Michele Bachmann won't seek reelection in 2014

[JoeTheJuggler]

The worst thing about that video for me, was to hear Michele Bachmann say, "Four people were killed and President Obama doesn't even care. He doesn't even care!"

What kind of a statement is that? The worst thing is, I'd bet she doesn't even believe it. It's a "talking point."

Amen!

And it's really bad for the quality of civil discourse in the country when that sort of bizarre behavior is tolerated in a member of Congress.

You can disagree with someone without making horrible and absurd claims such as he doesn't care that four people were killed.

 

[RandFan]

Who was the candidate who called for 2nd Amendment remedies?

source An individual identified as “Bob from Maine” said, “I’m from Maine and our tea party will be meeting up next week. What is the best way that we can get our senator to listen to us?”

“Shoot her,” said another caller, who did not identify himself.

The call to violence was met with laughter by the people on the conference call. No one on the line raised any audible objection.

It was a joke folks. It's not as if state representatives actually get shot.

 

[Alareth]

I remember during her last house election cycle her opponent had a "Where's Michele?" website that listed important bills in the house and which tea party rallies and events around the country Michele was attending instead of voting for them.

 

[newyorkguy]

Who was the candidate who called for 2nd Amendment remedies?

It was a joke folks. It's not as if state representatives actually get shot.

This reminds me of an incident during the 2008 John McCain campaign.

At least at one of the campaign stops, when McCain mentioned Barack Obama, people in the crowd starting chanting, "He's a Muslim, kill him, kill him," and the crowd started cheering. Reporters covering the stop said the atmosphere became very ugly.

To his great credit, McCain asked them to stop. That we don't kill the opposition's candidate in America. He went on to say, that he knew Barack Obama, had worked with him and considered him to be a fine senator, a very decent man and a friend. He added, of course, that he (McCain) just didn't agree with Obama's policies.

Poor Grand Ole Party. We knew you when....

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

To his great credit, McCain asked them to stop. That we don't kill the opposition's candidate in America. He went on to say, that he knew Barack Obama, had worked with him and considered him to be a fine senator, a very decent man and a friend. He added, of course, that he (McCain) just didn't agree with Obama's policies.

Poor Grand Ole Party. We knew you when....

And sadly McCain, who was once an effective political compromiser largely threw away his effectiveness when he nominated Sarah Palin as a running mate. His judgement is suspect. So even when he does or says the right thing, it's got no effect (sort of like the boy who cried "Wolf!")

I sort of feel that way about his recent denunciation of Apple's ability to avoid paying its fair share of income taxes. I'd have listened to the pre-2008 McCain, but now. . .meh. If it comes from McCain, my first instinct is to dismiss it.

So in talking about the damage done to political discourse (especially to compromise within Congress), Bachmann is one side of the story. She is definitely at fault. But so is McCain. While Bachmann gave outrageous devotion to ideology a good name, McCain gave actual compromise and working with political opponents a bad name.

 

[newyorkguy]

Fwiw, supposedly what I have read is, early in the McCain campaign the Republican National Committee, called him in and read the riot act to him. That he needed to get on board with certain positions -- eventually he repudiated his own Immigration Bill, didn't he? -- or he wasn't going to get much help or funding.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Fwiw, supposedly what I have read is, early in the McCain campaign the Republican National Committee, called him in and read the riot act to him. That he needed to get on board with certain positions -- eventually he repudiated his own Immigration Bill, didn't he? -- or he wasn't going to get much help or funding.

That'd be the infamous GOP "Etch-a-Sketch" approach to running a campaign. I guess he figured that since just being himself failed miserably against Dubya, he should adopt their chameleon approach.

Still, he stood in front of the U.S. electorate and introduced Palin as a political maverick (like him--someone who was wont to oppose his own party), opposed to pork politics who said "No" to the "Bridge to Nowhere". While he's credited with rejecting Romney as a running mate (possibly due to realization of potential scandals in his background), he nominated someone facing credible ethics charges and so on.

Even if he did these things against his own better judgement in order to keep his party's support, it shows he is not the honorable man he portrayed himself to be.

 

[newyorkguy]

<snip>
Even if he did these things against his own better judgement in order to keep his party's support, it shows he is not the honorable man he portrayed himself to be.

I don't want to be too hard on McCain (whom I like, though I don't like a lot of his positions). The problem was, or so I remember, the Republican National Committee did not expect him to make it through the primary process. Once he did then they had to a lot of strategizing.

The RNC did not want to see McCain go "off message." They didn't want him changing policies that wouldn't work for him, because these same policies would work well for Republican candidates at the local level.

Without the financial support of the RNC McCain could not raise enough money on his own to have a viable campaign. So he had to make some compromises. After all, he had spent years working towards running for President, he wanted to give himself the best chance.

Some observers say McCain was very troubled by some of the things he had to do to keep the RNC support. When you get to that level, politics is a brutal game.

I still say the movie The Candidate (with Robert Redford) was one of the best political movies I ever saw. And it's probably even more true now than it was then.

 

[12AX7]

Don't forget Michele Bachmann's "Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery" comment.

 

[Susheel]

This reminds me of an incident during the 2008 John McCain campaign.

At least at one of the campaign stops, when McCain mentioned Barack Obama, people in the crowd starting chanting, "He's a Muslim, kill him, kill him," and the crowd started cheering. Reporters covering the stop said the atmosphere became very ugly.

To his great credit, McCain asked them to stop. That we don't kill the opposition's candidate in America. He went on to say, that he knew Barack Obama, had worked with him and considered him to be a fine senator, a very decent man and a friend. He added, of course, that he (McCain) just didn't agree with Obama's policies.

Poor Grand Ole Party. We knew you when....

This may be an exaggeration. If I remember correctly, at one of the campaign stops a woman began a tirade against Obama by stating that he was a Muslim to which McCain politely replied "No he isn't."

 

[newyorkguy]

It's not in any way an exaggeration. I saw the incident discussed on a PBS panel show and the incident was related as a way of illustrating McCain's fundamental decency. And the scary hostility of some people towards Barack Obama.

The same thing happened at Sarah Palin rallies. Especially when she accused Obama of having "ties" to a domestic terrorist named Bill Ayers. When crowd members yelled, Kill Obama!" Palin ignored it.

Sarah Palin's attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign....The attacks provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling "terrorist" and "kill him" until the McCain campaign ordered her to tone down the rhetoric...

Link

 

[Mooseman]

I will miss her for the unintended comedy she provided.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Remember when she blamed FDR for causing the Great Depression by passing the "Hoot-Smalley Act"?

The Craziest Things Michele Bachmann Has Ever Said

And who can forget Michele's fierce, almost single-minded homophobia?

I think the craziest is a very recent one.

At the CPAC conference, she gave an Obama-bashing speech in which she claimed the Obamas had a very lavish lifestyle including a dog walker that gets a 6 figure salary. When the CNN reporter challenged her about this egregious lie, Bachmann answered "Benghazi". She asked the reporter how she could ask about something as inconsequential as a dog walker when 4 people were killed in Benghazi, as if she herself wasn't the one who raised the topic of Obama's alleged dog walker.

Remember: natural disasters are gawd's way of telling us to knock it off with all the spending!

What's perhaps most telling about Bachmann, is that reasonable minds can disagree over at least 5 different things she's said as to which is most outrageously insane.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Without the financial support of the RNC McCain could not raise enough money on his own to have a viable campaign. So he had to make some compromises. After all, he had spent years working towards running for President, he wanted to give himself the best chance.

Some observers say McCain was very troubled by some of the things he had to do to keep the RNC support.

Apparently he wasn't troubled enough to refuse to nominate Sarah Palin as his running mate, or at least to make sure that she was checked out enough to realize what a liability she'd become for his campaign. (Seriously, how can you introduce someone to the nation as an anti-pork Maverick when that person hired a D.C. lobbyist to bring home the bacon for a town of 4000?)

I don't think caving into financial necessity says anything good about McCain anyway.

ETA: Maybe we need to start a separate thread to discuss McCain's character. Frankly, I don't trust his judgement at all.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

...

 

[NotJesus]

This may be an exaggeration. If I remember correctly, at one of the campaign stops a woman began a tirade against Obama by stating that he was a Muslim to which McCain politely replied "No he isn't."

Actually, she said he was an Arab, which is even dumber.

Say... do we know Ms. Bachmann's whereabouts on that day?

 

[JoeB]

Bachmann's democratic challenger drops out.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/democrat-drops-out-says-goal-was-oust-bachmann

Seems like he knew the only reason he had a chance in 2014 (and ran so close in 2012) in such a heavily republican district is because Bachmann was such a wackaloon.

 

[cwalner]

Bachmann's democratic challenger drops out.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/democrat-drops-out-says-goal-was-oust-bachmann

Seems like he knew the only reason he had a chance in 2014 (and ran so close in 2012) in such a heavily republican district is because Bachmann was such a wackaloon.

Interesting. This brings a whole new element to this story. While I can easily see the GOP strong-arming her to resign in order to keep the district safe, I have a hard time seeing Bachmann submitting to it.

 

[Olowkow]

This may be an exaggeration. If I remember correctly, at one of the campaign stops a woman began a tirade against Obama by stating that he was a Muslim to which McCain politely replied "No he isn't."

The lady in red, "He's an Arab."
"No, ma'am, he's a decent man."

 

[Brainster]

There goes the Democrats' chance of picking up this seat.