Is she the one to break the glass ceiling???

What you're 'telling' me Stephanie is the same thing I said regarding Beck and Palin in the thread that begat Sam's panty wadding.

The question on the thread by the way is rhetorical and was brought about not because I think that Bachmann can break the glass ceiling but was posed because IF a female is going to break it this year, it will be her and not Palin, who cannot win.

Whatever, Aaron. Neither will be the nominee. Personally, I find Bachmann the more egregious option. At least Palin is likeable. I may not want her for our President, but I think I'd enjoy having dinner with her. The thought of spending time with Bachmann makes me want to surround myself with salt on sacred ground wearing garlic perfume.

I think Ziggy's right.....must be her thighs.

So you wouldn't want to have dinner with someone who is an ardent pro-lifer and who was elected to public office on education reform.

Interesting.

I'm with Sam though, neither are qualified as women can't manage.

Aaron wrote:So you wouldn't want to have dinner with someone who is an ardent pro-lifer and who was elected to public office on education reform.

Interesting.

I'm with Sam though, neither are qualified as women can't manage.

Jimmy Swaggart is prolife and wants reforms in public education. I have no desire to have dinner with him either.

It must be the thighs.

Aaron wrote:I'm with Sam though, neither are qualified as women can't manage.

Aaron, is that your only real talent, .... an adament and proficient "purveyor of disparaging remarks"?

It's ironic that you would make such a statement Sam as that seems to about the only way you can respond to questions.

I'm still waiting on your explaination as to why only 1 in 10 would choose Palin for President.

Bachmann vs. Palin: Who's the Better 2012 Candidate? — By Suzy Khimm

At first glance, you might think you were seeing double. Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann are both hard-right Republican firebrands with a populist touch, a love of the spotlight, and devoted throngs of conservative followers. Though both have been regularly shunned by the Washington establishment, they've proven to be prodigious fundraisers who've competed for the title of "Tea Party Queen"—and have been floated as presidential contenders. The two even bear a passing resemblance to each other.

But though Palin and Bachmann may seem like GOP doppelgangers, there's a lot separating them as well. And the differences have led a growing chorus of Beltway watchers to conclude that Bachmann would actually be the more credible candidate of the two. Having watched the Minnesota congresswoman on the trail for years, Minnesota political operatives on both sides of the aisle warn against simply laughing off Bachmann. "You underestimate Michele Bachmann at your own peril," says Zach Rodvold, the campaign manager for her Democratic opponent in 2010.

Bachmann is expected to form a presidential exploratory committee in the next few months and has already trekked out to Iowa to make early inroads. Though the Minnesota Republican remains a longshot, she also could finally give tea party types a candidate to rally behind in a decidedly lukewarm GOP primary—and could be a (relatively) more formidable candidate than the former governor of Alaska. Here's why:

1) Bachmann's an organizer. Palin may have a huge following, but it's been built on the celebrity status and enormous platform she gained as Sen. John McCain's running mate. Bachmann, by contrast, originally got involved in politics as a grassroots organizer—and she's used those skills to build up ground-level support and attract allies at every stage of her career. In the 1990s, she first garnered attention by organizing anti-abortion protests in the St. Paul area, then moved on to fight state regulation of education as a home schooling advocate. After entering the Minnesota state Senate in 2000, Bachmann organized religious leaders in the state to lobby for a ban on same-sex marriage.

Bachmann has brought the same organizing savvy to Washington. In 2009, Bachmann's ad hoc mass protest against health care reform brought hundreds of thousands to Capitol Hill—and the House Republican leadership followed her to the podium. Last year, she launched Congress' first Tea Party Caucus of like-minded conservative legislators. More than 50 GOP House members have joined so far—and four senators have signed on as well.

So while Palin may be remain the tea party's beloved figurehead, she generally keeps to sending tweets and Facebook missives from on high. Bachmann, by contrast, proven her ability to get her hands dirty and organize mass gatherings on the ground level—which could be a particular boon to her candidacy in states that rely on caucus-driven primaries like Iowa and to her outreach efforts elsewhere.

2) Bachmann has a sense of humor. Both Palin and Bachmann frequently make inflammatory statements and attention-grabbing gaffes that make headlines for days. But Palin has a habit of hyping up her victimization at the hands of the media—and anyone else deemed to be an enemy—and refusing to let go of any perceived slight. In the wake of the Tucson shooting, Palin accused her critics of "blood libel" after she was attacked for putting crosshairs on a 2010 campaign map, igniting yet another media firestorm. Palin's addiction to feuding has made her enemies on both sides of the aisle.

Bachmann takes pot shots against the press as well, but she doesn't dwell on bad ink. On occasion, she's even willing to admit that she's erred and frequently pokes fun at herself before moving on. After recently misidentifying the state where the battles of Lexington and Concord took place, Bachmann told Laura Ingraham: "I made a mistake. I should've said Massachusetts rather than New Hampshire. But you know, that's the way it goes and we had a great trip and I was glad to be able to be there." Similarly, after Bachmann gave the tea party's response to Obama's State of the Union address this year, she was widely mocked for a glitch that had her looking into in the wrong camera; Saturday Night Live even parodied the moment. Bachmann's response? She cracked a joke about the incident at her next speech before a big crowd. "Someone told me I needed to find the right camera. So let me see... Okay, all you SNL fans, I know where it is!"

3) Bachmann's better at thinking on her feet. Thrust onto the national stage with little experience or policy expertise, Palin became notorious for her missteps in media interviews and debates during the 2008 campaign. When ABC's Charlie Gibson asked whether she supported the Bush doctrine of foreign policy, she gave a blank stare. She famously flubbed her interviews with Katie Couric and baldly misrepresented John McCain's basic policy views in her debate with Joe Biden.

Bachmann hasn't been put under the same national magnifying glass—and she's made plenty of gaffes of her own—but she has managed to hold her own during her re-election campaigns. During Bachmann's first debate against then-state senator Tarryl Clark—her most formidable Democratic opponent so far—she came across as poised and confident, deflecting the shots that came her way. She pounced when Clark hedged on her position on card-check—the controversial proposal that would make it easier for labor unions to organize. And when Clark tried to nail her for failing to support pay-as-you-go budgeting rules, Bachmann simply ignored the question and stayed focused on her big-liberal-spending talking points.

Even Bachmann's opponents are willing to recognize her skills. "She's polished, charismatic, and engaging and comes across as being well informed even though she often is not," says Rodvold, Clark's 2010 campaign manager. "She sounds knowledgeable, she sticks to her message, and repeats it."

4) Bachmann knows how to use the national media. After her disastrous experience during the 2008 campaign, Palin has shunned the "lamestream" media, appearing almost exclusively to Fox News, where she's a paid analyst. When not on Fox, Palin primarily communicates via Twitter and Facebook, giving her control over her message but limiting her reach and credibility. Altogether, she's confined herself to settings where she's assured an extremely sympathetic audience—or one-way relationships.

Bachmann, by contrast, not only appears on Fox News, but also regularly faces down her adversaries on the networks as well, appearing on MSNBC's Hardball and going head to head with James Carville and then-Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) on Larry King. On the Hill, Bachmann regularly holds high-profile press conferences outside the Capitol building to entice camera crews to attend. To be sure, Bachmann more often appears on TV shows where she's assured a sympathetic host. And after press conferences are over, she quickly takes off before most reporters have time to catch up with her. But in the end, Bachmann understands that the "lamestream media" is not just a liability.

5) Bachmann's not a quitter. Palin abruptly left office only halfway through her term as governor, claiming that she had a higher calling and that the politicized attacks had crippled her authority—but giving the distinct impression that she didn't care for the dirty work of governing. Bachmann may crave the same national profile, celebrity, and megaphone. But she's also wise enough not to have quit her day job just yet.

5) Bachmann's not a quitter.

Bachmann doesn't have to quit her job to become a 2012 POTUS Candidate.


Some men think its OK if they themselves ..... quit and walk away.

Some men think its OK if another man ..... quits and walks away.

Some men truly hate and despise any female that ..... quits and walks away.

The latter is probably because it arouses old memories of one that .... quit and walked away.

After three (3) months, ....... max, .......... one should forget it and get on with their life .............. and cease with the sitting around reminiscing about “dead horse’s asses”.

Yeah, if I couldn't refute any of the rest of the article, I'd focus on that one point as well Sam. You can talk her up all you like but the fact remains, she quit and depsite the the 1 in 10 like you who continue to support her, she won't be our next President. In fact, she won't even be the Republican nominee.

I understand why you attempt to paint me as a masiginist. You can't discredit what I'm saying. In fact, you know what I'm saying is true but you can't bring yourself to admit it, you have two choices. Either admit what I'm saying is true or attack.

And here you say I'm the one who can't stand to be wrong.

u r right aaron.

everything you have ever posted has been true.

u r always right .......

except for the 1 time that you thought you were wrong but as it turned out you were right after all.

How Michele Bachmann Can Win

Mark Mckinnon – Fri Apr 8, 2:15 am ET

NEW YORK – The Minnesota firebrand could parlay her Tea Party support, fundraising skills, and message discipline into a serious run for the White House. She has the fire in the belly, Mark McKinnon writes.

Though prone to gaffes and non-answer answers, she is a formidable fundraiser, an icon among Tea Party enthusiasts, draws cameras like flies, and her detractors are legion. And it's looking more and more likely she will run for president. Also, it's not a stretch to see how she could very likely win Iowa and we know what happens after that.

No, not Sarah Palin. Get ready for a conservative firebrand from Minnesota who may make memories of Palin pale quickly. We are talking about Rep. Michele Bachmann who, while Palin hesitates, has aggressively jumped into the fray. And while she's not my cup of tea (party), Bachmann would arguably be a stronger GOP candidate for president than Palin in 2012. She works harder, she's smarter, she has more discipline, more focus and, perhaps most important, she has fire in her belly.

Chair of the House Tea Party caucus and an outspoken champion of the movement, Bachmann raised more campaign cash in the 2010 congressional midterm elections than any other candidate. And her $2.2 million haul in the first quarter of 2011, mostly from small donors and before she has officially entered the race, tops former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

Her “positive intensity” among Republicans and right-leaning independents, as measured by Gallup, is higher than Palin’s, even though her name recognition is far lower. Though political pundits pounce on her every misspeak and mangled factoid, while being far more forgiving of the president’s mispronunciations, and historical inaccuracies, she electrifies crowds and displays unnerving message discipline.

Her upstaging of the GOP’s response to the State of the Union address created consternation within the party, but got at least twice the attention and coverage as did Paul Ryan, who delivered the party’s formal response. Ninety percent of politics is showing up. And Bachmann is showing up in Iowa. And she's creating a lot of excitement among the conservative faithful. And Bachmann would fill the void left by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), who decided not to run for president in 2012: She is both a fiscal and social conservative, which is what Iowa Republican primary voters like. If Mike Huckabee doesn't run, and Palin doesn't run, that leaves Rick Santorum as Bachmann's only real competition among these core voters. And he lost his last election by 16 points.


Sarah Palin can't be happy to be suddenly sidelined by a new political American Idol.

Bachmann’s wooing of the Tea Party vote may pay dividends beyond the base. Rasmussen reports that 48 percent of likely voters say their views on major issues are closer to the average Tea Party member than to the average member of Congress, with 30 percent unsure.

Even with all of the advantages of incumbency, President Obama is vulnerable. With the unpopularity of his health-care agenda, the budget battles in the states, and the coming entitlement crisis, there is a remarkable opportunity for the right candidate—perhaps even a surprising candidate—to win voters from across the political spectrum who are plagued by “persistent fatigue” from the faltering economy and the president’s failure to lead.

Assessing Bachmann’s strength as a candidate, Karl Rove said to Fox’s Bill O'Reilly: "She's smart, she's tough, she's funny, she's got a lot of personality and all of that will help her if she throws her hat in the ring."

However, even with Bachmann’s terms as a state senator and two terms as a U.S. representative, voters may be skeptical of her experience, Rove said. He noted that “people who are going to be inclined to vote against Barack Obama are going to look back and say you know what? We took the untested guy who had no significant achievements and it didn't work out so well.” And Rove said every candidate “has got to create a narrative that at the end of the day says this is why it shouldn't be Obama and this is why it should be me.”

Sarah Palin can't be happy to be suddenly sidelined by a new political American Idol. So, don't be surprised to see her come out swinging hard and soon to reclaim the stage. She will not give up her crown easily.

This could get very entertaining.

Here's the source Sam. As your attempts to discredit the message have failed miserably, perhaps you can discredit the author.

Looks like Bachman's advisors are ramping up the stakes...

Palin adviser slams Bachmann strategist Ed Rollins for dissing the ex-governor

It looks like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann might genuinely be frenemies now.

A day after Ed Rollins, Bachmann's top political adviser, trashed Palin in a radio interview, a top adviser to the former Alaska governor slammed the longtime GOP strategist and called on the Bachmann camp to retract his statements.

"Beltway political strategist Ed Rollins has a long, long track record of taking high profile jobs and promptly sticking his foot in his mouth," Michael Glassner, Palin's chief of staff, said in a statement to Politico's Ben Smith. "To no one's surprise he has done it again, while also fueling a contrived narrative about the presidential race by the mainstream media. One would expect that his woodshed moment is coming and that a retraction will be issued soon."

As The Ticket previously reported, Rollins criticized Palin Tuesday, insisting she's not as qualified to be president as Bachmann and is a joke candidate.

"Sarah has not been serious over the last couple of years," Rollins said. "She got the vice presidential thing handed to her. She didn't go to work in the sense of trying to gain more substance. She gave up her governorship."

Rollins responded to Glassner's statement with a semi-apology, telling ABC his comments had nothing to do with "Michele, Michele's campaign or any of the rest of it." "This was my transition from being an analyst to a political strategist, and I missed a step," he said.

But Rollins declined to take back what he'd said about Palin. "What's the retraction?" Rollins asked. "I say she's serious?"

Rollins' comments fueled the storyline that Palin and Bachmann are on the brink of a political catfight over the 2012 nomination—a dynamic that political observers have been pressing for weeks, in spite of evidence to the contrary. But both sides added fuel to the fire today in a separate piece in Politico in which the Palin and Bachmann camps sniped at each other—mostly via advisers who declined to be named.

"The view in Iowa is that she's unstable," an unnamed Bachmann aide told Politico. "When she resigned her position as governor that whole event seemed odd, and people in Iowa saw that."

Meanwhile, "a Palin associate" told the paper that the ex-governor has expressed "disdain" for Bachmann--even though another top Palin aide denies that.

Glassner's comments are telling, as Palin aides often don't speak publicly without the explicit permission of the former governor herself.

But that's not the only faux controversy dogging Palin. As ABC News's Sheila Marikar reports, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon, has launched in an inquiry into whether Palin's recent bus tour used excessive federal resources. He's calling into question the manpower the National Park Service offered to Palin on her tour of federal historic sites along the East Coast.

A Park Service spokesman tells ABC Palin did receive some special treatment—including early access to the Statue of Liberty—but it was no different from how any other "celebrity" would be treated.

"We treated her as any other celebrity that might come in," NPS spokesman David Barna told ABC, adding they'd do the same for "Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie."

Stephanie wrote:I'm not buying it, Aaron.

Are you buying it yet Stephanie?

Ron Paul v. Michele Bachmann: High noon on the right

By Brent Budowsky - 06/10/11 01:35 PM ET

Ignore the cable pundits. Trump's campaign was a joke. Gingrich's campaign was a farce. Palin will not run. I have said these things from the beginning. The real battle is not between Palin and Bachmann, but between Dr. Paul and Bachmann. Remember where you heard it. This will be a big story soon.

Ron Paul can stake a fair claim to being the father of the Tea Party movement. He has made his arguments intelligently and well for many years. Depending on the final field, he could emerge the kingmaker at the convention if his votes are near the ceiling of his potential, rather than the floor.

While I view Palin as a lightweight creation of television opiners who have a long history of being almost always wrong about politics, I have suggested for some time that Michele Bachmann is a major league player who should not be underestimated. Bachmann is hiring first-rate staff and has been brushing past Palin for some time now.

As the campaign gets serious and the debates get attention, watch the battle unfold between Paul and Bachmann in the high noon showdown on the right of the GOP.

Dr. Paul will have to get past Bachmann to approach the higher end of his potential support. Michele Bachmann will have to get past Paul and become the final candidate of the right.

You read it first right here on The Hill. The battle between Paul and Bachmann for the post position on the right will be one of the big stories in the 2012 campaign, very soon.

Nope. While the victors of Presidential elections are all people of religion, candidates who display the sort of religious zeal Bachmann does tend not to fair too well.

Stephanie wrote:Nope. While the victors of Presidential elections are all people of religion, candidates who display the sort of religious zeal Bachmann does tend not to fair too well.

That would be all well and good if Presidential elections was what you were talking about way back when but it wasn't.

Stephanie wrote:I'm not buying that she has the potential to be the GOP nominee.

So, I'll ask again. Are you buying it now?

Still no. Religious zealots don't become GOP nominees either.

OK, just a second......they don't become GOP Presidential nominees. I needed to make the clarification.

Really? GWB would have never been President were it not for the religious right.

That may be true, but that doesn't mean he was a religious zealot. Bachmann clearly is and those candidates don't win the nomination.

I hate to be the one to break it to you Dorthy but you're not in Kansas anymore and this ain't the Grand Old Party of years ago. This is a new game, the religious right controls the Republican Party and if they want a zealot like Bachman, then a zealot like Bachman is exactly what they will have, especiall if the alternative is Romney or Paul. That's simply how it is.

I disagree. I think your memory is a bit lacking, Aaron. The religious right has long been a faction of the GOP and they certainly have some clout. Not so long ago they were known as the "silent majority". They failed to garner the nomination for the zealot then, they will fail now.

Bachmann is hiring first-rate staff and has been brushing past Palin for some time now.

Is Brent Budowsky now on Bachmann's payroll?

Partisan Democrats, the leftist liberal Media, sexist males and the troughfeeders all became “scared shitless” and/or extremely irate ……. almost immediately or shortly thereafter they heard the news that McCain had selected Palin as his VPOTUS candidate …. and they immediately launched a concerted “personal attack” against Palin to destroy and defame her creditability, her religious beliefs, her family members and anything else that might cause the general populace to dislike or distrust her..

That was on August 29, 2008 …….. and it has continued unabated ever since then.

Thus, given the fact that today is June 13, 2011, that makes for a total of 33 months and 13 days the above noted “Sarah Palin Haters” have been working tirelessly and diligently to prevent Palin from ever being elected to a National Political Office.

But it should be apparent to most anyone that their …. concerted “personal attack” against Palin …… doesn’t seem to be working out the way they figure it would, …… does it?

And why should it, the same groups noted above that have been “attacking Palin” for the past 33 months and 13 days …… are the same ones that are now quietly protectiing Weiner’s “weiner” fracus from too much bad publicity.

Sam,

Recently I was watching Palin give an interview and I thought to myself, "wow, she really has gotten better at this!"

A couple of days later she told us all Paul Revere rode to warn the British.

For the most part I like Sarah Palin. I truly do. I think there's a lot to admire. She's not going to be the nominee either. That doesn't mean I don't find her preferable to most of the currently announced candidates not to mention most of the names being batted around as possible candidates. I just don't think with the kind of blunders she makes winning the White House is possible.