Tag: Michele Bachmann

Someone should trademark the name because it could be the next Baby Ruth or Old Henry. Imagine nostalgic holidays with Crazy Canes decorating the tree. You can witness the inspiration on 12 May in Hampton Roads when the Hermanator graces the Republican 2nd District Convention.

Hard to say if the Southside Republicans drew a short or long straw among the 5 districts holding conventions that day. The conventions were called long before speakers could be lined up and announced as part of the calls even if it were appropriate. But what is it about Hampton Roads that the loonier of the Party is perceived the greater draw? Michele Bachman speaks today in Portsmouth and again at the Regent University commencement this Saturday.

Maybe the Mittster will visit Virginia Beach with Michele today for an audience with Pat Robertson in an attempt to get an evangelical base pass.  

by Paul Goldman

Has Governor Bob McDonnell slipped on a banana peel from 1964, the year a cabal of governors wanted to derail the anti-establishment Goldwater candidacy? Normally, an anti-Washington rap would be a safe call for Governor McDonnell, like Coach Vince Lombardi calling for his Packers to do the famed "sweep" around right end, perhaps the most fabled play in the history of pro football.

But that was in BB time: Before Bachmann.

McDonnell's team had best be in damage control mode, or his chances for being VEEP could be gone by sundown. That's right: McDonnell is high on the draft list right now, but this was before McDonnell's comments about Bachmann in today's Politico.

For some reason, Governor McDonnell used an anti-Washington riff to explain why he, and apparently other GOP Governors, would prefer to see the party nominate a sitting or former member of their exclusive club for President.

"It's just that there is a preference for somebody who has been in the states making tough calls for four or eight years" said McDonnell, according to the Politico story. "I think the best nominee for our team would be a former governor or current governor because you have to be decisive, balance budgets, and can't kick can down road [sic]" he added, concluding with all "the things that don't happen in Washington."

Then, for the anti-Bachmann kicker. "If there seems to be one of the governors distinguishing himself or herself you may see a coalescing around that candidate" said McDonnell.

Will the Bachmann for President campaign read this as an ABB, Anybody But Bachmann, argument?

Yes.

Reports the Washington Times:

Rep. Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign on Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, and in one interview surrounding the official event she promised to mimic the spirit of Waterloo's own John Wayne.

The only problem, as one eagle-eyed reader notes: Waterloo's John Wayne was not the beloved movie star, but rather John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer.

Here's the clip of the candidate who's currently polling in a tie for the lead of the GOP Iowa caucus:

[Disclaimer: This is written in fun and not necessarily a complete or even accurate rendition of my views on psychology.]

In a normal universe, a vice-presidential candidate who lost the presidential race for her running mate (as polls suggested may have happened), couldn't hack being governor and bailed nearly two years early on the voters of Alaska, had her husband partly run the show, revealed a non-existent grasp of world affairs, and is perhaps the dumbest individual to present in nearly a century, would have zero support in 2012.  Indeed, even her own daughter-sidekick (used by Sarah as a prop on all possible occasions) seems miserable at her side.   But for some reason, men, who usually purport to disdain inanity, seem blinded.  

Chris Matthews is, despite all recent claims to the contrary, taken with her.  Even Howard Dean thinks Sarah Palin could be president.  What's up with that?  And why do so many men pretend she is a credible candidate?  They seem un-bothered by the shrill, high-pitched voice (like finger nails scraping on a chalk board), her self-absorbed ego-tour, her lunacy, her staged Alaska outdoor series, or the complete lack of knowledge about anything.  There she was squealing and screeching on her bus tour, attended by few.  But mostly males in the media continued to spend far too many minutes covering the sideshow.  Why?  As Bill Maher says, Palin shouldn't be on vacation.  She should be in summer school."

The best explanation I have heard is this is as follows: From an early age, the majority of men stop listening to what women say altogether.  It starts with young boys.  Before long, they stop listening to their moms and do whatever.  And, because of this, over time, most moms want the dads more involved. The saga continues into adulthood when wives portray husbands as less communicative than the wives would wish. "Experts" of psychobabble pronounce that "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus."  But the fact is that they cannot communicate if they weren't listening in the first place! It's a listening problem.

In a lengthy, must-read discussion of the 2012 presidential field at FiveThirtyEight.com, Nate Silver produces this chart of the net favorability of the 2012 GOP presidential field:

It's no surprise that Sarah Palin & Newt Gingrich are as popular as burnt toast. I wouldn't have guessed that Tea Party favorites Ron Paul & Michele Bachmann would be so well known - or so resoundingly rejected. But as Silver notes, what's really so shocking about this chart is the lack of net favorables for the GOP's newcomer candidates like John Thune, Mitch Daniels & Tim Pawlenty. For example, John Kerry had spent two decades in the U.S. Senate when he ran for president, yet still had lower unfavorables than Pawlenty, who was an unknown nationally until being mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick for John McCain in 2004.

At this week's Conservative Political Action Conference, sponsored by a who's who of front groups for billionaires & big polluters, there's been plenty of talk of freeing billionaires from taxes and freeing polluters from laws that keep our air & water clean.

But freedom for Egyptians? As the Washington Post reports, most of CPAC's speakers have been strangely silent - and the loudest voice said America should've done less to encourage the Egyptian revolution:

[F]or the most part, they had little to say about the nation's policy toward Egypt, whether to praise the demonstrators whose protests forced President Hosni Mubarak to step down, or to offer the principles that should guide U.S. policy as the American and Israeli ally takes the next steps toward democracy.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney didn't mention Egypt at all in his speech. Nor did Sen. John Thune (S.D.), although his text included a line that said, "Let's stand with those around the world who are risking their lives for freedom." Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty made a glancing reference, criticizing Obama as appeasing U.S. adversaries, including "Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood."

It was left to Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) to step into the vacuum. The libertarian conservative, who drew an enthusiastic audience of supporters, offered a contrarian view. In a party that has championed the spread of freedom as part of its recent foreign policy and whose leaders helped keep Mubarak in power for decades in the name of stability in the Middle East, Paul stood out as a dissenter.

Saying he disagrees with the idea that the United States has "a moral responsibility to spread our goodness around the world," Paul added to cheers from the crowd, "We need to do a lot less a lot sooner, not only in Egypt but around the world."

The lack of Egypt talk also reveals a major shortcoming of 2011's Tea Party-dominated Republican Party: Today's GOP leaders are foreign policy lightweights. Where are the GOP's Jim Webbs? The Tom Perriellos? The Hillary Clintons? Instead, we get eccentric conspiracy theories from Ron Paul and anti-technology nuttery from Michele Bachmann.