Ok so maybe it's not the best time for a movie reference, but today I was inspired..
As many political observers know, Michelle Bachmann has now become something of a star in the GOP Presidential field after her "not bad" performance at the last Republican debate and here recent visits to Iowa including yesterday in which she formally announced she is running for the Republican nomination for President.
Now as my readers may remember, to say I am not a big fan of Ms. Bachmann would be something of an understatement. In fact in the past I have called her a "twit", a term I reserve for those who speak out of their asses about things they clearly know nothing of, as opposed to political voices I may dislike or disagree but I believe actually know something about what they are speaking of. However I wouldn't be doing my job if I simply ignored Ms. Bachmann recent rise to political stardom.
And I am not the only one putting Ms. Bachmann through a little extra scrutiny as of late.
First there was FoxNews' own Chris Wallace who on live TV asked Ms. Bachmann is she was a "flake". Personally I thought it was quite funny but was a bit shocked that Mr. Wallace would ask such a thing to any GOP candidate let alone Ms. Bachmann. Many immediately pointed out that in previous interviews, FoxNews commentators were never so blunt and arguably quite rude to any other possible GOP Presidential contender and many wondered what motivated this journalistic "oops". No big surprise then that the next day Mr. Wallace apologized on FoxNews for his question; for which Ms. Bachmann swiftly rejected (can't really blame her there).
On that same Sunday, CBS News' Bob Schieffer also interviewed Ms. Bachmann and was much more professional in his questioning of Ms. Bachmann. Specifically Mr. Schieffer asked her apparently record of stretching the truth as reported by the site Politifact.com. Politifact is an organization that has recently won a Pulitzer and is well known as one of many "factcheck" websites out there and in my opinion of the best in terms of up-to-date reports and analysis. When it comes to Ms. Bachmann, Politifact has evaulated 23 statements made by Ms. Bachmann over the years and found only one was completely True while seven others were deemed "Pants on Fire", which is Politifact's most serious rating.
When Mr. Schieffer asked Ms. Bachmann about these "wanderings of truth", this was the response:
SCHIEFFER: I want to ask you about something else. A lot of your critics say you have been very fast and loose with the truth.
You know, the PolitiFact, which is a website that won a Pulitzer, did an analysis of 23 statements that you made recently. Of these 23, only one they said was completely true. Seven they call "pants on fire" kind of falsehoods. Four were "barely true" and two were "half- true."
How do you answer that criticism?
Because here's one of them. You know, you said on the record there had been only one offshore oil drilling permit during the Obama administration. And in fact, at that time, there had been 270. How do you explain that?
BACHMANN: Well, you know, I think that what's clear more than anything is the fact that President Obama has not been issuing the permits that he should have been issuing on offshore drilling. That's why we're in the problems we're in.
SCHIEFFER: But it has to be more than 300 now. At that time, there had been 200-and-something, and you said there had been only one.
BACHMANN: But, as far as drilling goes, we hadn't been drilling what we need to. That's why we just saw this week...
SCHIEFFER: But that's different, isn't it?
BACHMANN: Well, that's why, this week, it's ironic and sad that the president released all of the oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve because the president doesn't have an energy policy.
SCHIEFFER: Do you think that was a good move?
BACHMANN: He has a politically correct environmental policy.
SCHIEFFER: Was that a good thing?
BACHMANN: It was a very bad move. It put -- it has made the United States more vulnerable. There's only a limited amount of oil that we have in the Strategic Oil Reserve. It's there for emergencies.
We do not -- the emergency that we have is the fact that the -- the president of the United States has failed to give the American people an energy policy.
Here's the good news that a lot of Americans don't even realize. We are the number one energy-resource-rich nation in the world, according to the Congressional Research Service. But the president of the United States has unfortunately put American energy resources off- limits. We need to open those up so we can bring down the price of gasoline at
the pump. The president has it exactly wrong when it comes to energy.
SCHIEFFER: Just quickly, though, the original question I asked you is all of these statements that you have made that have later proven to be sort of true or totally false in some cases -- what's your answer when people say that to you? Do you feel you have misled people?
BACHMANN: No, I haven't misled people at all. I think the question would be asked of President Obama, when you told the American people that, if we borrow $1 trillion from other countries and spend it on a stimulus, that we won't have unemployment go above 8 percent, and today, as we are sitting here, it's 9.1 percent and the economy is tanking -- that is what's serious. That's a very serious statement that the president made.
Did he mislead the American people? Not only did he mislead the American people, he's caused our economy to go down to depths that we haven't seen. That's what's serious.
SCHIEFFER: Again, I have to say, Congresswoman, I asked you a question and you -- to my knowledge, I don't believe you answered it. But I want to thank you. I know you're -- you're very excited about what happened out in Iowa and we wish you the best. Hope to see you down the trail.
BACHMANN: Thank you, Bob.
SCHIEFFER: Thank you.
Now as you might have picked up on, Ms. Bachmann was quite evasive when it came to explaining those statements that were deemed untrue by Politifact and others. Shockingly, she didn't outright deny them but instead attempted to change the topic several times, for which Mr. Schieffer had no interest in and continued to push, though he ultimately failed. I however give Mr. Schieffer a lot of credit for trying..
So what should one make from Ms. Bachmann rather busy week so far? That she is actually nothing special as a politican and instead has already proven to be no different than most politicans today, unable to face the truth and instead choose to change the subject instead of dealing with the issue at hand...
Ironic from someone who claims the President only acts in his own political interest..How are you any better Ms. Bachmann?
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2011/jun/27/schieffer-asks-bachmann-about-her-record-accuracy/
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