Don't Bother Trying To Ignore Michele Bachmann

Are you sick of hearing about Michele Bachmann? No one cares, because she’s not going anywhere and she will soundbite her way into media ubiquity and maybe even the Republican nomination.

If the last couple of days of the campaign cycle have seemed appreciably stupider, it’s not your imagination. Last night, Sean Hannity had Bachmann on and defended her confusing John Wayne and John Wayne Gacy by playing a reel of shocking Obama gaffes. The gaffe game burns out fast, but Bachmann keeps feeding the flames — today she insisted, despite George Stephanopoulous’s assurances otherwise, that John Quincy Adams was a founding father who fought slavery. (He was nine years old at the founding.)

Also, here is another musician who’s mad at a wingnut for using his tunes: This time it’s Tom Petty who wants Bachmann to cease using “American Girl” (which, by the way, Hillary Clinton used all she wanted in 2008). This somehow proves that Tom Petty is sexist.

As for the White House’s critique of her record, Bachmann blithely declared to Hannity that Barack Obama is just jealz: “The president of the United States is threatened by my candidacy. He fears me. He sees me as a serious substantive competitor. I think he sees that I have a very clear path to victory for the nomination. And I think that he wants to do whatever he can to diminish me because he thinks he will have to see me in the debates.”

We’re going to assume that the truly worried party here is Politifact, which has its hands full combing through all of Bachmann’s questionable statements.

Indeed, here is her former chief of staff declaring her in the headline “so not ready” to be president, mean girl syntax and all. “I know Michele Bachmann very well,: he concludes. “She is a faithful conservative with great oratory skills, but without any leadership experience or real results from her years in office. She is not prepared to assume the White House in 2013.”

The good (?) news is a poll released Monday indicating that voters are more ready than ever for a woman president. According to Rassmussen, “82% of likely U.S. voters said they would vote for a woman for president and 9% said they would not.” Just hopefully not this woman.

Tom Petty Up In Arms Over Michele Bachmann’s Use Of “American Girl” [Citypages]
Fact-checking Michele Bachmann On ‘Face The Nation’ [Politifact]
Running Against Bachmann Poses Challenges For Male Rivals [NYT]
Michelle Bachmann Confronts Familiar Hurdles For Female Candidates [LAT]