Thread: Republicans warm to Michelle Bachmann

Is Michele Bachmann the new Sarah Palin? Republicans warm to woman they once saw as a joke
Michele Bachmann is winning more attention than Sarah Palin as a Republican presidential hopeful. Now she's getting serious, says Alex Spillius in Washington.
By Alex Spillius, Washington 4:15PM GMT 26 Mar 2011
Until last week Michele Bachmann was considered something of a joke by members of Washington's Republican establishment. But after announcing that she was almost certainly running for US president, their smiles quickly vanished.

A Tea Party favourite, Mrs Bachmann is a former tax lawyer who many moderates in the party think could prove its biggest liability in the forthcoming primary for the 2012 nomination.

Her gift of the gaffe is such that a leading Republican consultant recently said that she made Sarah Palin look like Count Metternich.

That was after Bachmann mistakenly placed Lexington and Concord, scenes of the first battles in the American War of Independence, in the state of New Hampshire, where she was speaking at the time. They are in fact in Massachusetts, as every US schoolchild knows.

Rarely shy of a conspiracy theory, she has suggested that Democrats wanted to do away with the dollar, and during the Iraq war claimed to have knowledge of a plot to annex part of the country to Iran.

During the bird flu scare, she hinted that President Barack Obama – who she once derided as "anti-American" – was to blame for the virus. It is no surprise she has chosen to fan the flames of the notion – which is popular among many grassroots conservatives – that the president is not American-born.

A cable television interviewer once called her a "balloon-head" after she delivered a McCarthyesque rant about suspicious liberals in Congress, and she has remained a demon among Democrats ever since. The rather wild-eyed congresswoman from Minnesota is, in other words, a dreadfully divisive, and much derided, figure.

The similarities with Sarah Palin are striking. They are both working women with large families – Bachmann, 54, has five children and has fostered 23 over the years – who revel in their charismatic challenge to the orthodox image of a Republican politician as a stuffy, suited, country club male.

Like the former Alaska governor, Bachmann is feisty cheerleader for her vision of what makes America great. Even when delivering barbs, she is full of smiles and Midwestern good cheer. She is unapologetically anti-establishment, anti-big government, anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage, and though she may lack the same megawatt celebrity as Palin, Bachmann is now threatening to nudge her more famous ideological sister out of the limelight.

With her poll numbers declining, Palin is still only flirting with entering the race. Despite her experience as John McCain's 2008 running mate, she has yet to raise a meaningful national staff or establish a network in Iowa, where the crucial first caucuses will be held early next year.

Bachmann, on the other hand, has begun recruiting and spent five days in the state last week, never failing to remind an audience that she was born and raised there for 11 years. She has only been considered in two Gallup polls, but is already in sixth place in a long list of probable contenders.

Like Palin, she has a widespread following of arch conservatives willing to donate in small amounts over the internet, and in her 2010 re-election campaign, raised a record of $13.5 million for a House of Representatives battle.

It is that sort of prowess that gives old school Republicans palpitations. Bachmann is unlikely to win the primary because her evangelical, Tea Party support-base will be too narrow, but she could stay in the race for months and become a fixture on numerous televised debates.

Her blunders and provocations, it is believed, would then be exposed to a wider public and would cause collateral damage to the eventual winner of the primary, who is likely to be drawn from among the more experienced but less magnetic male candidates.

As Mike Murphy, a seasoned Republican strategist, wrote: "The vital swing voters who will decide the 2012 election will look at Michele Bachmann and howl like villagers getting their first torchlit glimpse of Frankenstein's monster. They will stampede quickly in the opposite direction, away from the GOP."

Democrats are privately rejoicing at the prospect of Bachmann running, assuming that Obama would benefit from a kooky, antagonistic politician with poor command of the facts.

That attitude may prove complacent, however. Look at what happened in the 2010 midterms. Palin and Bachmann led the Tea Party charge and the Republicans seized the House and halved the Democrat's majority in the Senate.

If she won the nomination, Bachmann would certainly guarantee Obama another term, such is her divisiveness. But after a credible defeat, she could play the kingmaker whose endorsement of the Republican nominee would come with a demand that the Tea Party's values be embraced.

Meanwhile, the anger at the economy that humbled the Democrats four months ago may not abate significantly before 2012. Bachmann might prove more trouble than the White House expected, and more help than dubious Republican wiseacres ever envisioned.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -joke.html

If she won the nomination, Bachmann would certainly guarantee Obama another term, such is her divisiveness.

Hardly. With all the cheating going on, Obama is sure to 'win' again anyway. My opinion.

Left wingers have already begun attacking Michelle. That can mean only one thing.... THEY ARE SCARED OF HER I have seen 3 attack pieces today, one on Yahoo,one by Mr Lefty loony himself (Chris Matthews) and this one . She Is already making the far left liberal lunatics spew their venom wildly....

Last night on Leno, he joked something about her not having a high school diploma. That is proof positive that they're all sweatin' and they will intensify the degrading attacks.

The media is in the tank for Obama they would attack any conservative who challenges him my guess is they have some much time invested in Obama he could pull an OJ and still the press would defend him.

I doubt any true conservative could be elected and of course that is the goal of the left but average voters are at fault for believing what they read and see on tv. I believe my stats are correct but only 32% of the voters elected obama to office, the remainder vote McCain or other, still it leaves approximately 39% of eligible voters who did not vote and that is much of our problem for I believe 70% of America people live their lives in a conservative manner. My only suggestion is when voting look at what people have done in there lives, where they went to school how they maintained a family, etc, ignore the press...!!! Morals. values, standards all important.

The GOP will run a RINO again the desire to win is greater then picking someone best for America.

Originally Posted by oldguy

The media is in the tank for Obama they would attack any conservative who challenges him my guess is they have some much time invested in Obama he could pull an OJ and still the press would defend him.

I doubt any true conservative could be elected and of course that is the goal of the left but average voters are at fault for believing what they read and see on tv. I believe my stats are correct but only 32% of the voters elected obama to office, the remainder vote McCain or other, still it leaves approximately 39% of eligible voters who did not vote and that is much of our problem for I believe 70% of America people live their lives in a conservative manner. My only suggestion is when voting look at what people have done in there lives, where they went to school how they maintained a family, etc, ignore the press...!!! Morals. values, standards all important.

The GOP will run a RINO again the desire to win is greater then picking someone best for America.

If the GOP runs a RINO (AGAIN) then Obama will win ( again )... lets hope that "we the people" can help steer them In the right direction...

quote(If the GOP runs a RINO (AGAIN) then Obama will win ( again )... lets hope that "we the people" can help steer them In the right direction...)quote


Agreed, I've been doing what I can locally and contacting the GOP but the GOP leaders have long ago sold out for there own rewards,IMO.

Originally Posted by topsecret10

If the GOP runs a RINO (AGAIN) then Obama will win ( again )... lets hope that "we the people" can help steer them In the right direction...

We are TS! I've seen it, yeah it's slow goin' but I'm thinkin' it's like the "Snowball rolling down hill effect!"

The Donald or Michelle , I could support either or

No more neocon idiots

Michelle is starting to gain serious support ,

She was a tax lawyer! so I'm guessin' she ain't stupid! Then again NObama was a Constitutional lawyer! Please no more liberal lawyers, we have plenty Thanks!