PrairiePundit

Erick Erickson: When Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)81% ran for President in 2012, she said if she were President she would get gas below $2.00 a gallon. That led to much ridicule from the left/press who claimed that was impossible. One of the leading voices giving credibility to the rejection of Bachmann’s claim was Time Magazine’s Bryan R. Walsh. Walsh wrote of Bachmann’s claims, “If you see sub-$2-a-gallon gas again, I strongly suggest that you stock up on bottled water and canned tuna, because the economic end times may be at hand.” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)81% gets the last laugh. ... He has a photo of Bachmann standing under a sign advertising gas at $1.98.9.   It appears to be going even lower in some places.  The left was not just wrong, they were arrogantly and snarkily wrong.  They have given up any credibility on the issue.  One of the worst was President Obama.  The GOP should be reminding voters of his snarky statements as he opposes the Ke...

Ed Rogers: ... Anyway, Ms. Bachmann was sometimes inaccurate and occasionally misguided — in my opinion — but her drive, her patriotism and her tireless energy on behalf of the conservative cause should not pass unnoticed or unappreciated. On paper , I always thought she had great potential. She’s from a blue state, won six elections and, honest to God, had 23 foster kids and five children of her own. You can’t fake that commitment or dismiss it as resumé padding. Most of us will never do a fraction of what she’s done for helpless kids. And, she is a seriously credentialed lawyer to boot. By today’s standards, no one should count her out. If Al Sharpton can be fully rehabilitated after the wild antics he conjured up and inflicted on the rest of us back in the day, who knows what’s in store for Ms. Bachmann. ... Michelle sometimes let her passion overrule the carefully crafted message most lawyers try to put forward.  There is an art to structure an argument in a way that do...

Michelle Bachmann skewers the Obama policy from her perspective on committees who have over-site of our intelligence.

Politico: The verdict from Washington last week was swift and bipartisan:  Michele Bachmann  was out of line.   Accusing two prominent Muslims — State Department aide  Huma Abedin  and Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota — of being tied to the Muslim Brotherhood was a step too far, even for the conservative firebrand. But the Northeast corridor’s stunned disbelief at what it saw as a loony conspiracy theory is replaced with hollers of support among Bachmann’s many devoted fans here in the exurbs north of the Twin Cities that she represents. If anything, the uproar seems to have galvanized her base. And the contrasting reaction demonstrates why Democrats will have a hard time in their latest effort to unseat the GOP lightning rod. ... The story seems to imply that some of this support is kooky.  But in doing so it is making assumptions that are unwarranted about the voters and about the questions raised by Bachmann. Look, reporti...

Washington Post: McCain defends Clinton aide against accusations of Muslim conspiracy What I would like to know is not what Bachmann or McCain said about Huma Abedin, but what she actually thinks about the religious bigots who make up the Muslim Brotherhood.  In her personal life, she married Anthony Weiner who is Jewish, so it would appear that on a personal level she does not share their antipathy for Jews and other non Muslims, but why not have an interview where she explains her views on  the merchants of hate who make up much of the Muslim Brotherhood.  What does she think of their designating Israel as the enemy?  What does she think of the treatment of the Copt Christians in Egypt? Why not do a little reporting?  Get the facts rather than just report McCain's high dudgeon.  Get out of your defensive crouch.  The important thing to know is how this government perceives people who want to fundamentally change the world for...

Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a> She gives some pretty good answers.

AP/RCP: Rick Perry's Republican rivals are struggling to find a coherent, easy-to-grasp argument against the Texas governor, who tops GOP presidential polls despite attacks from all sides. Perry is the newest face in the GOP race and his opponents are determined to define him for primary voters, casting him as liberal, conservative and unelectable. They hope their characterizations of the front-runner take hold before he has a chance to sway opinions. In fact, it's the "all sides" nature that complicates the opposition's message. Republican voters who watched last week's presidential debate and its aftermath might wonder: Should I see Perry as too conservative or too moderate? Mitt Romney depicts Perry's criticisms of Social Security as too far to the right. "If we nominate someone who the Democrats could correctly characterize as being against Social Security, we will be obliterated as a party," the former Massachusetts governor said rece...

Michael Walsh: ...   Even when Perry conceded that the order was an overreach and that his Legislature was correct in overturning it, Bachmann continued to pound him -- arguing that the decision should be left to the parents, not the state, and that by vaccinating girls against an STD, the government was somehow encouraging promiscuity.             The way Bachmann chose to go after Perry -- berating him for “government injections” of “innocent little 12-year-old girls” -- made it sound like the Texan was ordering up fiendish medical experiments instead of responding to legitimate public-health concerns. Further, there is nothing wrong with states ordering vaccinations -- they do it all the time with infectious diseases like polio, and save millions of lives. It’s fine for Bachmann to raise the issue of possible “crony capitalism” -- Perry’s former chief of staff was a lobbyist working for the vaccine’s manufacturer, Merck. But she went way o...

LA Times: For most of his two decades as a preacher, Iowa pastor Mike Demastus eschewed partisanship, telling colleagues and congregants that "religion and politics don't mix." But there he was last month in Ames, making his way across the festive grounds of the Republican presidential straw poll, mingling with political operatives and candidates as he spoke openly about his preference for Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. He wasn't alone. The straw poll drew a slew of previously apolitical Iowa pastors — a constituency increasingly heeding a call to speak out on politics. "There is a concerted assault on everything that we consider sacred — and we pastors need to move to the forefront of the battle," said Demastus, wearing a T-shirt and shorts for the Saturday event. Demastus is part of a growing movement of evangelical pastors who are jumping into the electoral fray as never before, preaching political engagement from the pulpit as they mobiliz...

Rasmussen Reports: Confirming a surge seen in polling across the nation, Texas Governor Rick Perry has moved into first place among Republican voters in Iowa, host state to the first-in-the-nation caucus early next year. A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of those likely to participate in the Iowa GOP Caucus shows that Perry is the first choice for 29%. Essentially tied for second are Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann at 18% and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at 17%. Texas Congressman Ron Paul picks up 14% of the vote, and nobody else currently reaches the five percent (5%) mark. ... Perry's campaign style seems effective in Iowa at this point. Romney and Bachmann are about where they were before Perry entered the race, tied in the teens. The other candidates do not look competitive at this point.

Des Moines Register: September will be a telling month in the presidential race, with a trifecta of Republican debates and other developments that could separate the contenders from the pretenders. Another campaign fundraising deadline looms at the end of this month. And Iowans will likely know by then whether Sarah Palin is in or out. On this Labor Day, the 2012 race for the Republican nomination has an undeniable front-runner: Rick Perry. In just three weeks, the Texas governor has leeched poll headlines, money and supporters from rival Republicans — and overshadowed the Iowa straw poll’s best finishers. Victor Michele Bachmann saw little, if any, bounce from her straw poll win last month, according to Republicans in Iowa and elsewhere. “Perry stepped all over her,” said Christopher Rants, a longtime GOP operative from Sioux City. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it.” This Labor Day also follows Friday’s historically bad jobs report — August marked the first time sinc...

Michael Gerson: ... Now the heroes of the Tea Party movement, it turns out, are also closet theocrats. “If you want to understand Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry,” argues Michelle Goldberg in Newsweek/Daily Beast, “understanding Dominionism isn’t optional.” A recent New Yorker profile by Ryan Lizza contends that Bachmann has been influenced by a variety of theocratic thinkers who have preached Christian holy war. As befits a shadowy religious sect, its followers go under a variety of names: Reconstructionists. Theonomists. The New Apostolic Reformation. Republicans. All apparently share a belief, in Goldberg’s words, that “Christians have a God-given right to rule all earthly institutions.” The Dominionist goal is the imposition of a Christian version of sharia law in which adulterers, homosexuals and perhaps recalcitrant children would be subject to capital punishment. It is enough to spoil the sleep of any New Yorker subscriber. But there is a problem: Dominionism, though pos...

This chart from the Washington Post shows Twitter mentions of Perry, Bachmann and Romney. It is not a close comparison and reflects the excitement that Perry has brought to the race.  It is also an example of which candidate is doing better in social media at this point. Click on the image for a larger view.

When the same group tried to ask Bachmann the same question they were shoved out of the way.  That could be one reason Perry is getting so much press, he is willing to talk to them and answer questions.

Rasmussen Reports: GOP Primary:  Perry 29%,  Romney 18%,  Bachmann 13% Perry appears to be the candidate many Republicans were waiting for.  There are still months to go before he can bank any votes, but he has to like his trajectory.

Opinion Journal: ... ... her attempt to position herself at all times as the anti-establishment outsider has made her seem on occasion less principled than opportunistic. She quickly distanced herself from Paul Ryan's Medicare reform when it came under liberal fire, even as she purports to be the scourge of uncontrolled spending. Her recent opposition to the debt-ceiling deal on grounds that GOP leaders should have insisted on first passing a balanced budget amendment, while holding only the House, was a political fantasy. Americans are already living with the consequences of electing a President who sounded good but had achieved little as a legislator and had no executive experience. Mrs. Bachmann will have to persuade voters she isn't the conservative version of Mr. Obama. ... The piece has some kind words for Gov. Perry, some of which you have seen in this blog before. Bachmann will be challenged on her logical inconsistencies. She will also continue to be challen...

Reuters/NY Times: It was Michele Bachmann's big moment in the political spotlight and Rick Perry stomped all over it. Despite her victory on Saturday in the Iowa straw poll, the first big test of the 2012 Republican presidential campaign, Bachmann had to share the national stage with Perry's public leap into the White House race. It won't be the last time the congresswoman from Minnesota and the governor of Texas step on each other's toes. Both aim for the backing of the same bloc of religious and social conservatives who dominate Iowa's kick-off nominating contest. Both hope to become the chief Republican alternative to nominal front-runner Mitt Romney in the 2012 fight for the right to challenge President Barack Obama. And both will be in Waterloo, Iowa, Bachmann's birthplace, on Sunday night to speak at a local fund-raising dinner in what looks like Act One of a beautiful rivalry. "Perry is the looming presence in Michele Bachmann's fu...

Independent: ... Struck by a blitz of criticism, Newsweek editor Tina Brown defended the choice of photograph, even if it shows Ms Bachmann wearing a decidedly startled expression. Or, as New York Magazine put it, the kind of look "you might see on the face of a serial killer who just spotted a new victim". "Michele Bachmann's intensity is galvanising voters in Iowa right now and Newsweek's cover captures that," Ms Brown contended in a brief statement. The Daily Beast, her weekly's online sister, posted outtakes from the same event where they photographed Ms Bachmann in Iowa, saying, "Many of the photographs taken for the feature showed Bachmann with similar intensity." A glance at the other pictures, some of which appear on the inside pages of Newsweek, nonetheless confirms what everyone suspected: none make the candidate look quite as zany as the one on the cover. ... It is part of the liberal playbook. Most of the pictures of Per...

Public Policy Polling: -In another sign of his strength as he prepares to enter the Presidential race Rick Perry leads the Republican field in Virginia, pointing to the possibility for him to be a very strong candidate particularly in the South. He gets 20% to 16% for Mitt Romney, 15% for Michele Bachmann, 13% for Sarah Palin, 6% each for Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich, 2% for Tim Pawlenty, and 1% for Jon Huntsman. What might be most impressive about Perry's lead is that it comes despite his lagging the rest of the top contenders in name recognition. Palin's known to 90% of GOP primary voters, Romney to 83%, and Bachmann to 80%. But despite only 62% of Republicans knowing enough about Perry to have an opinion about him he still comes out tops in the horse race. Perry's first place finish is derived from his strength with the far right. Among 'very conservative' voters he's at 28% with Bachmann getting 20%, Palin 15%, and Romney in a distant fourth place at 12%...

Washington  Times: Texas Gov. Rick Perry may not have formally declared his presidential candidacy yet, but bettors on the news-futures website Intrade already are giving him the same chance of becoming the 2012 Republican nominee as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the presumed front-runner. Mr. Perry’s nomination odds reached a high of 33 percent Thursday morning, eclipsing Mr. Romney for the first time. Mr. Romney, trading at 32 percent, had been Intrade’s 2012 favorite since betting on the GOP nomination began in 2008 and had even consolidated his front-runner status in recent months as his opponents stumbled and other would-be challengers opted not to run. But the reportedly imminent entry of Mr. Perry, a popular politician in his third term in office, has altered the equation for those seeking to profit from their ability to predict the race’s outcome. Mr. Perry’s surge seems to have come primarily at the expense of Rep. Michele Bachmann, Minnesota Republican, w...