I'd like to make a modest prediction:

Michelle Bachmann will implode before the first primary. The MSM is having a field day- witness The Newsweek cover and the corndog pics- not to mention one incredulous article about her nuttiness after another.

I happen to believe that part of it is that she's female. Yes, she's batshit crazy and has no business holding any elective office, but so is Rick Perry and he'll be getting (is already getting) far more preferential treatment from the MSM. But this isn't just about the MSM. It's about deeply held cultural biases about women and "madness".

It's interesting to watch.

I agree with that.

running is either a nobody or a known joke.

I have no idea if Perry is sincere in his insanity, but I think Bachmann is, and that means she can't be controlled. They want someone who will do what they are paid to do, not someone who will make it up as they go along, whenever God farts in their brain.

It wasn't until Palin hit the airways. It's as if all of the country's prejudice, sexism, racism, xenophobia, etc., are snowballing and spiraling into this vortex quicker than snot. Had Hillary become POTUS, this whole nightmare of stoopid women in politics would have been avoided and the proverbial glass ceiling WOULD have been broken permanently. I think that now it will take a generation or two to get be in good standing again as a woman ...

Jesus. Didn't one of the Carolinas actually ARREST some women (according to Anna on TYT) for miscarriages recently???

THANK YOU, SARAH FUCKING PALIN. FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!! (sorry).

It will also be some time before we allow anyone darker than a cup of coffee with heavy cream to be elected, though Hillary would not have broken any Glass ceiling, namely because she would have been an example of a "poor" leader that the media heaped on, just like they did on Obama. Bill running around with the cigar in his mouth would not have helped (as he did set feminism back decades).

Hillary would have been a strong Liberal leader! She wouldn't have compromised on health care or the other 3 big entitlements and taxing the poor to give to the rich. Yes, the media would have torn her apart because she's a woman and wears pant suits.

She was always in favor of a mandate, and even more committed to imperial wars than Obama. The one advantage would have been that she would at least understood that conservatives and Republicans would have been out to get her.

However, I don't believe she would have given the rich that tax break or threatened to cut Medicare, SS, Medicaid, Education etc. and cuts to fuel aid. She's more hard nosed and wouldn't have compromised without a fight. Maybe she would have fought for single payer...but who knows.

Because it's really too easy to sit and predict what someone would have done.

Personally, I believe it's just wishful thinking.

It could very well have turned out a different way. What if Hillary had become President and was doing the same things Obama has done up till now...then Obama supporters might all be sitting here saying, "Obama would NEVER have done that!!!"

Yeah...OK...

Neither one has any Idea of what Jesus taught us. America is on to this type and will not fall for their phony praying .
Dear God please help millionaires and billionairs and corporations just does not cut it.

Religion is a shortcut. In times of strife and privation, shortcuts are attractive.

Jesus' teachings have many good and accommodating things in them, but it's still hierarchical fantastical bullshit that's expecting people to relinquish self-responsibility and bow down to the big daddy.

I deeply resent the concept that religion is necessarily "good" and that anything done with the justification of the many malleable teachings is somehow not of the faith. It's a package deal, and the package is premised on xenophobia, the dislike of thinking or nuance, blinkered obedience and a self-aggrandizing presumption of moral superiority. Such a concept of de facto aristocracy runs counter to pluralism, which is why religion is inherently conservative: it's the need for rigid answers and the fear of thought.

America is NOT on to this type; America is most susceptible to this kind of demagoguery, and those who hold the love of their particular religion as some kind of privilege to which the rest of us must kneel are no friend of cosmopolitanism.

At the very heart of Christianity is a clear selfishness, which is why it's so divinely suited to conservatism. Using a reductionist ad absurdum process to reduce Christianity to its core, if there is only one thing that is requested or required of the believer, what is it? It's to save one's own ass. The rest of it is nice social teachings--ardently believed, for sure--but certainly nothing that doesn't exist in virtually all other cultures and religions.

it seems the crazier she looks - the more successful she is

Or she can hawk Gubment backed reverse mortgages with Fred.

Don

Iowa has shown before being a good candidate for the rest of the country and for one small population caucus state doesn't have much to do with one an other.

she noticed that you never really see her pressing the flesh at events. She also said that Bachmann spent as little time as possible at all the Iowa venues - dashing in, saying her speech, then dashing out again. I noticed one photo in that Newsweek outtake series where she was standing all alone in a fairly large circular room, back against the wall and no expression on her face.

I wonder if she has a touch of agoraphobia or a contamination OCD thing. Either could explain this rather standoffish behavior, so uncharacteristic of successful politicians. If her audiences start noticing this, she'll be gone quickly.

...in fact these days, I don't know what it would take to call it an implosion. From where I sit, she is indeed batsh*t crazy and implodes at least twice a week. Just that picture of her hiding behind a bush at a gay event -- yes it was not in this campaign cycle, but geez, how can anyone take such a person seriously as a candidate?

On your other points regarding how Rick Perry is treated vs. how Michele Bachmann is treated, you are 100% correct. He is treated as a serious contender, even though he is also demonstrably insane, and she is denigrated in ways that only a woman can be denigrated.

But it's hard to muster any sympathy, or even any feminist angst. Because Michele Bachmann is no standard bearer for women, quite the contrary. So while I might criticize some of the coverage, I just can't work up any real passion over it. Regarding her crazy eyes, well, in fact she does have that same crazy expression in at least half the photos I've seen of her. So I can't get worked up over things like the Newsweek cover. The corn dog thing is irritating though, I don't know how you would take a bite of a corn dog without it looking phallic if someone is determined to see it that way. If only people would attack her on her positions, and of course do the same with Perry. Both of them are beyond the pale, and both of them are scary candidates. As in, EEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!