# Michelle Bachmann is my new hero! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 12, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-bachmann-is-my-new-hero/520937 "2009-12-12T00:05:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-bachmann-is-my-new-hero/520937/101 "2009-12-17T01:43:03Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Oh, come on. This isn’t a hypothetical like “Reagan saved millions because he didn’t start WWIII”. These are programs that came straight out of the White House. He didn’t just sign some bill Congress pushed on him - he created them, fought to get the funding, and implemented them. There’s a reason it’s called the “President’s Malaria Initiative.” PEPFAR was announced in a State of the Union speech in 2003, and was driven by the White House. > > Not only that, but the actual results of these programs are easily quantified. I posted links to the numbers. There is no question that Bush is directly responsible for saving millions of people. It’s true. I’m pretty sure my “record” would mark me as an “anti Bush” guy, but shit. He should get credit for this. It was important, he did it he pushed it when no one else seemed to give a damn, and it made a difference. He was a stubborn man, but in this case that’s exactly what it took. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-bachmann-is-my-new-hero/520937/102 "2009-12-17T06:46:10Z")
Thank you for that. And in response, I’ll add that this good work in no way excuses anything bad you think he did - if you think his actions in Iraq were murderous war crimes, then the fact that he did great things in Africa doesn’t get him off the hook, any more than pulling a family out of a burning building gets you a free pass if you then go off and murder someone else. What it should do, however, is count in the overall evaluation of the Bush Administration. You can’t leave out the good stuff and only cite the bad. I have a whole lot of problems with what Bush did in office, but I can recognize the good he did as well. The same goes for Clinton. I thought his Rwanda decision was horrid. As a Canadian, I have a perspective on this informed by the fact that it was a Canadian general who was desperately pleading for the U.N. to engage to stop the genocide, and the main force opposing this was the U.S. State Department and Madelaine Albright. The result was a humanitarian nightmare. To his credit, Clinton admits the error today, and says it was the largest mistake of his presidency. But even with that, on balance I think Clinton was a good president. He presented a good face of America to the world, he worked well with Republicans when he had to, and the result was welfare reform, balanced budgets, and in general pretty good government. And as an ex-president, he’s generally been gracious, charming, and hasn’t involved himself in petty partisan squabbles or indulged himself in his own foreign policy like Carter did. ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-bachmann-is-my-new-hero/520937/103 "2009-12-17T07:05:18Z")
It’s people like her that make me a firm fan of Federalism. Just because the dumb fuckers in BFE elected a jackass with intellect envy doesn’t mean it should effect me. Ironically, the very stupidity she spouts is one of the reasons I so adamantly agree with some of the stances she says she takes. The mind boggles. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-bachmann-is-my-new-hero/520937.md?page=5)