Yeah, yeah, she'd be easy for Obama to beat. As you will see if you look back on all these years of Michele Bachmann Update diaries I've been doing here: you're right, she's a nut--an extremist kook. Obama can beat her.
But it's not just about Obama, and it's not just about the White House. Bachmann (and Perry) bring an activated conservative evangelical base of millions to the polls with them if either of them gets on the ticket next year. You don't want that to happen, because of the coat tails, coat tails, coat tails in the Senate, House, gubernatorial and state races. Millions of people who will vote the way the evangelical radio tells them to vote, the way the voter guides passed out at conservative evangelical churches tell them to vote. Grassroots money and volunteerism, thrown at all those races--because Michele or someone like her is on the ticket.
(Below are links to two pieces that discuss the current dynamic of the race, without discussing the coat tails issue.)
(CONTINUED)
The coat tails issue is critical for us, which is why Tom Tomorrow is wrong today. It's true that endless speculation about the GOP nomination in news broadcasting is a big waste of time, at this point. It's true that it represents lazy journalism and hundreds of hours on a "horse race" story.
But--if you really are an activist--the outcome of this GOP horse race story is really important to you, for reasons I just explained above. The ideal outcome for a left-liberal activist is a GOP ticket with NO Christian fundamentalist on that ticket, in any capacity.
Romney plus an establishment Republican would be ideal: short coat tails, pissed off conservative evangelical hierarchy and tea party saying "fuck it, we'll sit this one out if we don't get our nut on the ticket."
But that isn't going to happen. Leaving the fundamentalists off the WH ticket could gut the Republican hegemony in Congress. So the outcome of this GOP nod horserace is worth working on, every day--to discredit Bachmann and Perry, to get the truth about them out into the traditional media.
Getting the truth about them into the mainstream media will not kill off the support of their conservative evangelical and tea party fans (they're proto-fascists, for all their talk about liberty--they support the anointed leaders no matter what.) But discrediting them by documenting and circulating the factual stuff that establishes them as kooks, nuts, liars, hypocrites, etc. can damage the ticket, weaken the coat tails.
Factual stuff, not name-calling, not just your tirades--factual stuff, circulated in the traditional media, on the pages of local newspapers, even on conservative blogs. Because (if you believe the following author) the dynamic is now Romney/Bachmann/Perry:
LINK:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/...
And if you believe this guy, Bachmann is a credible presidential candidate and would be worth serving under:
01:14 PM ET
CNN
Jon Huntsman would consider being Rep. Michele Bachmann's running mate
Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman was interviewed last week by Piers Morgan, and part of the sit-down airs tonight (with more tomorrow). Would he ever run as Mitt Romney's running mate? "I can't imagine it at all," he said. But how about Rep. Michele Bachmann?
"If you love this country, you serve her," said Huntsman. "If you're in a position to better the country, to bring whatever background you have to bear, whatever experiences to use in fine-tuning our future, I'll be the first person to sign up." Still, Huntsman acknowledged this was a hypothetical situation, and that his campaign is to win the presidential nomination...
LINK:
http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/...
UPDATE:
At the same time he says "I'll be the first person to sign up" when asked if he would serve as Michele Bachmann's running mate--Huntsman is on the attack with regard to Bachmann and Perry.
See this, front paged here at the Kos, today.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
So I guess he's changed his mind about serving with Michele Bachmann since he talked to Piers Morgan. (Thanks to Msmacguyer.)