An article appeared in Politico on Friday describing Michele Bachmann as public enemy number one for Democrats now that Sarah Palin has left office. Further, it analyzes the upcoming race between either Maureen Reed or Tarryl Clark. Yet, there are a couple problems in the article from my vantage point:
First, by describing Bachmann as a "public enemy" Politico is simply playing into the meme set up by conservatives that this person is under attack which only solidifies her base of support and can be a boon for her fro a fund raising standpoint. While I would like nothing more than to see Bachmann defeated and replaced by an effective, less controversial representative in Washington DC, I refuse to fall into this trap of calling her my enemy. Her votes and her policy positions which do nothing to help the people of her district are the enemy and NOT her personally.
Second, there is the complete lack of substance in the quotes by supposed Democratic officials:
First, by describing Bachmann as a "public enemy" Politico is simply playing into the meme set up by conservatives that this person is under attack which only solidifies her base of support and can be a boon for her fro a fund raising standpoint. While I would like nothing more than to see Bachmann defeated and replaced by an effective, less controversial representative in Washington DC, I refuse to fall into this trap of calling her my enemy. Her votes and her policy positions which do nothing to help the people of her district are the enemy and NOT her personally.
Second, there is the complete lack of substance in the quotes by supposed Democratic officials:
Ask Democratic officials in the state about Bachmann, and they can barely contain their anger.
"She is a bizarre news story of the month every month," said Brian Melendez, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
"Michele Bachmann is just nuts," said Jeremy Powers, a local DFL chair in Bachmann's district. "She is just an utter embarrassment."
And some Democrats — Powers included — don't hesitate to compare Bachmann with the aforementioned Palin, another conservative lightning rod who speaks with an upper-Midwestern accent, is the mother of a large family, and touts a stridently socially conservative agenda that Democrats regard as outright right wing.
"She is so principally and diametrically opposed to the core principles that we have," Donald McFarland, a Minnesota-based Democratic strategist, said of Bachmann. "She is further to the right than Attila the Hun."
"She's the poster girl for the radical fringe element," added Brian Smoot, who served as political director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last campaign cycle.
Really? Given all of the horrible policy positions Bachmann has taken (from her opposition to SCHIP to her bizarre battle against the census that even fellow Republicans have rebuked her over) the best you can come up with is to call her names like Attilla the Hun? Do you understand that since this article came out I have read several conservative blogs who have used this as evidence that poor Michele Bachmann is being attacked and needs help?
Go ahead and talk up the reasons why potential candidates are right for the district:
Go ahead and talk up the reasons why potential candidates are right for the district:
But Democrats say Clark — who still faces a primary challenger in Maureen Reed, a physician who ran for lieutenant governor in 2006 on the Independence Party ticket — presents the party with its best shot of taking out Bachmann since she first ran for the House in 2006, because she already has proved that she can win in a Republican-leaning St. Cloud Senate district.
"She's proven she can win in areas where Republicans are strong," said McFarland, the Minnesota-based Democratic strategist. "Tarryl Clark is the ticket."
"I've run in an area that people didn't think could be won by a Democrat," Clark told POLITICO this week.
But please, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, stop this completely ineffective strategy of hurling insults at Bachmann without adding so much as a single reason why she is wrong from a policy perspective.
