Targeting Michele Bachmann

There has been a bit of a maelstrom surrounding the Bachmann campaign the last couple of days.  First came the National Enquirer-like headline in the Daily Caller "Stress-related Condition 'incapacitates' Bachmann; heavy pill use alleged" where you find out that Michele Bachmann gets migraines.  You would think that she was some crazy sweaty drug addict, popping pills like they were candy.  Uh, no, she just get migraines and takes medication for it.  Does that really make her unfit to be President?  Would this question even be asked if she were Mitt Romney?  Would anyone care?  This is pretty much the equivalent of saying that because she is a woman, she could be overcome by the "vapors" and therefore can't be President.  Clearly this story was planted by one of her competitors in the GOP race, my guess it was Ron Paul.  Tucker Carlson, who runs the Daily Caller, is a fan of his, participating in Ron Paul rallies in the past, though it really could be anyone in the race.  Anyway, the gambit clearly didn't work as even the lefty Salon defended her and said the story was crap.  It also helped that she put out the perfect statement regarding this problem which seems to make it abundantly clear that this is a non-issue for her performance (none of that whiny victimhood that you often get from other candidates/politicians):

"Like nearly 30 million other Americans, I experience migraines that are easily controlled with medication. I am a wife, a mother, a lawyer who worked her way through law school, a former state senator who achieved the repeal of a harmful piece of education policy in Minnesota, and a congresswoman who has worked tirelessly fighting against the expansion of government and wasteful spending.

"Since entering the campaign, I have maintained a full schedule between my duties as a congresswoman and as a presidential candidate traveling across the nation to meet with voters in the key, early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. I have prescription medication that I take whenever symptoms arise and they keep the migraines under control. Let me be abundantly clear – my ability to function effectively has never been impeded by migraines and will not affect my ability to serve as Commander in Chief.

"The many questions I have received on this subject have allowed me to discuss this important condition that impacts individuals in nearly one in four households. However, as a presidential candidate and office holder, I am focused on performing my job, which has never been more important given the state of our economy and the millions of Americans that are out of work. While I appreciate the concern for me and my health, the greater concern should be the debate that is occurring in Washington over whether or not we will increase our debt, spending and taxes."

Then came the "Brian Ross" incident, where, according to Michael Crowley at Time, two "Bachmann men" pounced on Brian Ross after he tried to ask a question about her migraines.  Of course the leftie journalists and blogs  started to pounce on this one as it clearly shows, in their eyes, she doesn't have the fortitude to be President (maybe there will be an article coming up that she gets moody during 5 day stretches and pops a lot of midol).  But once again, those targeting Bachmann are making a mountain out of a molehill.  Brian Ross himself has said that the charges that he was "roughed up" are "far overblown" and that he was simply pushed aside when he tried to go up to Bachmann after repeatedly asking her if she missed any votes in Congress due to migraines (I wonder if he asked Obama how many votes he skipped in the Senate).  You can even see him supposedly after being "roughed up" at the 1:58 mark of this video, where he doesn't look roughed up at all. And personally I wouldn't blame her for not wanting to take his questions as he has already attacked her husband and her husband's homosexual counseling services in a hatchet job of a story (I do agree with Ross that homosexuality cannot be counseled away but if I were a reporter, it would make sense to at least try to show both sides).  He clearly is not exactly an objective reporter (just ask Toyota) and really does seem to have some sort of vendetta against Bachmann and her family.

Anyway, it seems that both the left and members of the right have tried to take Bachmann down with the migraine story and its aftermath but I think they have failed miserably.  In fact, I think they have made her appear even stronger than before.  She really is a force to be reckoned with.  She doesn't have my vote yet, but she is getting there.

Can This Headline Be More Inflammatory?

Time Magazine has a headline "How US Budget Cuts Prolong Global Slavery" in which the writer describes how the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) had their budget cut after the GOP victory in 2010.  Oh those evil Republicans, see this is proof they like slavery!  Actually no.  It looks like the $5-6 million that was cut from TIP's budget was part of a package that cut $8 billion from the State Department in general.  I would argue that State Department largesse in other areas is probably more responsible for the budget cuts than any GOP desire for more global slavery. 

Also, I'm not sure how much TIP was actually stopping global slavery.  The writer in the article mentions how the State Department paid $336,000 for a shelter in Cambodia which houses 50 former sex slaves and teaches them how to sew, to do someone's hair and was a place for them to do aerobics together.  Based on that rate of spending, the budget cuts would leave approximately 1,000 former slaves without shelter.  Now, I don't want to get into a discussion about how much every life is worth, as using that argument there is no program you cannot justify.  But when you consider that there are probably about 1.5 - 1.8 million persons trafficked within and without international borders every year, the impact of TIP is paltry, with or without the budget cuts.  Also, I don't think that even if we spent billions of dollars on TIP  that we would be making that many inroads against global slavery.  If you look at TIP's trafficking report, the countries that typically have major slavery problems and no intention of fixing them (i.e. are Tier 3 based on their coding system) are not liberal democracies with individual freedoms.  Some of the countries are Communist/Socialist, like North Korea, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Cuba (also, China is on a watch list to be downgraded to Tier 3), others are simply dirt poor with corrupt or ineffective governments like Liberia, while others are relatively wealthy but have a long history of slavery, like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.  Just as Foggy Bottom couldn't stop North Korea from getting nukes, I don't see how they can stop them from trafficking in slaves.

It's okay to oppose budget cuts but to say that they "prolong global slavery" is libelous.

Remember NY-23?

While the lootersphere gloats and chides the GOP for overreach after the NY-26 special election, I can't help but remember the NY-23 special election in November 2009.  The similarities are pretty uncanny, both have been historically Republican seats that had to have a special election in an off time and because of certain extremely localized issues, there was a third party challenger who helped elect a Democrat in that district. 

In the 23rd district, because the GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava (aka Scuzzy Face or Scuzzy Flava) was pretty much a RINO (Republican in Name Only), the Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman was able to get many national personalities to endorse his candidacy.  Eventually, Scuzzy Face dropped out of the race and endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens (kind of proving her RINO status).  The final tally was 48.3% for Bill Owens, 46% for Doug Hoffman and 5.7% for Scuzzy Face.  It's pretty clear that had it been a standard two party race that the GOP candidate would have won.  Unfortunately, the ineptitude of the NY GOP caused this horrible situation to happen.  Note there wasn't a primary for the GOP nomination, she was selected in a backroom deal because she was viewed as most "electable" (again showing the brilliance of the NY GOP).  I remember at the time, people thought that NY-23 might be a sign of something, but that did not stop Scott Brown from winning in Massachusetts just a few months later and the GOP from having historic gains in 2010 (though NY-23 once again was not one of them because Doug Hoffman ran again and took votes from the GOP candidate in another close election in that district which at one point had only GOP representation since 1873). 

The situation with the 26th district is no less unique.  Here you had a disgraced GOP Congressman forced to resign for some strange behavior involving pictures of him without a shirt and craigslist.  Once again the GOP selected a candidate without a primary (will they please stop doing that!) which pissed off a local Republican military hero who was runner up in the selection process. He then endorsed the third party candidate who was a Democrat running on the Tea Party ticket.  Because of this, the Democrat was able to win with 47% of the vote, compared to 43% for the GOP candidate and 9% for the fake Tea Party candidate.  Again a unique situation, unless the Democrats want to start a fake Tea Party to take votes away from the Republican and then get other disgruntled Republicans to endorse them.

The lessons are clear for the GOP and do not include backing away from much needed reform.  Simply, don't trust the NY GOP to wipe their tuchus' without supervision and try not to piss your own people off too much.

Ryan at His Best

Paul Ryan tells NBC's David Gregory what he thinks about polls:



It's really nice when a politician has the courage of his convictions and doesn't bend like a reed in the wind when a poll goes against him. Speaking of which, Obama is already saying his statements from Thursday were "misrepresented" even though people like your humble author either saw footage of him saying what he said or read transcripts.  There wasn't really much room or need to misrepresent the hoakum that he was spewing.