From politicalticker at CNN:
At a time when the former Alaska governor appears to be shrinking from the spotlight, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is stepping up as yet another favorite daughter of the conservative movement.
In recent television appearances, political activities and speaking engagements, Bachmann has matched Palin’s slams against President Obama and garnered seemingly equal affection from conservative activists.
But it remains to be seen whether embarrassing and highly publicized gaffes will affect her presidential chances.
On Saturday, the Minnesota Republican was in full swing: speaking at a high school academy in Manchester, headlining a fundraiser in Nashua for the New Hampshire GOP, and capping her day at a Tea Party-type event in Barrington.
…snip…
At the Nashua fundraiser, protesters crashed the carefully choreographed event. And at the earlier engagement in Manchester, Bachmann said of New Hampshire, “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world at Lexington and Concord.”
The Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 were fought in Massachusetts.
In the YouTube-era, those kinds of embarrassing moments can be replayed over and over with potentially damaging effect. Especially given other gaffes from Bachmann. She recently raised eyebrows over comments on the nation’s founding fathers and slavery. And she was mocked for appearing to look off camera during her post-State of the Union Tea Party response.
…snip…
“We’ve talked a lot, already this morning, about your great state motto: ‘live free or die,'” Bachmann said at the beginning of her Nashua speech. “And it causes me to think also about the motto of the state of Virginia: ‘Death to tyrants!'”
From there, Bachmann – who is chair of the House Tea Party Caucus – repeated many of her oft-stated, Tea Party-rhetoric-laced slams. She continued her call for the repeal of “Obamacare,” railed against the tax code and federal spending, even repeated a controversial line against the president.
“I said that we have a ‘gangster government’ running the show down in Washington, D.C. And I don’t step back from that statement,” Bachmann said at the fundraiser. “Because this is an administration that is intent on taking from its opponents – and giving to its friends. There’s a lot in common with a lot of Chicago’s history in this administration.”
Obama was not the only president to receive criticism. Bachmann even lashed out at the last Republican to hold the office.
While talking about the federal deficit, Bachmann said: “As you know, this year alone, the deficit will be $1.65 trillion. This is remarkable. Under the big-spending George Bush – and he was a big spender. I respect our president. But he was a big spender.[…]”
…snip…
At least one prominent Tea Party leader is encouraging Bachmann to run for president, while not mentioning Palin.
Though not an official endorsement, Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips wrote in a message to supporters: “at this point, this movement is going to have to choose a standard bearer for the White House in 2012. It may be a little early to choose that person now, but it is not too early for us to encourage good conservatives to get into the race.”
“Run Michele, RUN!” Phillips wrote.
Here’s a closeup of the WWRRD charm. Spinny Liberal suggested WWJD, but I don’t think the present hypocritical Rethugs look to Jesus for guidance; they look to their own sanitized, new and improved, and highly fictionalized version of Saint Ronald Reagan. By the way, the charm is available in rhinestones…
…or in red, white, and blue…
Raisinettes know that I’m all about accessorizing! 😀
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
love the red, white and blue WWRRD. damn the shrub for setting the stupid bar so low for POTUS. the answer to what would RR do?, is eat some jelly beans and take a nap. in fact, in the nightmare event that Bachmoran were to be elected, our only hope would be for her to nap, around 23 hours a day.
bachmoran! 😆
i think it’s st. ronnie who really set the bar low for potus. chimpy just took advantage of that. rr would not only eat jelly beans and take a nap, he would ask nancy to ask the psychics what his horoscope said, too.
glad you like the wwrrd charm. it took me forever to figure out how to make the damned things. they’ll be available in the raisin gift shop. 😉
I think that if Batshit chooses Charlie Sheen as her running mate, she has a chance to look a little less crazy. Not much, but a little.
Nah, he’d be her Secretary of State. And Mel Gibson would be ambassador to Israel.
The Mel Gibson line had me cracking up.
hello kurt,
welcome to the raisin! 😀
the raisinettes are a very funny bunch. 🙂
at least the country would make a lot of money from the reality show! goodbye defecit!
“You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world at Lexington and Concord.”
Be thankful she didn’t also cite Tucson. Accusing Bachmann of being loopy is like accusing the Pope of being Catholic. In her case it’s not batshit, it’s more like bat diarrhea. Tea party darling? Well, opium is sometimes consumed in the form of tea…..
If she ever became President, all bets would be off. If she can’t keep Massachusetts and New Hampshire straight, he’s she going to know Benghazi from Bengal? She’d probably bomb Chad in retaliation for messing up the Florida ballots in 2000.
Luckily, she has about as much chance of becoming President as I do.
“chad”, LOL
maybe she’ll have princess sarah as her secretary of geography!
Or as her head of the CIA, since she’s been keeping an eye on Russia from her house all this time.
she might merge the department of geography, the cia, and the federal reserve to save money. that way they can share a fax machine and a copier.
OMG…hahahaha… great idea.
i’ve rethought that, trinity river. instead, they should sell all the fax machines and use the one they confiscate from npr. 😉
remember, these are the same people that think Indonesia is in Africa, that dont even know that Africa is a continent and that Honolulu is at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro.
and that you can see russia from princess sarah’s house.
p.s. i thought honolulu was in kenya.
Make it stop!!!
let her keep going. let the rethugs have to make excuses for her, and let her be a huge thorn in the side of bronzo the clown.
I can only hope the crowd erupted in laughter at this gaffe of Bachmann’s. It’s really the only appropriate response. And I hope she can laugh at herself. I don’t know if Obama does, but the two do seem to be different levels of fuck-ups. Also, I saw Bachmann in the Tea Party response to the SOTU. If I hadn’t ever heard of her before, that would have been enough to run me off.
Can’t get over how swell everything looks on the new big screen! Keep trying to order that new Reagbolah jewelry line from QVC but they just hang up on me. Going to have to start up a cable channel, something like “Raisin Rocks” for basic cable, to go with the 600 others out there hawking crap 24/7. BB is riding that guano wave all the way to the top while her mentors rating is about the same as a lost hubcap off a car. There’s a story on Gawker about Mrs. Bearwoman defying Ailes advice not to do the Tuscon response bit. And her lawyer said not to. And several other expressed doubt. So, of course, she had to do it to get her goddamned two cents worth on record. And for her reward, she is #1 on Rogers shit list. Oh dear!
don’t those rethug women know their place? they’re supposed to look good and just repeat whatever frank luntz tells them to. this is what happens when you give them too much leeway. the bloom is off the rose for princess sarah. time to go back to wasilla and plan a new reality show. there will have to be nudity for anyone to notice this time. as for batshit bachmann, give her a shovel and let her keep on digging.
Hi, Nonnie. Sorry I haven’t been around lately. With various things in real life, I’ve been backing off from politics.
But, yes, Bachmann is running around my state telling us that we’re Massachusetts. That plays well.
I guess she later remarked that MA is where the battles happened, but NH is where we’re still proud of them. Of course, MA is the state that has a holiday called Patriots’ Day to honor the battles of Lexington and Concord.
I’m putting together a theorem that there is an inverse relationship between references to the Founding Fathers in political speeches and actual knowledge of the founding of the country. I think that there’s merit to it.
wken! (i know you dislike the smileys, but this is where i’d put a great big smiley face)
i’ve missed you! so glad to see you back.
it’s an exciting time to delve back into politics, especially with all the drama in wisconsin. i find it so inspiring. government by the people, indeed. too bad wanker walker skipped that day in social studies.
how did the local media in your neck of the woods handle batshit bachmann’s gaffe?
i think your theory is very sound. i would add that the number of times liberty and freedom and the other buzzwords are mentioned is also an indication of how ignorant the speaker really is.
Well, WMUR (the big TV network in-state, with a pretty comprehensive web site for those of us who don’t watch TV) has been pretty even-handed about it, but that almost comes across as derisive. One friend of mine was complaining about it, and I told him that he was tempting me to throw the quote, “Reality has a liberal bias.”
The Manchester Union-Leader, our conservative paper, seems not to have the story. They’re acting more and more like Faux lately … this seems like an example.
Seacoast Online has run a pretty good AP story:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20110313-NEWS-103130329?cid=sitesearch
Our public radio really hasn’t talked about it, but it’s fundraising week and that might be a decision made to avoid controversy in the current funding debates and in light of James O’Keefe’s latest clipfest.
Yes, the Wisconsin stuff is crazy. I can’t really walk away, can I?
well, i’m glad that some of the media carried the story. lawrence o’donnell did a rant last night about how he’s amazed that she doesn’t gave a more competent staff. you can watch the video here. here’s part what he said:
“The expression ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ should be replaced with ‘fact-checking Michelle Bachmann’.”
That was brilliant.
i liked that someone finally called those who voted for batshit bachmann ignorant. i would have used a stronger word, but i guess that’s why they don’t let me have my own tv show.
and there was that one time when she blamed Jimmy Carter for the avian flu which happened under Ford Administration. and most recently she “discovered” $105 billion that Obama hid in the new HC law… there is so much to pick from, methinks she’s gonna need every accessory you can think of, nonnie.
i too love the red, white and blue what would ronnie do bracelet. but you can’t stop there! a girl needs to coordinate after she accessorizes. what would jesus WEAR? i see a whole line of WWRRD shoes, pocketbooks, belts, jewelry. perhaps there’s a way to incorporate the logo onto a bat?
i am SO glad this story got picked up by CNN and grew legs. they are STILL running it this morning with real live soundbites. thanks for covering it, nonnie.
~ L
so glad you like the bling, latte. i have some ideas for more rethug bling and accessories, and one of these days, i’ll have to put together a little catalog.
batshit bachmann makes a fool of herself every time she opens her lipsticked lips. it’s good that a lot more people are being made aware of it now. maybe one of these days, the idiots in her district will be embarrassed enough by her to elect someone else.
You did it!! But in an Italian charm bracelet way. Red white and blue please. It’s much more eye catching. I love the bat earrings too, by the way. 😉
i’ll let her wear the red, white, and blue one next time. the rhinestones actually showed up better in the poster. i tried the other one, and it just looked blurry because of the size. glad you like it. i’ll have more accessory surprises in the future. 🙂