--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "whynotnow7" <whynotnow7@...> wrote: > > I was completed shocked when I saw Michelle Bachmann on Fox > last night (and I *never* watch Fox). Extremely poised, > present, and articulate. I have read about her extreme > positions, but the person I saw last night is someone I have > to take seriously.
No, you don't. Unless by "take seriously" you mean worry about her possibly getting the Republican nomination. But that would actually just about ensure Obama's victory. > Not only that, I want to know more about how she would do > things if President. Maybe after Newt and Sarah and Mitt, > anyone with a brain seems promising. Do not mistake poise, presence, and articulateness for a brain, at least one that thinks sensible thoughts. She is *the* craziest of all the prominent right-wing Republicans in Congress, and that's saying something. I recommend two recent posts about Bachmann from the blog of James Fallows, one of the most intelligent pundits on the Web. He's a liberal, but he's not hyperpartisan. First, about her amazing "John Wayne" gaffe today in Waterloo, Iowa: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/06/bachmanns-john-wayne-gaffe-in-the-reagan-tradition/241108/ http://tinyurl.com/3dgbvvo But that's relatively trivial. This post, about her Face the Nation appearance on Sunday, makes an important point about Bachmann (he agrees with you that she's looking remarkably professional these days): http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/06/bachmann-on-face-the-nation-two-signs-she-is-serious/241040/ http://tinyurl.com/3wukeff Money quote: "She showed that she is an absolute genius at the established political technique of 'giving the answer you want to give, no matter what the question was.' [Hmm, that sounds familiar.--JS] Schieffer reeled off a list of whopper-scale false claims she had made--for instance, that Obama had approved 'only one' offshore drilling permit, when in fact he'd approved hundreds. Her response, every time, was some variant on 'the real question is why President Obama has misled us.' Or, on policy: what specifically would she do to create jobs? 'The real question is why President Obama has failed to create jobs.' See for yourself from CBS's site. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7371376n "I am not endorsing this as the ideal way to lead a public discourse, and you can't get away with it forever. (Schieffer closed the show with a manful for-the-record note that he had tried time and again to get answers to his questions about her falsehoods, and hadn't.) If you have only this one trick in your array of responses, eventually this will be what the press constantly harps on. But it is a part of a big-time politician's arsenal, and she showed that she knows how to use it. "When I say these are signs that she is serious, I don't mean that by my lights she suddenly has practical, plausible answers to the nation's problems. It means that her run could be more disciplined and professional than some other ill-starred long-shot campaigns we've seen recently."
