Michele Bachmann's Tea Party overdrive mocked for Obama response

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

State of the union: self-styled Tea Party leader in Congress breaks with convention and is ridiculed for gaffes

Ed Pilkington in New York | Wednesday January 26 2011 15.56 GMT

Michele Bachmann, the self-styled leader of the Tea Party faction in the US Congress, broke with convention to deliver her own alternative response to President Obama's state of the union speech, attracting ridicule from pundits.

Bachmann's comments, spoken to camera and broadcast only by CNN, appeared to be off the mark, literally. She spoke directly into a camera operated by a dedicated broadcaster, Tea Party HD, thinking it was on air when the live camera was to one side. So when she came to praise American voters — "thanks to you, there's reason for all of us to have hope" — she appeared to be thanking an off-screen CNN cameraman.

=snip=

Bloggers swiftly pointed out exaggerations and half-truths in some of those criticisms. Bachmann, for instance, said the "bureaucracy now tells us which light bulbs to buy and may put 16,500 IRS (tax) agents in charge of policing President Obama's healthcare bill". That is an old canard from last year's mid-term elections http://www.factcheck.org/2010/03/irs-expansion/">which politics website Factcheck debunked as "partisan analysis based on guesswork and false assumptions, and compounded by outright misrepresentation".

Even more ridicule was heaped on Bachmann for comments at the end of her statement, where she sought to conclude on a rousing patriotic note. As the backdrop changed to the famous photograph of the American flag being raised over the Pacific island of Iwo Jima she talked about the "miracle" of America's creation, referring to the battle of Iwo Jima at the close of the second world war as "a battle against all odds". David Frum, a former speechwriter for George Bush, was one of many to highlight the historical inaccuracy of that statement. He tweeted: "Did Bachmann really say that Iwo Jima was a battle against the odds? For the Japanese I guess …"

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/26/tea-party-reply-state-of-the-union

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A screen grab of Michele Bachmann delivering her response
to President Barack Obama's state of the union address.
Photograph: AP

A couple of graphs on response...

[somone]

1. One more thing for the world to laugh at

[RandomThoughts]

2. Which set of graphs is accurate?

I do know that much of the media coverage before and after the election is for controlling of public opinion not reporting news.

So why would you believe a graph?

[Turborama]

7. Look at the numbers at the bottom of Bachmann's graph

Notice anything odd?

Also, the unemployed figures when Bush handed over the key to the White House are accurately portrayed on the two graphs I added and not on hers. Hers makes it look like as soon as President Obama became president unemployment skyrocketed.

[RandomThoughts]

12. ah I didn't watch the speech, I see what you are saying.

The two employment graphs are different. The run up to the election had lots of talk about unemployment out of context of that first graph.

I assume you are commenting on the exaggeration or manipulation of data that would have to exist for 2011 to be on the graph without some projected numbers in the graph. That does hurt the credibility with many people of that graph, but I would guess that is the whole point of putting her in front for that group.

[bjobotts]

15. Remember also that the federal budget goes from Oct.-Sept.Obama operated under Bush's budget

for the first 9mos of office. All this unemployment came before a single dem program or policy was put in place. Bachman lies at every turn with no credible voice to challenge or correct her...ever.

The repub plutocracy wants to get liberals to turn on Obama because he's not liberal or left enough while they block and obstruct his every move so he gets nothing done without great compromise...and they don't care how much the American people are made to suffer from their game.

Obama has integrity and character and genuinely cares for the American people even at the expense of ridicule from his own supporters...like me who constantly push from the left for better liberal policies. Compare that kind of character to any on the right like Bachman, or McCain, Palin, Boehner, or McConell. I'll take the care, concern and integrity of this community organizer/constitutional attorney any day.

Lyin' Ryan and escapee from a psychiatric institution Michelle Bachman are delusional and devoid of integrity.

CNN really showed its ass this time becoming just another propaganda media tool.

[patrice]

11. If regular time intervals are not the basis of comparison, what is & why is whatever

actually IS the basis of comparison not identified on that axis of the graph, rather than some kind of random time difference.

[opihimoimoi]

3. Triage stage.....bypass....no hope.......blanket

[JBoy]

4. The Tea Party is pure entertainment:

[SpiralHawk]

5. Wow - She is a Compleat RepubliBagger Suckerpuppet (R)

Kids, this is your brain on RepubliCon-Fox CrapaGanda.

[Submariner]

6. Perspective: The Republicans are the cause of the economic crisis

[SpiralHawk]

8. + 1,000

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lzRf9b1vduk/SqStXX-4V2I/AAAAAAAAACc/0CphKSkYiQY/s320/nailed+it.jpg

[bjobotts]

16. Exactly! Get them away from our government and it runs smoothe

[applegrove]

9. I was sorry to hear her speech was not on fox. Could have informed a few

right wingnuts.

[kestrel91316]

10. Ross Perot in drag. WTF is with the charts??? At least they're in color.

[tblue37]

14. Perot made a lot of sense. He warned that NAFTA would send our jobs

where the cheap labor was--and he was right.

MB makes no sense at all.

[Joanne98]

13. She's turning Minnesota into a laughing stock

[RyanPsych]

17. Maybe

She was waiting for the spirit of Sarah Palin to overtake her after being conjured by Christine O'Donnell
...too bad it never came
:):rofl:

[No Elephants]

18. Those who wrote the Constitution worked hard to abolish slavery? Idiot!