BACHMANN WAS “JUST JOKING”

Except she wasn’t. 

On August 28th, when the rest of the Eastern Seaboard was either cleaning up after Hurricane Irene’s on-slaught or in the midst of it, Minnesota presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said during a campaign stop in Sarasota, Florida: "I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?"' Reuters reported that she made similar remarks elsewhere in Florida on Saturday.

This morning, Bachmann’s spokeswoman Alice Stewart said, "Of course she was saying it in jest.” And Bachmann added that anyone who knows her knows she has a great sense of humor.

This is pure gold—having it both ways. 

Anyone who knows Bachmann knows she really believes that God is angry and that He is punishing earthlings for not listening to Him--that is to say, not listening to far-right religious fanatics like Michele Bachmann.

So on the right, the religious fanatics believe Bachmann is in their corner…which of course, she is. And now by claiming she was joking, she has pandered to her detractors on the left.

BTW, according to the Pew Report on religions in the USA, evangelical Christians (which include the far-right) make up about 26% of the population of people who claim a religious affiliation.

Can Bachmann have it both ways? No. But that’s not really the point regarding GOP politics in general and the next election in particular.

And this is the thing that Sarah Palin knows, which Bachmann doesn’t know or doesn’t care about: Until the GOP gets its platform straight and its candidates on-message, it needs distractions. Bachmann is a perfect distraction. Palin is not about to be turned into an official GOP distraction even though that is what she has made of herself anyway.

How smart are Bachmann and Palin? Do these women really want to be President of the United States? Do they really think they can be elected?

They both are smart in a basic egocentric way. They both see becoming President of the United States as a HUGE justification of self-worth. But neither woman is intelligent. Neither woman has had to be intelligent to get what she wants—material comfort and control. 

And here is where we once again have been left with a garbage pile by the George W. Bush administrations.

Both Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin and their minders can look at an ignorant ne’er-do-well like George W. Bush and rightly assume that all one needs to do is get elected. After that, other people run the country.

When the dust clears, could Bachmann or Palin get elected? No. And oddly enough, in this  modern day in the 21st century, the main thing against both Bachmann and Palin is not their ignorance or silliness or lack of knowledge about civics and running the country. The main thing against these women in the GOP is that they are women.

THIS IS YOUR REMINDER

Lest you forget….

All the woes being experienced today were caused by the George W. Bush administrations from 2001 through 2009. The insane war and the money spent on a war that should not have happened; the collapse of the economy; the whole ball of wax was caused by GWB and Co.

And if by chance you do not take me seriously, take a gander at Joe Nocera's new opinion piece in the New York Times this morning, "While the Markets Swoon".

Nocera asks, "Has any president in American history left behind as much lasting damage as George W. Bush?" He goes on to say, "In addition to two unfinished wars, he also set us on the path to our current financial mess. The Bush tax cuts, which turned a surplus into a growing deficit, have been disastrous. As James Fallows pointed out in a prescient 2005 article in The Atlantic predicting a meltdown, they reduced tax revenue 'to its lowest level as a share of the economy in the modern era.' (In its downgrade report, S.& P. suggested that it did not believe that Congress would let the cuts expire at the end of 2012, as they’re supposed to.) Then, in 2003, Bush pushed through prescription drug coverage for Medicare recipients. David M. Walker, then the comptroller general, described 2003 as 'the most reckless fiscal year in the history of the Republic,' adding some $13 trillion in future entitlement costs."

And yet, presidential candidate and former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney had the temerity yesterday to say that President Obama was "primarily responsible" for Standard and Poor’s downgrade of longterm federal debt. And even though the shortterm memory of the nation can so easily call to mind the gormless machinations of George W. Bush that virtually insured yesterday’s actions by S&P, Romney also was foolish enough to say: "I'm afraid the president (Obama) is just out of his depth when it comes to understanding how the private economy works."

And I am afraid Mitt Romney is out of his depth when it comes to understanding the speed with which the nation's comics are going to jump on his irresistible quotes.