- Bachmann sees Irene as divine message on spending
- Bachmann remains “open” to lowering minimum wage. (Actually, she’s against the basic concept.)
- Michele Bachmann says she would consider oil drilling in the Everglades
Someone should be asking all Republican candidates for President if they agree, and if they don’t agree they should be asked whether someone who believes divine political instructions are delivered via the weather is a good choice for public office.
Where is the “crazy?”
1. According to the article:
“Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”
2. Minimum wage:
“She was later asked by a reporter whether changes to the minimum wage should also be considered to balance the cost of labor here and overseas.
“I’m not married to anything. I’m not saying that’s where I’m going to go,” she said.
3. Everglades policy:
“”Of course it needs to be done responsibly. If we can’t responsibly access energy in the Everglades then we shouldn’t do it.” … “No one wants to hurt or contaminate the earth. … We don’t want to harm our water, our ecosystems or the air. That is a minimum bar,” she said.
I’m thinking that people who vote Republican see this as perfectly normal and I would submit the above comment as Exhibit A.
Their elevators don’t always take them to the top floor.
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1. Bachmann’s campaign has already clarified the comment was hyperbole, I believe the specific term used was “jest”:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/08/michele-bachmann-hurricane-irene-message-from-god-/1
Again, if one examines what Bachmann said, it is clear that she would believe that the American people want less government spending even if the mid-Atlantic weather were spectacular every day. A rhetorical, hyperbolic flourish does not transform her into a bible-thumping zealot, as much as the left would like to portray her as such.
And then we have Obama’s religious statements, Feb 3, 2011:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjpyrfj4AWk&feature=player_embedded
“‘God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways. He does great things beyond our understandings.’ … When I wake in the morning, I wait on the Lord, and I ask Him to give me the strength to do right by our country and its people. And when I go to bed at night I wait on the Lord, and I ask Him to forgive me my sins, and look after my family and the American people, and make me an instrument of His will.”
If I wanted to play your game, how many ways could someone twist and turn these words (and his entire speech that day…) to make Obama seem like a zealot? And why do progressives give him a pass for advocating government partnerships with faith-based initiatives?
2. Even if one argues that at best Bachmann’s comments were insensitive, keep in mind you elected a President who mocks the handicapped:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HOBTUCv4o0
3. “… people who vote Republican … [t]heir elevators don’t always take them to the top floor.”
I know you run your blog differently, Rick, but my understanding of this blog is to engage in “discourse,” as opposed to hurling insults.
Don’t you think we should leave that up to Mr. Froomkin, JM?
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Commentators are invited to re-read the Comments Policy.
I am somewhat more tolerant of generic slurs (“Democrats are scum”), at least those that don’t attack a protected class, than I am of specific ones (“Commentator Smith is scum”).
But I don’t really care for either type enormously.
But Michelle Bachman is crazy is OK with you? Calling someone crazy is not slurring them? Or does your politeness policy only apply to posters? Is this perhaps trivializing mental illness, the very sort of trivializing that you claim not to engage in on a regular basis? Maybe we just need to avoid slurring YOU to be OK here.
I have no love for MB and her ideas believe me, but I seriously doubt she is crazy, and religious belief is certainly not de facto insanity. A politician professing openly a religious belief genuinely held certainly can’t be as bad as a politician professing a religious belief clearly NOT held at all, for the sole purpose of appearing to believe in some vague and amorphous “Christianity” that they feel the religious members of their party will like. But who would do something like that?
Clearly, one of the nation’s greatest natural treasures means less to Bachmann than the political support of Florida’s developers, who I’m sure begin to salivate at the thought of drilling the ‘Glades.
Taylor-agreed, hands off the Everglades. But it doesn’t make Bachmann “crazy” for putting it on the table.
Well, crazy like a fox then: Given (1) that there is no known plan for drilling in the Everglades, and (2) that no one of whom I’m aware believes it would be possible to do so without great damage to the Everglades, the proposal is about as sensible as saying we should mine uranium under the White House. But only so long as we can do so without damaging the structure or slowing local traffic.
There is nothing to ‘put on the table here’. This is just dog-whistle politics.
Incidentally, the minimum wage stuff really is crazy: the economy will not be helped by impoverishing our lowest wage workers. Indeed Alan Krueger, Obama’s new nominee for the CEO, made his reputation by showing that some increases in the minimum wage do not lead to job losses, contrary to orthodox free-market dogma.
And if the stuff about the hurricane was a joke, I don’t know what’s funny about the devastation in the Northeast. Pretty poor taste.
1. As to the Glades, what part of her statement “If we can’t responsibly access energy in the Everglades then we shouldn’t do it.” is unclear or disagreeable to you?
2. As to the minimum wage, if a lower minimum wage does not reduce unemployment, then why are American companies hiring illegal (oops, sorry, I meant “undocumented”) immigrants with such fervor? We have an illegal immigration problem precisely because of our minimum wage laws, not this republican nonsense that Americans don’t want to do the work.
I would agree though that reducing the minimum wage, or even using minimum wage as a tool to fight unemployment, is not necessarily desirable or conducive to long term growth.
That said, Bachmann: ““I’m not married to anything. I’m not saying that’s where I’m going to go,” So how is she “crazy”?
3. “Pretty poor taste.” That does not seem to matter to the American public anymore. Obama’s Special Olympics comment was swept under the rug.
Frankly, it seems to me that you’re simply labeling her “crazy” because she isn’t saying the things that you want to hear, or that you’re only reading the headlines and not the full text of what she actually said.
As I’ve explained previously, I think the rules are different when speaking of political candidates. Especially crazy ones.
“that no one of whom I’m aware believes it would be possible to do so without great damage to the Everglades,”
What I suspect you fail to understand is that horizontal drill advances permit oil and natural gas under the Everglades to be reached from drilling sites outside the Everglades. As is already being done under the Big Cypress wildlife preserve.
But perhaps it’s just that you’re not aware of anybody acquainted with modern oil drill procedures…
Congressman West rebuffs Bachman on drilling in the Everglades. See http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/dcblog/2011/09/west_rebuffs_bachmann_on_everg.html. I am no fan of Mr. West, but you have to give credit where credit is due. According to the Sun Sentinel, Mr. West responded to Bachmann’s comments on the Everglades by saying that ”the Everglades represents one of the most cherished treasures of the United States and should be off limits for exploration of any kind of natural energy resource,” and “I believe safe and responsible offshore drilling is an important part of a comprehensive energy plan, however, drilling in the Everglades should be absolutely off limits.”