Michelle Bachmann will be awful for the country. The fact that she’s even in contention is worrying. Her policies will be bad for working people, bad for the environment, bad basic decency. She may be the worst person to run for president with any chance of winning in my lifetime. A lifetime that includes Pat Robertson’s George W. Bush’s Newt Gingrich’s run and many other horrible people. Please don’t vote for her. Believe me when I say that I hate the fact that I’ll be defending her for the rest of this post.
I somehow missed a lot of the Newsweek cover when it came out. So I didn’t comment on it. But it’s still pretty awful. Then during the last GOP debate I noted that she was asked a sexist question. And now this! Seriously, everybody, stop with the sexist bullshit.
Let’s start with the pictures. Everybody takes bad pictures and good pictures. And there’s nothing inherently sexist about choosing an unflattering picture. We’ve all seen men politicians with bad pictures taken of them. The main problem with Newsweek is that it was a studio shoot. Generally in those they pick better pictures of the subject. Newsweek chose that picture to look strange in a way that I can’t recall them doing to a man in a cover shoot.
In the picture of her eating a corn dog, well if you can’t spot what’s wrong with it, perhaps I won’t explain it here on a nice family blog. I’ll just say that I don’t recall similar pictures of men on the campaign trail.
Finally, the question York asked at the Republican debate:
In 2006, when you were running for Congress, you described a moment in your life when your husband said you should study for a degree in tax law. You said you hated the idea. And then you explained, “But the Lord said, ‘Be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.’”
As president, would you be submissive to your husband?
Seriously, what does that even mean in context of the presidency? One time your husband said you should go to law school and you did, therefore will he decide the cabinet? What treaties to sign? There’s no evidence whatsoever in her time in the MN legislature or Congress that she’d submit her public policy decisions to her husband. And while I don’t think women should submit to their husbands in their personal lives, I don’t see how that’s relevant to her qualifications for office, nor do I see this sort of question being asked of a man.
All of this isn’t to say you can’t criticize her on a whole range of things. Nobody’s above criticism and she’s got a particularly awful track record. Just let’s try to keep sexism out of our criticism.
re the corndog — It wasn’t outside the Tastee Freeze, was it?
As far as the corndog photo goes, she’s just going to have to suck it up if she wants to hang with the big boys.
@1 Not unless her name used to be Diane…
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It reminds me of Kennedy being asked if he’d defer to the pope.
It’s a total bullshit question. But, it’s based on her own statements and her own beliefs. I can see how that one might happen.
Bachmann has a habit of bringing up personal shit and then going all crazy when asked about it. So there’s a bit of wanting to have things both ways on her part, which is also bull shit.
Michelle Bachmann will be awful for the country
as opposed to obama, who has been great for america
They’ve got corn-dog photos of her, her husband, and a few others. Here’s one montage, there are others:
Bachmann at the Fair
I think it’s a bit of sophomoric humor, if you ask me. But from now on, political handlers will brief every politician about to make an appearance at the fare: “Don’t eat the corndogs”.
As for asking her husband if she could go to law school, I would ordinarily give her a pass on this. After all, what couple doesn’t discuss major decisions like this? It impacts both of them, in terms of time, money, etc.
But it was Bachman herself who brought it up in the context of being “submissive to her husband”, which kind of raises a red flag. Now, I go to an Evangelical church, and I hear these types of buzz words from time to time, and I know the context in which they are said. It was she who brought it up, not some reporter.
In the context of a President who might be called upon to protect women’s rights, what does that say about her viewpoint? Would she be in favor of women’s equality, but only if her husband first gives her permission to be equal? Should a woman have to bring a note from her husband before getting a job, going to college, getting an abortion, getting birth control pills, getting a promotion, etc.?
# 4: I know you are being sarcastic, but it’s nice to see that even a stopped clock is correct at least twice a day.
Don’t fret, Carl, she’s not in contention.
“‘The Republican nominee … is going to be Rick Perry or Mitt Romney,’ said Fred Malek, a top Republican money man who ran George H.W. Bush’s 1992 campaign. …
“A member of the House has not been crowned a party nominee since James Garfield in 1880.
“Bachmann’s victory in a mock, Midwestern election dominated by the fringes of the Republican Party only served to highlight her narrow appeal. In contrast, both Perry and Romney … have won statewide elections with Democratic and independent votes. …
“Mounting anger with President Obama over the economy’s woes makes it unlikely that voters will take another chance on a crowd-rousing lawmaker who lacks executive experience. …
“Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist for George W. Bush who advised Romney’s 2008 campaign [said,] ‘We are not going to nominate somebody who has no chance of winning.’”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44.....sion_2012/
The Newsweek cover is no big deal. George W. Bush looked like a monkey in all of his pictures, but got to be president for 8 years anyway — all you need is a corrupt SCOTUS in your pocket and a Republican data processing firm counting the Ohio votes.
http://0.tqn.com/d/politicalhu.....himps2.jpg
@9
The Newsweek cover is no big deal. George W. Bush looked like a monkey in all of his pictures,
acually rog, i was thinking the same thing about obama. especially when he’s not wearing a suit. some video of him on vacation in t shirt and shorts looked like the spitting image of an ape. the way his long arms hang down, he could easily pass for some mutant ape that could play in the movie planet of apes.
Sleep easy, Perry will be the next president!
And while I don’t think women should submit to their husbands in their personal lives,
thats funny carl. so, you have ab opinion on what should happen between two adults in their personal lives? raelly? do you also have an opinion on how two adults should conduct their sex lives? do you have an opinon on the gender of the two adults in the relationship? do you have an opinion on a person who has a different opinion than you regarding two adults in a relationship?
lots of unanswered questions carl
Manofpoop
@12 I agree with you! Carl should mind his own damn business. For all he knows, Republican wives enjoy wearing burqas and bearing 10 children.
Oh, this kind of scary cover would never happen to a man
Also see Dean scream and Dukakis tank ride. Kerry got crap for not knowing the ins and outs of eating Philly style, and then there’s the 2000 press War on Gore. Politics ain’t beanbag as the saying goes. Soaring noodles Carl, don’t waste your time defending the likes of her, let her team deal with it. Elbows get thrown in this business, we’ve taken far more than they have and standing up for fairness hasn’t helped our side one bit.
m
@14
@12 I agree with you! Carl should mind his own damn business. For all he knows, Republican wives enjoy wearing burqas and bearing 10 children.
i didnt know that was forbidden either, rog.
i’m just trying to create list of whats allowed in my home and whats not..so far i got
women can only relate to their husband on approved terms, eg carl say women cannot submit to their husbands
women can only have preapproved number of kids..per roger, less than 10
women can only wear preapproved clothing…per roger, no burquas.
ok..so this is at least a start.
Actually, Bachmann handled the question pretty well:
“What submission means to us, if that’s what your question is, it means respect. I respect my husband, he’s a wonderful, Godly man and a great father. And he respects me as his wife. That’s how we operate our marriage. We respect each other, we love each other.”
Not a bad answer to a loaded question …
@18
Not a bad answer to a loaded question
im not sure what side of the aisle you’re on rich, but i’d say you understated the question. not loaded, but nasty, biased and hateful. only slightly different than the questions brian cryin williams asked obama.
I wonder why Brian Williams isn’t on this racist comment by one of Obama’s diplomat’s?
“I was on a 24-hour train trip from Delhi to Orissa,” the eastern Indian state, Chao continued, according to Agence-France Press. “But, after 72 hours, the train still did not reach the destination … and my skin became dirty and dark like the Tamilians.”
Obama Diplomat Maureen Chao.
Can Leftists be racist?
Read the entire context of Ephesians 5:21-33 which lays out Christian Marriage. It’s to be taken in it’s entirety, not cherry-picked.
Christ calls us to submit to one another FIRST.
v21
Anyone can twist Scripture, especially non-believers.
A husband is called to love his wife as Christ loved the Church. There is no deeper love.
re 16: Thanks for the astute correction. Then I take it you’re OK with the ‘poop’ part?
Bachmann brought up the submissive stuff. (I just realized that would be a great out-of-context quote.) So it was a fair question.
1. Candidate expresses general value.
2. Candidate runs for office.
3. Reporter asks candidate how that value applies specifically to the office.
Totally fair.
“Reporting” on her dress or hairstyle, unfair.
re 21:
John 15:13 – Greater love hath no man than that he should lay down his life for another.
I’ll save you the trouble: I said ‘deeper’, not greater. But, we all can still see that you are full of doo-doo. Christ did NOT advise that you should love the church in a ‘deeper’ way than your fellow man — Chrisyian or NOT Christian. This is what we mean when we intimate that church lovers have ears but still do not hear.
re 21: But we REAL Christians still love you anyway — even though you are a vain, self-satisfied Pharisee.
# 18: Obviously, her handlers were prepared for the question, and had an answer ready for her to repeat from memory.
But I thought she got too much of a pass on the question. The obvious follow-up should be “If that’s the case, why didn’t you use the word ‘respect’, instead of ‘submission’? Submission is a pretty unusual word to be thrown about”.
Carl, it’s not sexist to ask someone to explain the effect their beliefs have on the way they live their daily lives. Bachmann purports to interpret the bible literally (whatever that means). She talks about how she tries to live her life according to her religion (and as a Dominionist, thinks we all should). The Bible tells wives to be submissive to their husbands. Bachmann is married to her husband. Ergo, BY HER OWN STATEMENTS, she should be submissive to him.
It’d be one thing if someone asked Hillary Clinton this question, or any female candidate who doesn’t use their faith as a primary reason for supporting them, and who doesn’t flaunt their supposed moral superiority constantly. That’s not what happened in this case. In this case, a Presidential candidate was asked about specific comments they have made in the past, and the logical consequences of those comments and the attitudes they reveal.
what’s amazing is that when the jew lieberman ran for president, the cocksucking media could bend down far enough to kiss his jew ass (“i’m what matters out here, not your fancy clothes or your fancy country clubs. if it wasnt for me, every wise guy skull out here would take a bite out of your jew ass, then where would you be?”). its all they could talk about…his piety, his religous faith….vomit
re 28: I think this is a Bible verse that, if you could see how it applies to you, would make you a better person.
Matthew 12:34
O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/.....permission
This is just fucking foolishness.