Christopher Hitchens pens his thoughts on Bachmann … here are a couple of extracts …
That was actually three dripping custard pies, rather than just the one, with which Rep. Michele Bachmann assailed her own face by bragging to Fox News about her small-town Iowa roots …
… boasted by the sturdy small town of her girlhood, she went on to claim that “John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa …It was his namesake John Wayne Gacy, serial rapist and killer of 33 teenage boys and young men, who spent time in Waterloo…
In one stroke, Bachmann shows that she can’t tell one folksy Iowa town from another. Then she compounds the error by confusing a folk hero with a villain and psycho. Finally, and having never done or said anything that would stand a second’s comparison to the spirit of The Duke (whatever you may think of him), she tries to borrow the mantle of a husky gunfighter in the very week that she is pathetically advocating that we leave Col. Qaddafi alone. The old parochialism meets the not-so-new isolationism. A very shaky start …
Where does it come from, this silly and feigned idea that it’s good to be able to claim a small-town background? …
…For Bachmann to choose this moment to say that the loony of Libya poses no threat is to disqualify herself from any consideration for high office. She evidently knows nothing about the four decades of dictatorship and depredation that have led up to this. But then, when you come to notice it, she doesn’t seem to know her Iowan derrière from an artesian well, either.
What can say except “wow”, its Hitchens at his scathing best, giving us all a Bachmann reality check.
The above are only a few snippits, go click here and bask in the delight of Hitchen’s wit and turn of phrase as he slowly slices and dices Backmann’s attempts to propogate her small-town mythology.
I confess that I’ve personally not paid her too much attention, and so I’d tended to think she was perhaps a tad more credible than the well-known (and well-mocked) Alaskan alternative. She may yet gain traction, now that is a worry. Wondering why? Well lets try a few facts about her …
- She has asserted that global warming is a hoax
- She supports the teaching of intelligent design in public school science classes
- She opposes minimum wage increases
- She supports increased domestic drilling of oil and natural gas
- She said, in dealing with Iran, that other options, including a nuclear strike, shouldn’t be taken off the table
- She does not want America to be part of the international global economy
So, should she actually succeed in taking up residency within the White House, then be afraid … be very very afraid.