirmed what the other GOP presidential campaigns already knew: In Iowa, Rep. Michele Bachmann is for real.

 

As she prepares to officially announce her presidential campaign Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, she’s essentially tied with Mitt Romney atop the Republican field in the key early presidential state. Still, the next morning after the poll came out, Bachmann was forced to answer this blunt question from host Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday: “Are you a flake?”

 

 

It’s not exactly the kind of question that would be posed to Romney, or to any of the other top GOP prospects. But it accurately reflected the puzzlement surrounding Bachmann’s sudden rise from the backbenches of the House to the presidential stage.

 

The congresswoman’s cool, dismissive response to an unmistakeably provocative question may have provided a clue that explains her rapid ascent from cable television culture warrior to contender: Far from being a one-dimensional character who can play only at the extremes and at high volume, Bachmann is a polished politician with more adaptability than she is given credit for.

 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57821.html

[Geee]

Michele Bachmann Gains in Strength: Can She Get the Republican Nomination?

 

On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace turned to his guest Michele Bachmann and asked her, “Are you a flake?” Later he apologized, explaining that he only meant to seek her answer to what others in the media and elsewhere were saying about her. But what Bachmann did in response helped establish the command she has in the Iowa caucus, and the growing respect of so many for her, including those who are her political enemies.

 

Instead of complaining about the question, aside from saying that it was an insult because she is a “serious person,” she used the opportunity to make it crystal clear why the very charge is more than insulting. Said Bachmann:

 

Well, I would say is that I am 55 years old. I’ve been married 33 years. I’m not only a lawyer, I have a post doctorate degree in federal tax law from William and Mary. I work in serious scholarship and work in the United States federal tax court.

 

My husband and I raised five kids. We’ve raised 23 foster children. We’ve applied ourselves to education reform. We started a charter school for at-risk kids.

 

I’ve also been a state senator and a member of United States Congress for five years. I’ve been very active in our business.

 

As a job creator, I understand job creation. But also I’ve been leading actively the movement in Washington, D.C., with those who are affiliated with fiscal reform.

 

 

Many of her detractors undoubtedly learned of her accomplishments at that moment, and must have been stunned to hear especially about her master’s degree in tax law from William and Mary. Readers of The Weekly Standard are not among those, however, who were surprised. The cover story this week by Matthew Continetti lays out in detail how Bachmann, whom he dubs the “Queen of the Tea Party,” got to where she is today. Despite the opposition of the Republican Party leadership, Bachmann is likely to beat Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses, as well as gain the mainstream credibility she has lacked up to now.

 

One can disagree with her politics and her approach to some issues, and still acknowledge that Bachmann is both serious and principled. As Continetti reveals, she is a talented fund-raiser, a woman who takes principled stands on issues she believes in and who knows what she is talking about on fiscal issues. I was surprised to learn that when she finished high school, Bachmann went to Israel to work on a kibbutz, driving on a flatbed truck at 4 am to cotton fields to pull out weeds, surrounded by IDF soldiers protecting the members.

 

Her support for Israel stems from that experience, and is not a politically motivated recent concern. Continetti writes:

 

“If you consider what it was like in 1948,” she said, “and literally watch flowers bloom in a desert over time — I don’t know if any nation has paralleled the rise of Israel since 1948.” A member of Christians United for Israel, she’s one of Israel’s strongest supporters in Congress. One Jewish Minnesota Republican has told me of speeches at local Republican Jewish Coalition events where Bachmann has brought cheering audiences to their feet.

 

http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh/2011/06/27/michelle-bachmann-gains-in-strength-can-she-get-the-republican-nomination/

[righteousmomma]

Good opinion piece and informative article

A couple highlights:

What does unite them, of course, is that the left and the liberals have nothing but utter contempt for both of them. Hence we will continue to hear that Bachmann is simply Palin redux. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

The only question is whether or not Bachmann can expand her Republican base constituency and evangelical supporters to attract the votes of both independents and more centrist Republicans. At Commentary’s Contentions, Jonathan S. Tobin writes that “in just a few weeks Bachmann has elevated herself from a second tier curiosity to a serious contender for the GOP nomination.” She has been considered a flame-thrower and an extremist, someone whose flame will die out after the Iowa caucuses, leaving her in the position Mike Huckabee held in the last presidential race. As it is turning out, however, the mainstream Jon Huntsman is hardly gathering any support, while more and more Republicans are finding Bachmann more and more credible as a possible candidate.

 

As Tobin aptly writes,

 

Bachmann has shown herself in recent weeks to be a polished and articulate candidate who has carefully modulated her statements and demonstrated she is ready for prime time. As analyst Nate Silver wrote in today’s New York Times, her polling numbers are simply terrific. She isn’t merely competing with the frontrunners who are supposed to be out of her class; she has the best favorability ratings of any candidate.

 

And Silver adds that she might very well even win the Republican nomination.

Michele Bachmann has shown that she has the skills to do just that. But to win the presidency, she has to gain the support of many more people than her own base in the Republican Party, and far more than the Christian evangelical community. And she has to gain the support primarily of those critical white working-class voters who now are facing hard times, and who had moved back to the ranks of the Democratic Party, only to show in the most recent polls that they are fed up with the Obama administration. She has to develop an economic policy that will let these voters feel that her policies will give them something to vote for as well.

 

At any rate, Michele Bachmann cannot be underestimated. She is now a major contender and is gathering more support and enthusiasm than her competitors.

 

Recently, E.J. Dionne wrote favorably about Jon Huntsman, saying that “he’s the only Republican waging something other than a standard-issue conservative campaign and the only one directing most of his energies toward voters who don’t take their cues from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.” That kind of endorsement will only serve to hurt Huntsman and harm his ability to get the votes of Republicans. Liberal pundits endorsing a Republican as a viable candidate is not something that will endear that person to conservative voters, who want a candidate who articulates a solid alternative to mainstream liberal shibboleths.

It is a sure thing that if Bachmann only grows in strength, Dionne will write a column blasting her as this year’s Palin — a far-right Neanderthal who must be defeated at all costs. Undoubtedly, Michele Bachmann knows what is coming down the pike and is going to be prepared for the forthcoming assault.

 

Addendum:

 

In her speech announcing her candidacy on Monday, Bachmann made what her opponents quickly condemned as a typical gaffe. Speaking in Waterloo, Iowa, she promised to match the spirit of Waterloo’s own John Wayne. The only problem is that it was not John Wayne who heralded from the town, but the famous serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Wayne, the movie actor, lived in Winterset, a three-hour drive from Waterloo. Wayne Gacy, the murderer, lived in Waterloo.

 

Making a big deal about this, to my mind, is much ado about nothing. Anyone could make such an error. But as it turns out, the actor Wayne had a very real tie to Waterloo, Iowa. His parents met and got married there, but soon after, moved to Winterset. Bachmann may very well have read this in a popular biography of Wayne, and remembered incorrectly his reference to Waterloo.

Anyway, her point was clear. As the Washington Times article notes, Bachmann, rejecting the idea that America has to go into decline, said: “I grew up with John Wayne’s America. I was proud that you grew up in John Wayne’s America: Proud to be an American, thrilled to be a patriot.” Whether it was Waterloo or Winterset, she has made her argument as strong as she could.

[Rheo]

Stephanopoulos Tries Savaging Bachmann

 

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos said the media plans on investigating all 23 of Michele Bachmann's foster children, tries to get her to say she'd eliminate the minimum wage, tries to stir up trouble between her and Palin, and debates her about the founding fathers and slavery.

 

[Pepper]

Is Chris Wallace a moron?

 

Was his daddy Mike Wallace?

[Valin]

Ex-Bachmann Chief of Staff's Bombshell: Team Bachmann Slow to Cash Campaign Checks, Answer Mail

JOHN MCCORMACK

6/28/11

 

Ron Carey, one of many former chiefs of staff to Michele Bachmann, writes in a Des Moines Register op-ed that Bachmann is not ready to be president:

 

As the former chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party during the tenure of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, as well as the former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, I have watched both candidates from behind the public scene. I've seen how they handle the pressures of the job; I've seen how they lead a staff; and I've seen how they would govern if elected to the most powerful office in the world.

 

Having seen the two of them, up close and over a long period of time, it is clear to me that while Tim Pawlenty possesses the judgment, the demeanor, and the readiness to serve as president, Michele Bachmann decidedly does not.

 

Here are the facts Carey cites to prove Bachmann's unreadiness:

 

The Bachmann campaign and congressional offices I inherited were wildly out of control. Stacks upon stacks of unopened contributions filled the campaign office while thousands of communications from citizens waited for an answer. If she is unable, or unwilling, to handle the basic duties of a campaign or congressional office, how could she possibly manage the magnitude of the presidency?

 

Bachmann's had a lot of staff turnover, which has raised questions about her management ability.

(Snip)

 

About the staff turnover, this is not the first time I've heard this...and yes it should lead people to ask questions.

[pollyannaish]

I have to admit, Valin, that this is a serious issue to me. There are many very smart people who are enormously talented--but can not translate the "vision" into reality. They don't have the skills it takes to make an idea real.

 

One of the things we're looking for is in this campaign is someone who has both management skills and vision. A good visionary without management skills...but who is self aware enough to have someone close that can take on those tasks would be my second choice.

[Geee]

Liberals, not Bachmann, are hypocrites on Medicaid

 

 

Any outspoken, pro-life, conservative woman will be the target of unfair, almost rabid attacks by liberals in the media. But the latest left-wing talking point against Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is perhaps the stupidest criticism any politician has endured this year.

It turns out that Bachmann's husband, who runs a mental health clinic, has helped Medicaid patients. What's wrong with that? Well, you see, Bachmann has opposed the expansion of Medicaid, and she generally favors limited government.

 

This makes her a hypocrite, NBC News reporter Michael Isikoff suggested in an article this week. Isikoff went to universal health care activist Ron Pollock for his money quote: "She's giving hypocrisy a bad name. ... It's clear when it feathers her nest she's happy for Medicaid expenditures. But people that really need it -- folks with disabilities and seniors -- she's turning their backs on them."

 

Pollock knows about businesses that "feather [their] nest" with government health care spending, because those businesses are the moneymen for his campaigns to expand government's role in health care. Pollock's group, Families USA, partnered in 2009 and 2010 with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America -- the nation's largest single-industry lobby -- to support President Obama's health care legislation. PhRMA, representing drug companies, backed the bill because it expanded subsidies for prescription drugs, required state governments to cover drugs under Medicaid, imposed mandates on individuals and employers that would effectively subsidize drugs, established lengthy exclusivity periods for biologic drugs (keeping generics off the market for 12 years), and didn't touch the industry's other government favors.

 

Families USA also teamed up with health insurers and drug makers in 2008 and 2009 to lobby for a more generous State Children's Health Insurance Program, which was created to subsidize health insurance for poor children and expanded in 2009 to cover the middle class and young adults.

 

So, by the logic of Pollock and Bachmann's other liberal critics, these profitable and politically connected industries are being noble and consistent by lobbying for the very policies that profit them, while Bachmann is a hypocrite for opposing policies that would profit her husband.

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/06/liberals-not-bachmann-are-hypocrites-medicaid

[Geee]

On the Trail with Michele Bachmann

 

n the span of a few weeks, Michele Bachmann has gone from fringe candidate to serious contender in the 2012 race. While her frontrunner status is hardly a surprise to loyal Tea Party followers, the emergence of Bachmann as a player on the national scene has caught the attention of many early state voters and (for better or worse) those in the national press corps.

 

Bachmann’s road to the White House started on Monday in Iowa, where she officially announced her candidacy before embarking on campaign stops in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Covering over 2,600 miles within a 72-hour period, the congresswoman laid out her platform before voters in key early states and aggressively attacked President Barack Obama for his failed economic policies.

 

“We can’t afford four more years of Barack Obama,” Bachmann exclaimed in her announcement speech in her native Waterloo, Iowa, on Monday. “This election is about big issues, not petty ones. When all is said and done, we cannot be about big government as usual.”

 

Her message is one that many conservatives have been hungry for in a current field of candidates being described as “unimpressive.”

 

“She’s one of us. She’s lived the same lives many of us have lived,” said David Alderman of Waterloo. “I think she has that ‘it’ factor. I like what she stands for and I think I can easily get behind her.”

 

Bachmann’s “it factor” and her ability to connect with her audience and speak to salient issues — whether it be her roots in Iowa, the economy in New Hampshire, or family values in South Carolina — make her a formidable opponent. While she is able to portray what she calls a “compassionate” side with tales of motherhood and her love for her husband Marcus, to whom she has been married for 33 years, Bachmann is no shrinking violet when it comes to attacking her foes. She scolded the media at a stop in Charleston for wanting to see a “mud wrestling fight” between her and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, and she never missed an opportunity to get her jabs in at President Obama (at all of her stops, she joked of retiring the teleprompter upon her arrival to the White House).

 

For many voters, this was the first time they got to see the Minnesota congresswoman in person — meaning this was also the first time they got to see her without the caricatures and extremist portrayals put forward by the national, partisan press. Many in her audiences seemed to be pleasantly surprised by Bachmann’s performance. The lawmaker’s common sense message of limited government and a return to constitutional principles was well received at every stop.

 

Paula Tarta of Rye, New Hampshire, was one of those in the crowd who walked away with a favorable impression of the congresswoman. “I thought she was super energized. I do think she has the titanium backbone that it’s going to take to go up against this ol’ boy network. I’m excited for her and excited to be supporting her.”

 

In one of the more genuine moments of her tour, Bachmann confided to voters at a town hall gathering in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on Wednesday night that she had suffered a miscarriage after the birth of her second child. It was a poignant answer in describing her pro-life roots and inspiration to become a foster parent — one that most of her campaign staff were completely unaware of.

 

As Bachmann rolled into her stops along the tour, she was greeted by enthusiastic crowds whose size exceeded the expectations of her staff. They had anticipated about 50 to 100 people at each stop; instead they got crowds ranging from 300 to more than a thousand.

 

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/on-the-trail-with-michele-bachmann/

[Geee]

Marcus Bachmann, campaign spouse

 

 

While Michele Bachmann tries to distinguish herself on the campaign trail, Marcus Bachmann, her husband of 32 years, already has.

 

He’s yet to do any surrogate campaigning or deliver a speech. Still, unlike several other candidates’ spouses, he’s enthusiastically embraced his wife’s run, sketching out a new kind of role for himself: Equal parts confidant, body man, image consultant and political strategist — while also proving a potential liability.

 

Marcus Bachmann was ubiquitous during the Minnesota congresswoman’s first official campaign swing across Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina last week. But until the final question of the last town hall meeting of a four-day trip, he was more seen than heard.

 

And even then, he spoke only when called on by his wife, to help answer a young woman’s question about the secret to her successful marriage. As she called her husband onto stage, the congresswoman introduced him as their marriage counselor, joking that he wins all the arguments in their house.

 

Still, he deflected the attention from himself.

 

“It’s not about me,” he told the crowd in Rock Hill, South Carolina. “This culture has a lot to do about wanting for me. If you understand how important it is to serve, you really become a success story.”

 

His effort to stay in the background hasn’t prevented him from facing a higher level of scrutiny than spouses like Mary Pawlenty, Gloria Cain and Karen Santorum. As his wife kicked off her campaign, news reports tied his parents’ federally-subsidized farm to the couple and hit him for accepting over $137,000 in Medicaid payments for his crisis center.

 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58291.html

[Valin]

[righteousmomma]

Funny, Valin.

[Valin]

Funny, Valin.

 

 

Posted it over at CGP

The 1st reply....

Spang

PROLIFIC MEMBER

10,000+ Posts

 

Barack Obama never said that ATMs cause unemployment. Also, Fox News is part of the mainstream media, and the people over their routinely have a field day whenever Obama makes a gaffe, squirts mustard on his burger, uses a teleprompter like Reagan and both Bush's, bows like Nixon and Eisenhower, goes on vacation like his predecessors, or golfing like most modern-day presidents.

 

Further, Bachmann's gaffes pale in comparison to her utter hatred of gays and lesbians.

 

Needless to say he has absolutely NO sense of humor

[righteousmomma]

None of "them" have a sense of humor. Sounds just like a lib I know.

[Casino67]

None of "them" have a sense of humor. Sounds just like a lib I know.

 

Obviously a Daily Kos reader. Ask Argyle how it is to chat with them. I think she discovered a whole different world.

[Geee]

Stress-related condition ‘incapacitates’ Bachmann; heavy pill use alleged

 

In late July 2010, Rep. Michele Bachmann’s then-communications director, Dave Dziok, told his boss that he planned to take a new job with the public relations firm Edelman.

 

Dziok had worked for Bachmann for two and a half years, a relatively long period by the standards of her office, and was leaving on good terms.

 

Staff turnover can frustrate any employer, but Bachmann responded more dramatically. Dziok’s departure triggered a debilitating medical episode that landed the congresswoman in urgent care.

 

“Within 24 hours she was in the hospital,” a former aide says.

 

Bachmann was admitted to a Washington, D.C. hospital on Friday, July 30, and released that same day. She flew home to Minnesota to recuperate, missing a scheduled campaign event with Sen. Roy Blunt.

 

It’s “nothing folks should worry about going forward,” Dziok told reporters at the time, refusing to specify why Bachmann had been hospitalized.

 

It was, according to three people who have worked closely with Bachmann, not an isolated event. (Bachmann signs ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’ pledge, adds promise to defund Obamacare)

 

The Minnesota Republican frequently suffers from stress-induced medical episodes that she has characterized as severe headaches. These episodes, say witnesses, occur once a week on average and can “incapacitate” her for days at time. On at least three occasions, Bachmann has landed in the hospital as a result.

 

“She has terrible migraine headaches. And they put her out of commission for a day or more at a time. They come out of nowhere, and they’re unpredictable,” says an adviser to Bachmann who was involved in her 2010 congressional campaign. “They level her. They put her down. It’s actually sad. It’s very painful.”

http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/18/stress-related-condition-incapacitates-bachmann-heavy-pill-use-alleged/

[righteousmomma]

“She has terrible migraine headaches. And they put her out of commission for a day or more at a time. They come out of nowhere, and they’re unpredictable,” says an adviser to Bachmann who was involved in her 2010 congressional campaign. “They level her. They put her down. It’s actually sad. It’s very painful.”

 

Migraines are horrible. I feel for her. I have a couple friends who get them and suffer terribly. Stress is not a factor with either of them but hormones and age play a huge roll. I used to have ocular migraines and stress never triggered them but lights certainly did. Hopefully aging will cure hers as they did mine.

[Geee]

“She has terrible migraine headaches. And they put her out of commission for a day or more at a time. They come out of nowhere, and they’re unpredictable,” says an adviser to Bachmann who was involved in her 2010 congressional campaign. “They level her. They put her down. It’s actually sad. It’s very painful.”

 

Migraines are horrible. I feel for her. I have a couple friends who get them and suffer terribly. Stress is not a factor with either of them but hormones and age play a huge roll. I used to have ocular migraines and stress never triggered them but lights certainly did. Hopefully aging will cure hers as they did mine.

 

 

Mine stopped after my first pregnancy.