The Bachmann File

**chimpkin** · 08-13-11, 10:55 PM

(Fraggle may have a point thinking I hang out here too much)

**Michael** · 08-14-11, 02:03 AM

haha....

You know, I really feel sorry for women. First they get crazy ole' Nancy Reagan, then Palin, now Backmann.... Oh, OK, there was Hillary, but she's probably a little too sane (maybe a little too bought) to count as a woman

I'm just joking!

**Bells** · 08-14-11, 03:25 AM

Originally Posted by Tiassa

And the Winner Is ....

That's right. You guessed it.

Hahahaa!!

Well Canada is always an option if the horror story pans out and she somehow manages to win..

**chimpkin** · 08-14-11, 06:17 AM

Originally Posted by Michael

haha....

You know, I really feel sorry for women. First they get crazy ole' Nancy Reagan, then Palin, now Backmann.... Oh, OK, there was Hillary, but she's probably a little too sane (maybe a little too bought) to count as a woman

I'm just joking!

If only Condoleeza Rice wasn't too sane to run...

I don't like her but she's one female conservative I do...at least think is sane, intelligent, moderate, smart, and like Darth Vader in a little black dress.

Yeah, Hillary's too bought, that's why I did not vote for her.

**superstring01** · 08-14-11, 03:57 PM

At this point, the Obama admin--and Democrats on the whole--are undoubtedly loving the idea of her winning the Republican nomination. More power to her.

Staying away from Ames was Perry's smartest move. He would have had to preach to religious conservatives and go even holy-motherfuk-shit-bag-crazier to the right to beat Bachmann at that game and win the straw poll.

This is why, Perry wears his religious stripes for all the world to see, but doesn't really drag it into politics. I have no doubt that the American moderates can be duped by the guy's "bravado" into believing that he doesn't think himself on a mission from Jehovah.

~String

**Cifo** · 08-14-11, 08:27 PM

I saw Bachmann after her win in the Iowa straw poll. She was clapping her hands and "yay"-ing like a Kindergartner, and screeching "I love you! I love you!" to the crowd as if her beau was on the train going off to war. What people fail to take into account is that she won only 28.6% of the votes, meaning that more than 70% of the people did *not* vote for her.

As president, she'll need to go face-to-face with the toughest [expletives deleted] in the world, and she'll need to at least be able to give them a don't-even-think-of-messing-with-me stare down. I mean, both at home and abroad, who could ever take her seriously? Give me someone like Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher. We're talking about someone who would have the nuclear launch codes.

And what's with the Darth Vader helmet hair? At least Princess Sparkle Pony is giving it the coverage it deserves.

**Tiassa** · 08-14-11, 09:02 PM

Originally Posted by Superstring01

At this point, the Obama admin--and Democrats on the whole--are undoubtedly loving the idea of her winning the Republican nomination. More power to her.

Oh, undoubtedly. But they also know it can't last. I mean, if it comes down to Bachmann versus Perry? The Governor of Texas may be nuts, but his kind of nuts is at least somewhere in the solar system. Bachmann is in another galaxy entirely.

**joepistole** · 08-14-11, 09:40 PM

What is interesting is to watch how Bachmann responds to the tough questions. She never answers them, instead she launches into the preprogramed talking points - she reminds me of an old jukebox. And of course she uses up as much time as possible reciting the preprogrammed talking points, because she knows time is limited. So the more time she can spend repeating her talking points, the interviewer has less time to ask her the questions she would rather not answer.

**Michael** · 08-15-11, 03:29 AM

Reporter: How would you handle the GFC?
Bachmann: Huh?
Reporter: The GFC.
Bachmann: *cheerleader kick* Lets make OBAMA a One .....Term .......President!!!!! *cheerleader kick*
Crowd: Yeaaaa, we're a bunch of dipshit racists.... yeaaaaahhhh Backmann and BabyJesus and her Gay Husband.... Yeeeeaaahhhhh.....

**superstring01** · 08-15-11, 05:18 AM

Originally Posted by joepistole

What is interesting is to watch how Bachmann responds to the tough questions. She never answers them, instead she launches into the preprogramed talking points -.

Remind you of someone else: ???

~String

**~~Pinwheel~~** · 08-15-11, 05:24 AM

Originally Posted by chimpkin

I find her real eyes more scary than blanked out ones....

**CptBork** · 08-15-11, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by chimpkin

If only Condoleeza Rice wasn't too sane to run...

I don't like her but she's one female conservative I do...at least think is sane, intelligent, moderate, smart, and like Darth Vader in a little black dress.

I never really thought about it much before, but I think in retrospect Condoleeza Rice would have made a vastly more competent president than Bush, and she was technically more qualified for the role in the first place. I wonder how things would have turned out if the two roles had been swapped?

**sifreak21** · 08-15-11, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by Michael

Reporter: How would you handle the GFC?
Bachmann: Huh?
Reporter: The GFC.
Bachmann: *cheerleader kick* Lets make OBAMA a One .....Term .......President!!!!! *cheerleader kick*
Crowd: Yeaaaa, we're a bunch of dipshit racists.... yeaaaaahhhh Backmann and BabyJesus and her Gay Husband.... Yeeeeaaahhhhh.....

rofl

**joepistole** · 08-15-11, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by superstring01

Remind you of someone else: ???

~String

It does.

**Tiassa** · 08-16-11, 07:22 AM

Bachmann Blames Obama for Bush

Work with me here, it's a simple long-term strategy:

• Republicans blame Obama for something Bush did that hurt the country.

• Democratic supporters will inevitably point out that it's not Obama's fault if it was Bush's doing.

• Republicans sigh and tell Democrats to get over blaming Bush.

Michele Bachmann explained:

I mean, one example I'll give you is, we had one employee at the federal Department of Transportation that made $170,000 a year at the beginning of the recession. We had the trillion-dollar stimulus, and 18 months into the recession, we had 1,690 employees making over $170,000. Government has really been growing at — a lot of largesse, but the people in the real world aren't.

(qtd. in Kessler)

And Glenn Kessler goes on to explain what happens when that assertion is tested:

Note that although the GOP presidential aspirant starts out by talking about the "never-seen-before levels" of spending under Obama and then mentions "the trillion-dollar stimulus," the example she cites — the number of Transportation Department employees making more than $170,000 — uses the metric of "the beginning of the recession." There's a reason for that phrase: The recession started in December 2007, 13 months before Obama became president.

In other words, Bachmann gives the impression that she is talking about something that Obama did, but in fact, the big increase in government pay that she denounces started under Obama's Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.

In fact, the apparent source of Bachmann's claim, a 2009 article in USA Today, made it clear that Bush recommended across-the-board raises that, after they got through Congress, resulted in boosts of 3 percent in January 2008 and 3.9 percent in January 2009. By contrast, Obama in 2010 recommended the smallest federal pay raise since 1975 — 2 percent — and then froze salaries in 2011.

USA Today also noted that civil servants are generally prevented from earning more than their agency's leader, so when the salary of the Federal Aviation Administration chief was raised, nearly 1,700 employees had their salaries lifted as well.

The fact that these salary shifts occurred before Obama became president is easily confirmed by fiddling with the data displayed on the Web site of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. If you check the data before Obama became president, it is clear that the bulk of the new salaries were instituted before he took office.

This is what it takes to win the Ames Straw Poll? Is that just Iowa Republicans? Republicans in general? Iowa Republicans who do silly things like go to the Straw Poll?

By Kessler's assessment, Bachmann scores Two (2) Pinnochios:

Two Pinnochios

Significant omissions and/or exaggerations. Some factual error may be involved but not necessarily. A politician can create a false, misleading impression by playing with words and using legalistic language that means little to ordinary people.

But yes, do you get it? Blaming Obama for something Bush did is significantly erroneous. I know, I know, for some people it just doesn't seem that big a deal. That's why a candidate of this quality can win the Ames Straw Poll.

• • •

She ... Just ... Won't ... Stop ....

Family values. Middle America. Ames Straw Poll winner. Blah. Yadda. Yig.

On her victory lap of Iowa yesterday, Straw Poll winner Rep. Michele Bachmann paid repeated tribute to her local roots, and repeatedly mentioned her family reunion that day, citing it as an excuse for her late arrival at a local party event in Waterloo.

But Bachmann's mother and two cousins told POLITICO's Emily Schultheis that Bachmann didn't attend the reunion, though her husband and children did. Her spokeswoman, Alice Stewart, didn't respond to two emails asking for an explanation of the disparity.

Bachmann told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” that same morning that she was looking forward to the reunion.

“We’re having a big family reunion today in northeastern Iowa so I’ll get to go and see all my relatives,” she said.

That evening, she answered a reporter's question about why she'd turned up late to the Black Hawk County Republican Party dinner in Waterloo.

It was, she said, "a busy day.

“We had a big family reunion just north of Waterloo," she said. She also said she'd visited a local "shut-in."

(Smith)

You know, I don't go looking for this kind of stuff. If I seal myself off entirely, so that I receive no political news whatsoever, then yes, a day might pass without me learning of something stupid Michele Bachmann just said or did.
____________________

Notes:

Kessler, Glenn. "Michele Bachmann's too-good-to-be-true stat on federal workers". The Fact Checker. August 16, 2011. WashingtonPost.com. August 16, 2011. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...qbHJ_blog.html

—————. "About the Fact Checker". The Fact Checker. September 6, 2007. Blog.WashingtonPost.com. August 16, 2011. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-...t_checker.html

Smith, Ben. "Bachmann skipped family reunion she cited". Politico. August 15, 2011. Politico.com. August 16, 2011. http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmi...she_cited.html

**Bells** · 08-16-11, 10:19 AM

How is it even possible that this woman can be considered a candidate?

She's a frigging loon!

Is it a case that the right are willing to put anyone in the Oval Office, so long as it is not a Democrat? How supportive will normal non-Tea Party Republicans be towards her if she somehow manages to win the GOP ticket?

**Tiassa** · 08-17-11, 02:01 AM

Today's Gaffe

Via Associated Press:

Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann got her Elvis Presley dates all shook up during a campaign stop in South Carolina.

The congresswoman from Minnesota played the Elvis tune "Promised Land" on Tuesday at a restaurant in Spartanburg, and told the crowd of 300 that she wanted to say happy birthday to the King of Rock and Roll.

But Aug. 16 is the anniversary of Elvis' death, in 1977, and someone in the crowd shouted back, "He died today!"

Bachmann didn't respond and launched into her speech.

This is the thing that gets me about this kind of gaffe: Presidential campaigns are a seriously professional business, yet in all the millions spent, apparently the candidates cannot afford to hire someone whose sole job it is to check talking points, speeches, press releases, and interview preparation materials against the possibility of embarrassment.

Who failed to stop Michele Bachmann from making the John Wayne Gacy gaffe? Who failed to keep this minor bit of Elvis trivia straight?

I don't think it so much to ask for at least one quality assurance officer on a presidential campaign. Indeed, voters should be concerned if the candidates don't have any QA in place.
____________________

Notes:

Associated Press. "Bachmann confuses her Elvis dates, wishes the King a happy birthday on the day he died". The Washington Post. August 16, 2011. WashingtonPost.com. August 16, 2011. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...VJJ_story.html

**Billy T** · 08-20-11, 08:02 AM

I don't know how much of following is true. It comes from National Inflation Association, a supporter of Ron Paul, but generaly they don't lie about facts and offer a video where you can see people at the Bachmann desk getting for free the entrance passes that cost $30 to be able to vote in the Ames Straw Poll.

"... The 2011 Ames Straw Poll just took place on August 13th with Michele Bachmann finishing first place with 4,823 votes and Ron Paul coming in second with 4,671 votes, only 152 votes behind Bachmann.

To attend the Ames Straw Poll and have the opportunity to vote in the poll, attendees were required to purchase a ticket priced at $30. Bachmann gave her supporters 6,000 free tickets at a cost to her campaign of $180,000. Only 80% of the people she gave free tickets to actually voted for her and that's assuming none of the people who bought tickets voted for her.

Bachmann didn't just pay for the entrance of 6,000 people who she thought supported her, but she paid a small fortune to have Grammy Award winning country singer Randy Travis perform in a special air-conditioned tent. Bachmann even paid to transport forty bus loads of Randy Travis fans to the event, who were required to register at the Bachmann table and vote before seeing the entertainment.

With Bachmann spending a total of nearly $1 million on this event, she should have won the straw poll in a blow out. Click on the link below to see a shocking video we just posted to the NIA blog of the never ending line of Bachmann "supporters" registering at her table so that they could vote without paying the $30 fee.

NIA believes that many of these people pretended to support her in order to get free tickets, but actually voted for Ron Paul: http://inflation.us/blog/2011/08/cra...raw-poll-line/

The morning after Bachmann's phony victory, she appeared on five different nationwide talk shows. Ron Paul wasn't allowed to appear on any, with both 'Meet the Press' and 'Fox News Sunday' canceling interviews they had scheduled with him. Meet the Press spent the morning talking about Bachmann's win and Tim Pawlenty dropping out of the race after finishing third with less than half of the votes of Bachmann and Ron Paul. They barely mentioned Ron Paul even when he finished in a statistical dead heat with Bachmann. ..."

As I have long believed, this tends to support the idea that the US has the best politicians money can buy.

**joepistole** · 08-20-11, 09:28 AM

Originally Posted by Billy T

I don't know how much of following is true. It comes from National Inflation Association, a supporter of Ron Paul, but generaly they don't lie about facts and offer a video where you can see people at the Bachmann desk getting for free the entrance passes that cost $30 to be able to vote in the Ames Straw Poll.

"... The 2011 Ames Straw Poll just took place on August 13th with Michele Bachmann finishing first place with 4,823 votes and Ron Paul coming in second with 4,671 votes, only 152 votes behind Bachmann.

To attend the Ames Straw Poll and have the opportunity to vote in the poll, attendees were required to purchase a ticket priced at $30. Bachmann gave her supporters 6,000 free tickets at a cost to her campaign of $180,000. Only 80% of the people she gave free tickets to actually voted for her and that's assuming none of the people who bought tickets voted for her.

Bachmann didn't just pay for the entrance of 6,000 people who she thought supported her, but she paid a small fortune to have Grammy Award winning country singer Randy Travis perform in a special air-conditioned tent. Bachmann even paid to transport forty bus loads of Randy Travis fans to the event, who were required to register at the Bachmann table and vote before seeing the entertainment.

With Bachmann spending a total of nearly $1 million on this event, she should have won the straw poll in a blow out. Click on the link below to see a shocking video we just posted to the NIA blog of the never ending line of Bachmann "supporters" registering at her table so that they could vote without paying the $30 fee.

NIA believes that many of these people pretended to support her in order to get free tickets, but actually voted for Ron Paul: http://inflation.us/blog/2011/08/cra...raw-poll-line/

The morning after Bachmann's phony victory, she appeared on five different nationwide talk shows. Ron Paul wasn't allowed to appear on any, with both 'Meet the Press' and 'Fox News Sunday' canceling interviews they had scheduled with him. Meet the Press spent the morning talking about Bachmann's win and Tim Pawlenty dropping out of the race after finishing third with less than half of the votes of Bachmann and Ron Paul. They barely mentioned Ron Paul even when he finished in a statistical dead heat with Bachmann. ..."

As I have long believed, this tends to support the idea that the US has the best politicians money can buy.

The same has been briefly reported in the mainstream press here in the states. It did not get much attention. Colbert did not fail to take notice. Below is a link to Colbert's comments on the affair (you must scroll down to the video portion).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_928214.html

**Billy T** · 08-20-11, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by joepistole

The same has been briefly reported in the mainstream press here in the states. It did not get much attention. Colbert did not fail to take notice. Below is a link to Colbert's comments on the affair (you must scroll down to the video portion).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_928214.html

Your link does not work out side of the US, but this one does:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-col...w-poll-results

What I don't understand is why would she wants to be president of the Americans when more than 1,200 of 6,000 deligates she paid to vote for her did not! That assumes all of her votes were bought. If 1/3 of her 4,823 votes (1608) were not the paid for votes for her, but really liked her, then the paid for votes that voted as told totaled only 4,832 -1608 = 3224. I.e. nearly half of the people she paid to vote for her did not. And Ron Paul, with 4671 "not paid for votes" was the real winner.

Things are getting really bad in the US; - crooked politicians we expect, but crooked voters too! That is too much.
Now politician can't even count on getting the votes they paid for if this trend continues.