The clear victor in tonight’s Republican debate, in my mind, was Michele Bachmann.
Besides watching the debate, I watched some post-debate interviews on Fox, and the one that was fascinating was Greta Van Susteren interviewing Sarah Palin. Governor Palin helped hammer home Michele Bachmann’s key jab at Rick Perry over his executive order as Governor of Texas that mandated the vaccination of 12-year-old girls against cervical cancer. Bachmann pointed out, and Palin reinforced the shady ties between Merck, a corporate supporter of Governor Perry, and the mandatory vaccinations, which resulted in millions of dollars of business for Merck. And while Governor Perry had, on the surface, a satisfactory answer, stating that he only received $5000 in donations from Merck, the whole matter has a suspicious tinge. Here is a supposedly principled conservative governor taking an uncharacteristically statist position, and when we do a little digging we find a corporate sponsor. And my suspicion is that there’s more to the story than a $5000 donation to Perry’s campaign.
I like the things Rick Perry is saying, but I must say that there are several of these areas where there is a tinge of suspicion. There is the tuition for illegals where I suspect there may have been some deals. There’s his conversion from Democrat to Republican immediately before his decision to run for statewide office in Texas. And there is the milking of the evangelical vote with his faith rally, which raises suspicions in my mind that he is using his religion inappropriately as a political tool.
And, on the other hand, we have Michele Bachmann who is extremely articulate and has yet to have to apologize for any position of any sort. The best flub anyone has pinned on her is that she didn’t know Elvis’s birthday. I simply don’t think the people who are saying she is not electable are thinking very deeply about this. Look at her performance, her smoothness, her courage, her tenacity, the clarity of her vision for the country, and how much more articulate she is than any of the serious competition.
I cannot believe anyone takes Bachmann seriously as a presidential candidate. Just my $0.02. The woman has taken no stance on “pro-women” issues and sounds like a complete idiot!
I don’t believe any of the current batch of GOP candidates can beat Obama. New candidate needed. Go Palin!
Comment by David Hall:
Saz, I guess one of the reasons I am so big on Bachmann and why I think she is the strongest candidate, is that I have seen no one come up with anything substantive against her. And your comment here is added to that list.
Here we are, several years from our country turning into Greece from insolvency, and you’re worried about a candidate’s stance on “pro-women” issues? Why is it you have bought into this segmentation of our society by the left – latinos versus gringos, blacks versus whites, women versus men, the bourgeousie versus the proletariat? How about the concept of Liberty? Why doesn’t that seem to matter much to you?
And why do we get taken in by candidates’ “stances” on issues. A stance is a posture taken for campaign purposes. I look at a candidates core beliefs and look for evidences to support those core beliefs.
Yes, I greatly admire Palin. But she and Bachmann are cut from the same cloth. I’m surprised you can’t see that. Look a little deeper. You’ll find very little daylight between the core beliefs of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. And I would bet they are very close to seeing eye-to-eye on your so-called “women’s” issues.