I think we must take it seriously; she is gathering more and more popular support on a daily basis. I think she has a pretty good chance of landing the nomination although saying that fills me with dread. If she does get the nomination, she just might win. And if she wins, we will be just another dead end country governed by a maniac.
The fact that people are taking her seriously and are supporting her in a nomination bid for one of the two main parties means that it’s only a matter of time before you end up governed by a maniac. Even if she falls short, the foundation has been laid. Batshit insane candidates used to be a sideshow that attracted the support of a few percent of voters, those days are behind you and the freak show is front and center now.
Ignorant wackos like her know how to say the things that push the right buttons, but there is no depth to her “intellect” and this will become readily apparent over the next few months. She is not the type of person that is going to attract undecided voters and that is what is needed for the Repubs to win.
How will the lack of depth of her intellect become readily apparent to her supporters when those supporters have no depth of intellect? If they had any depth of intellect, they would not be supporting her in the here and now.
Bachmann appeals to the Tea Party base, the raving loons, but that’s not enough to get her elected. If she’s nominated (which I highly doubt), there’s plenty of wackadoodle footage of her from past years to convince non-loon Republicans to either stay home or vote third party (or, heaven forbid, vote Democrat).
There’s footage of her hiding in the bushes at a gay rights rally. There’s sound bites of her saying that the U.S. Census is a plot to identify people for placement in internment camps and that Americorps is for brainwashing young people. She thinks teachers are using “The Lion King” to convince children that being gay is better than being straight. She’s given her support to You Can Run But Cannot Hide, a punk-rock ministry that stated that Muslim execution of homosexuals is more moral than most American Christians’ stances on homosexuality. She’s called for McCarthy-esque style investigations into members of Congress to search for anti-American views.
There’s only so long that her surface charisma and appeal is going to tide her over before the true batshit comes out, and once that’s out, she’s done.
I actually left that out because I wanted to concentrate on her personal batshit. If I included his as well, I’d be here all day.
Plus, I’m a little hesitant to start including spousal batshit in condemnation of candidates. I’m not sure there was a lot of coverage of Cindy McCain’s or Todd Palin’s personal beliefs during the last campaign.
She is, however, likely to do well in Iowa (she was born there and Iowa primary voters tend to be socially conservative). That is likely to let her ride longer than a mere flash in the pan. It also may be enough to sink TPaw long before he’d have gotten sunk without her spoiler effect.
Primaries (and caucuses) are about appealing to the core - the GOP core right now is heavily weighted towards the Tea Party. She may last a lot longer than anyone thinks.
It would be fascinating to see her get the nomination, simply because it would be interesting to see her look for a center that would appeal to independents.
Excellent point (sez this MN hockey fan).
