June 25, 2011
Michele Bachmann's Holy War
Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone:
Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and, as you consider the career and future presidential prospects of an incredible American phenomenon named Michele Bachmann, do one more thing. Don't laugh.
It may be the hardest thing you ever do, for Michele Bachmann is almost certainly the funniest thing that has ever happened to American presidential politics. Fans of obscure 1970s television may remember a short-lived children's show called Far Out Space Nuts, in which a pair of dimwitted NASA repairmen, one of whom is played by Bob (Gilligan) Denver, accidentally send themselves into space by pressing "launch" instead of "lunch" inside a capsule they were fixing at Cape Canaveral. This plot device roughly approximates the political and cultural mechanism that is sending Michele Bachmann hurtling in the direction of the Oval Office.
Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government. She kicked off her unofficial presidential campaign in New Hampshire, by mistakenly declaring it the birthplace of the American Revolution. "It's your state that fired the shot that was heard around the world!" she gushed. "You are the state of Lexington and Concord, you started the battle for liberty right here in your backyard."
More here.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 11:58 AM | Permalink
Comments
The game of gotcha is petty and proves nothing. An old Chinese saying:"When you point 1 finger at me, you point 2 fingers at yourself."
As for gaffes, you forgot to mention Obama's reference to "57 states" or to the "country Europe."
Bachmann can think or talk circles around Obama, who cannot put two coherent sentences together with or without a teleprompter.
Convicted terrorist Bill Ayers was the actual author of Obama's 1995 book, "Dreams From My Father!"
3/24/11 interview with Bill Ayers at Montclair State University. utube video:http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/03/27/bill-ayers-admits-second-time-he-wrote-obamas-dreams-my-father
Posted by: Derek Wain | Jun 25, 2011 12:56:52 PM
Weekly Standard on MB:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/queen-tea-party_575540.html
Posted by: Derek Wain | Jun 25, 2011 12:57:44 PM
To quote the immortal Motormouth Maybelle from the film Hairspray, "Oooh papatooni, we got a looney." Never expected to see a Bachmann supporter HERE.
Posted by: Zora | Jun 25, 2011 1:38:08 PM
Watching the Tea Party and its most passionate spokespersons in action is a live demonstration of the Dunning-Kruger effect - the less they know, the more they think they know.
Posted by: Ruchira | Jun 25, 2011 4:26:33 PM
P. T. Barnum
Posted by: Louise Gordon | Jun 25, 2011 6:07:28 PM
I started learning about the Dunning-Kruger Effect when Sarah Palin bid fair to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. The especially interesting point about it is how very difficult it is for people affected by it to realize that they do not in fact have the chops for what they propose to do. Admitting incompetence, and facing a big learning curve with humility and resolve, is key to learning anything important -- it's what separates kids who like to dissect frogs from fourth year medical students. Many people liked Sarah Palin for "coming from her gut," and for her brassy intention to "just get in there and do it." I hope no one is laughing at Michele Bachmann. When you consider that the most educated, poised, adroit and far-seeing politicians we have are the ones who have created room at the top for her, you have to wonder if the Dunning-Kruger Effect obtains to them too; the politicians who have failed to see climate change as the overarching issue it is are as dangerously incompetent as Bachmann.
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Jun 25, 2011 7:47:45 PM
I haven't read the article yet, Elatia, but the gist of it reminded me of similar warnings you voice about Palin a while back.
Posted by: Bryon | Jun 25, 2011 10:56:57 PM
Bryon! Nice to see you! It's a terrific article, but please don't read it before trying to get a night's sleep...
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Jun 26, 2011 1:09:44 AM
Palin never had a chance of being president and neither does Bachmann. Will not happen.
Posted by: tomas | Jun 26, 2011 1:21:10 AM
Jay Rosen and a handful of others have a different take.
http://twitter.com/#!/JeffersonObama/status/85145842335498240
I think they may be on the right track.
Those who laugh at Bachmann are playing with fire.
Posted by: John Ballard | Jun 27, 2011 6:25:52 AM
"They're voting against us. And to them, it turns out, we suck enough to make anyone a contender."
The fact remains that the Democrats would love to see her or Pailin as the GOP candidate, because American Pres. elections depend on getting the 'midleground' to vote for you, the votes of the diehards on the left or the right are just not enough.
Posted by: aguy109 | Jun 27, 2011 4:36:20 PM
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