You can tell a Republican woman running for office is getting desperate when she plays the sexism card.
See, while she's doing well in the polls, raising plenty of money, and even convincing her party to take her seriously, there's no such thing as sexism. Nope. There's no such thing as sexual harassment, there's no such thing as a wage gap and there's no way a woman running for president might be subjected to unfair bias, by her opponents or the media. Leave the complaints of sexism to Democratic women, because you won't find a tough-as-acrylic-nails Mama Grizzly whining about that stuff. And god forbid any women's advocacy organizations point out and criticize sexism on their behalf; they need that kind of support "like a fish needs a bicycle."
And of course Michele Bachmann is no different. In July, during an interview with Christina Bellantoni, Michele insisted all that sexism stuff was a thing of the past:
I have not seen gender as a barrier to being in the race. That’s I think very positive. I don’t see any barrier from people on that score and I think that it seems very normalized for people to see a woman who is running. [...]
I have to say that it hasn’t made any difference whether it’s been South Carolina or Iowa or New Hampshire or Texas or Florida or California or Utah or Nevada, it doesn’t matter which state I’ve been in, I have never detected a barrier.
Nope. Nothing to see here. It's so danged normal for women to run for president these days that really, it's a non-issue.
Michele expanded on her insistence that sexism simply doesn't exist in this presidential race when when she went on The O'Reilly Factor in September:
O’Reilly: “Do you think you’re being treated differently because you’re the only woman in the race? Here you’ve got eight sweaty guys – they’re all sweaty – and then you’re there. Are you being treated differently because you’re the only woman in the race, do you think?”
Bachmann: “You know I don’t think so. I’ve never felt that way. I grew up with three brother and no sisters.”
O’Reilly: “So there’s no gender bias, anything like that?”
Bachmann: “No, I grew up with three brothers and no sisters. That’s the best preparation for politics that any girl can have. I don’t feel in any way that I’m discriminated against. I’m just grateful to be able to be in the race. I think it’s wonderful…”
O’Reilly: That’s refreshing to hear. Remember Hillary Clinton when she ran last time [scoffs], ‘you know, I’m getting hammered because I’m a woman….’ You don’t see it that way.”
Bachmann: “I don’t think so. All of us have to go through this.”
But that was back in September. But since then, Michele's poll numbers have plummeted, she no longer takes center stage in the debates, her entire New Hampshire campaign staff quit, and even her own former campaign adviser, Ed Rollins, can't seem to stop trash talking her. So she's humming a different tune:
Michele Bachmann, the only woman running for the Republican presidential nomination, questioned Monday whether sexism was a factor in her treatment at the debates and falling poll numbers.
"Sometimes you wonder about that," Bachmann said in an interview on NBC's "Today" with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. "I have no way of knowing."
Of course Michele isn't actually condemning sexism within her party, the media or American society at large. She's merely "wondering" about it, backtracking from her flat-out denial of its existence only a few months ago. Who knows? Maybe some really tall, HPV-immunized doctor suggested it to her. But she does know:
"It's unusual to have a woman candidate. We've never had a woman on the Republican ticket running for president at this level before," Bachmann said. "So I think it's time to let a woman speak."
It's funny that a candidate who prides herself on her "consistency" would go from assuring us that it's "normalized" to see a woman running for office to declaring it "unusual" and to even claim it's never been done before. (I wonder what Elizabeth Dole, Republican presidential candidate in 2000, would have to say about that.)
This was to be expected, of course. It was easy to rise above it when things were going well for Michele Bachmann. It was easy to say that she wasn't running as the "woman" candidate. Now that her numbers have continued their downward spiral into Rick Santorum territory, well, Michele needs a convenient explanation for why the Republican Party has recoiled in horror. It couldn't possibly be her jaw-dropping stupidity. Or that even her own party has grown tired of her one-tracked campaign pitch: blah blah blah, Obamacare, socialism, abortion, Jesus, blah blah. That she's no longer front and center in the Republican debates couldn't possibly have anything to do with those paltry numbers; no, it must be a liberal media conspiracy against her. Also, the fact that she's a woman—which only a few months ago was most definitely not a barrier for her—just might have something to do with it after all. Maybe.
It's desperate and transparent. Michele Bachmann is one of the most anti-women members of Congress. She wanted to shut down the entire government just to defund women's health care. She believes wives should be submissive to their husbands. If there's one thing Michele Bachmann has proven time and again that she doesn't care about, it's women and how they're treated in this society. But now that she's watching her presidential hopes disappear into the ether, well, hell. Why not go for broke and whip out the only Hail Mary left to her?
It won't work. Even Democratic women who don't have a problem denying the existence of sexism aren't going to suddenly flock to Michele just because she's willing to admit what they've always known. And as for Republicans, well, Michele's about to learn one hell of a lesson: When you run for office on an anti-woman platform, in the anti-woman party, appealing to anti-woman voters, you really shouldn't be surprised when it turns out they don't like voting for women.