# Bachmann announces she's running **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 14, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382 "2011-06-14T01:22:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/181 "2011-07-01T14:55:44Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Nobody says you evolved from an ape. Humans and apes have a common ancestor. > > Seriously, you seem to have an issue with Obama which causes you to put lenses and filters in front of everything so that it looks bad for Obama. Still, more people approve than disapprove of Obama. More people blame Bush than Obama for the economic downturn. More people blame the Republicans than Obama for the budget impasse. You might do well to be a bit more objective in your analysis rather than bending every fact to meet your “Obama is a poopyhead” mantra. To be fair, he’s “recovering”, not “recovered”. It takes time to purge the ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/182 "2011-07-01T15:03:55Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > Ah, nice assumption from someone who clearly didn’t read Obama’s book. Recall that he wrote the book long before he made any attempt to seek political office. It was reported that Obama planned to run for the Illinois State Senate a couple of weeks before the book was published. The book was published in July 1995, he declared his candidacy in September, and was elected in November. It’s true he wasn’t in elected office while he wrote the book, but he was considering a career in politics. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/183 "2011-07-01T15:31:09Z")
Books are typically published 18 mos. - 2 years after they are written. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/184 "2011-07-01T15:42:29Z")
And it’s a stretch to say that’s long before he made any attempt to seek political office. He didn’t just wake up one day and realize he was friends with a state senator who was about to give up her job to run for Congress. This is kind of a tangent and it doesn’t affect **Recovering Republican** ’s error about why Obama joined the church, but it’s not like Obama was not thinking about a career in politics when he wrote the book. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/185 "2011-07-01T16:15:07Z")
> [@](#): > > I personally accept evolution as true. Most Americans don’t. The real problem as I see it is that Christianity and Darwinism are mutually exclusive. This view is neither good religion nor good science. Science makes no statement at all about souls or what happens to them after bodily death, and an entity as great as the God that Christians purport to believe in should have no difficulty whatsoever in using evolution as a method for creation of living things. Oh, and as a nitpick, the statement “humans descended from apes” is true. My mother is an ape, and my father is an ape, and I’m descended from both of them. Yes, humans and the other currently-living species of apes had a common ancestor, but that common ancestor was by any reasonable standard itself an ape (just not one of the currently-living species). ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/186 "2011-07-01T16:21:51Z")
> [@Recovering\_Republican](#): > > The real problem as I see it is that Christianity and Darwinism are mutually exclusive. Roman Catholics aren’t christians now? Evolution is taught by catholic schools in science classes. Religion is taught in religion classes. Well at least in this little catholic island I live on which doesn’t have seperation of state and church and so religion can be taught in schools. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/187 "2011-07-01T17:21:53Z")
Religion can be taught in schools here, too, just not in public schools. But there are plenty of Catholic private schools (as well as some affiliated with other denominations) that teach both religion and science. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/188 "2011-07-01T17:23:11Z")
Ah sorry about the confusion then. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/189 "2011-07-01T18:12:50Z")
> [@Recovering\_Republican](#): > > My position is both parties are pretty worthless. I don’t vote for parties anymore, I vote for the candidate I consider the most competetant whose ideas I agree with the most. > > Last election, I voted for the Democrat for Governor (Pat Quinn) and Attorney General (Lisa Madigan). I voted against the Secretary of State (Democrat Jesse White) because his office is a pain to deal with. I voted for Mark Kirk for Senate because Ginoulius (sp) is a crook. I voted for Pete Roskam because he’s a good guy. > > For state Treasurer, I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Judy Baar Topinka, so I wrote in “Jack Ryan”. (I write in Jack Ryan whenever I find both candidates unacceptable. I started this in the 2004 Senate Race when Topinka sandbagged Ryan over BS and brought in Ambassador Crazy T. Batshit to be our nominee.) > > Now your position is that because Obama is smart, I should blindly support him over Bachmann. > > Well, you know what, Jimmy Carter was a nuclear physicist. So by any definintion, he was “smart”. He was also the WORST president of my lifetime. (Again, it’s a title Obama is working very hard to wrest from him.) > > At the end of the day, it comes down to the Ronald Reagan question. Are you better off than you were four years ago? > > Right now, I’d have to say, “No.” I was doing VASTLY better in 2007 than I am doign in 2011. > > If Obama can change that answer to a Yes in the next 16 months, I might vote for him. > > But if he’s going to run on the “but, but, but Bush” platform, well, good luck with that. So you were in a coma during Bush? He took a vibrant economy and trashed it. He started 2 wars without funding and drastically cut taxes for the rich causing a huge debt. But Carter was worse? You should remove RECOVERING from your post name. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/190 "2011-07-01T18:16:52Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > And it’s a stretch to say that’s long before he made any attempt to seek political office. He didn’t just wake up one day and realize he was friends with a state senator who was about to give up her job to run for Congress. This is kind of a tangent and it doesn’t affect **Recovering Republican** ’s error about why Obama joined the church, but it’s not like Obama was not thinking about a career in politics when he wrote the book. It’s not a stretch. He starting writing the book at least a couple years or more before he ran for office. Whether Obama was contemplating a career in office when he wrote _Dreams from my Father_ is therefore pure speculation, and pretty damn unlikely in my opinion, given that he admits things like drug use. Nothing in the book makes it apparent he was contemplating a career as a politician, even if it’s true that he was; the book doesn’t _read_ like it’s about someone on the edge of seeking office. ---
**Author:** ![Recovering\_Republican](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@Recovering\_Republican](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recovering_Republican)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/191 "2011-07-01T22:55:04Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Nobody says you evolved from an ape. Humans and apes have a common ancestor. Distinction without a difference. > [@](#): > > Seriously, you seem to have an issue with Obama which causes you to put lenses and filters in front of everything so that it looks bad for Obama. Still, more people approve than disapprove of Obama. More people blame Bush than Obama for the economic downturn. More people blame the Republicans than Obama for the budget impasse. You might do well to be a bit more objective in your analysis rather than bending every fact to meet your “Obama is a poopyhead” mantra. my issue with Obama is that he’s flipping incompetant.. even when he does things I agree with, like the GM bailout or reforming health care, he still manages to do them in a way that is truly screwed up. Sorry, there isn’t a lens or a filter you can put on 9.1% unemployment looks good, and no president gets re-elected with a 44% approval rating. Now way $4.00/gallon gas is acceptable unless you are someone who thinks the government should tell us what kind of cars we should drive. As for polls- [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president\_obama\_job\_approval-1044.html](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html) Of the polls listed, more people disapprove in four of the 10, and he’s tied in one. ---
**Author:** ![Recovering\_Republican](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@Recovering\_Republican](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recovering_Republican)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/192 "2011-07-01T23:00:25Z")
> [@yojimbo](#): > > Roman Catholics aren’t christians now? Evolution is taught by catholic schools in science classes. Religion is taught in religion classes. Well at least in this little catholic island I live on which doesn’t have seperation of state and church and so religion can be taught in schools. I was brought up Catholic, too. And frankly, the church’s ham-handed attempts to reconcile the two ideas was obvious to me in fifth grade. (one of the nuns speculated Adam and Eve might have been “apes”. ) I go back to the point. Christianity is based on the fact God made a man out of clay and a woman out of his rib. They disobeyed him by listening to a talking snake and eating from a magic tree, and that is why God had to come down (by becoming his own father) and redeem “original sin” (which frankly, doesn’t seem all that bad to me) by dying on the cross (what a drama queen). Darwinism- Meh, you evolved from an ape. Deal with it. Your going to die, and you’re done. ---
**Author:** ![Recovering\_Republican](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@Recovering\_Republican](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recovering_Republican)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/193 "2011-07-01T23:08:15Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > So you were in a coma during Bush? He took a vibrant economy and trashed it. He started 2 wars without funding and drastically cut taxes for the rich causing a huge debt. > But Carter was worse? You should remove RECOVERING from your post name. Again, being a recovering republican doesn’t mean drinking the Democratic Koolaid. It’s like saying I’ve given up booze, but I’m snorting coke now…, like that’s an improvement. No, Carter really, really was worse. For starters, you’d have never had stuf like the hostage crisis go on during Bush’s watch. Incidently, I wonder what Bush exactly did to “trash” the economy. The Stock Market crashed when the [Dot.com](http://Dot.com) bubble burst, right after Janet Reno “won” the Microsoft lawsuit. The economy was already slowing down when he got in. He did some stuff, got us out of that recession, but he had a second one 7 years later. (You do realize there was a whole presidency in between there, right?) Also, I know, call me kookie, but I thought the war started when some guys flew some planes into buildings. You can debate his conduct of the war, and he made a lot of bad judgements (with Democrats cheering him on the whole way). Now I agree, tax cuts for the rich IS a terrible idea. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/194 "2011-07-02T02:17:51Z")
> [@Recovering\_Republican](#): > > No, Carter really, really was worse. For starters, you’d have never had stuf like the hostage crisis go on during Bush’s watch. So where were you the morning of September 11, 2001? ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/195 "2011-07-02T02:21:33Z")
> [@Recovering\_Republican](#): > > I thought the war started when some guys flew some planes into buildings. Oh, you were there. Good. I’m glad we’re agreed that shit went down “on Bush’s watch.” And that had nothing to do with the war in Iraq except it gave Bush an excuse (an incoherent one) to start it. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/196 "2011-07-02T02:39:29Z")
> [@Recovering\_Republican](#): > > Again, being a recovering republican doesn’t mean drinking the Democratic Koolaid. > > It’s like saying I’ve given up booze, but I’m snorting coke now…, like that’s an improvement. > > No, Carter really, really was worse. For starters, you’d have never had stuf like the hostage crisis go on during Bush’s watch. > > Incidently, I wonder what Bush exactly did to “trash” the economy. The Stock Market crashed when the [Dot.com](http://Dot.com) bubble burst, right after Janet Reno “won” the Microsoft lawsuit. The economy was already slowing down when he got in. He did some stuff, got us out of that recession, but he had a second one 7 years later. (You do realize there was a whole presidency in between there, right?) > > Also, I know, call me kookie, but I thought the war started when some guys flew some planes into buildings. You can debate his conduct of the war, and he made a lot of bad judgements (with Democrats cheering him on the whole way). > > Now I agree, tax cuts for the rich IS a terrible idea. The Repubs made backdoor deals to keep the hostages in place until after the election. That was a horrible disgrace. They gave up arms and help to the people who held the hostages. You really should read a little. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/197 "2011-07-02T02:41:36Z")
> [@Recovering\_Republican](#): > > Also, I know, call me kookie, but I thought the war started when some guys flew some planes into buildings. You aren’t honestly using 9/11 as justification for Iraqalypse Now, are you? ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/198 "2011-07-02T02:48:28Z")
They’re all brown aren’t they?! Remember, this guy is a moderate. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/199 "2011-07-02T05:04:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I go back to the point. Christianity is based on the fact God made a man out of clay and a woman out of his rib. They disobeyed him by listening to a talking snake and eating from a magic tree You do realize that almost everybody in the world in all the millenia since that was written, aside from some Americans in the past century or so, recognizes that as all being metaphorical? ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382/200 "2011-07-02T06:48:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You do realize that almost everybody in the world in all the millenia since that was written, aside from some Americans in the past century or so, recognizes that as all being metaphorical? A lot of Christians in America believe that story is literally true, I’m afraid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bachmann-announces-shes-running/585382.md?page=11)