Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) says the historical errors she made in a speech last week would have never garnered so much media attention if she was a liberal.
“We all know there’s a double standard in the media … as we know all 3,400 members of the mainstream media are part of the Obama press contingent,” she said in an interview with Laura Ingraham today, according to Politico.
In a speech delivered Saturday in New Hampshire, Bachmann twice referred to New Hampshire, instead of Massachusetts, as the state where the Revolutionary War battles of Lexington and Concord occurred.
“Only if a conservative makes a misstep is it considered interesting,” Bachmann added, talking about how President Obama’s 2008 reference to the nation’s 57 states had failed to gain significant media attention.
A Gallup poll released today has some good news for Bachmann, though: she’s second only to Mike Huckabee in capturing positive intensity (a number obtained via subtracting a possible candidate’s strong unfavorables from their strong favorables). That puts her ahead of GOP notables such as Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Tim Pawlenty.
IMO, it makes politicians look weak when they criticize the MSM media. By all means, attack the MSM through proxies, and let the rest of us do so too, but I really don’t think whining about your poor press coverage is doing yourself any political favors.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHuckabee? Maybe we are doomed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseShe's correct, but it doesn't matter. The double standard does exist, and it fact it's really a triple standard where conservative women are concerned. Bachmann and Oalin get half as much latitude as a conservative male, who would get one tenth as much as a liberal.
Besides that, maybe the criticism isn't out of place. Just because liberals wouldn't get the same harsh press in this circumstance doesn't mean they wouldn't deserve it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMs. Bachmann - with all due respect - you did mess this up? You got it wrong. Say - oops - and move along.
While you might be right about the MSM going after you simply because you are not a liberal - you sound like one when you whine like this.
Admit you were thinking Concord and did not think it through. It happens.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd this is why Bachmann will never be president-- doubling down on stupid is NEVER the correct choice.
A wiser person than she would have found a way to turn a dumb error into a self-deprecating joke. Ask any class clown how this works-- if you make fun of yourself first, you defuse the power of other people's ridicule.
Really folks, what's with all the thin skin on our side? Bachmann doing this, Gingrich saying he cheated on his wife because he loved his country too darn much, Palin using Facebook to instantly respond to criticism... All these people want to be compared to Reagan, they should remember why so many people LIKED Reagan: he was genuinely funny, and he took the hits in stride.
Days like today makes one feel like Casey Stengel.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMs. Trinko:
First sentence should end with the phrase "if she WERE a liberal." Dependent clause with a contrary-to-fact condition takes the past subjunctive (the lyric isn't "If I was a rich man.")
Couldn't agree more with first comment--anyone outside of Ms. Bachmann's hard core supporters (i.e., independents and so-called RINOs she hopes to get on board) don't care about any actual or purported "media bias." Whining about it isn't presidential.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseP.S. Booooooooooooooooooooooo on National Review for switching to a color-blind nightmare captcha for comment spam. Terrible choice, folks.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNice applause line. Her remarks "would have never garnered so much media attention" if she hadn't already established a pattern of similar gaffes. Obama's "57 states" gaffe hasn't hurt him (despite thousands of media mentions, btw) because it was trivial and isolated. (And who believes that Obama doesn't know how many States are in the Union? Just suggesting that that might be true costs you credibility.) Palin's repeated, and unforced, errors in a softball environment are a much better analogy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes... the media is liberal. But, Rep. Bachmann, what does that have to do with your failure to recite US history accurately?
If Michelle Bachmann and the Huckster are the best the GOP can do... we're done for!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat was an egregious mistake. Everyone in the crowd must have been wincing whenever she said that.
Lopsided or otherwise, she deserves to be embarrassed about such a dumb error.
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe capcha is horrible and it's going to impact my comment volume severely.
AemJeff: "Palin's repeated, and unforced, errors in a softball environment are a much better analogy."
Please tell us what those would be.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse“Obama's "57 states" gaffe hasn't hurt him (despite thousands of media mentions, btw) because it was trivial and isolated”
Please, the MSM would have offered this is proof positive of a Conservative’s stupidity had he or she uttered it in isolation. Furthermore, knowledge of the number of states is far more common than knowledge of Lexington and Concord, so Obama’s comment requires greater ignorance of basic facts known to most Americans, even the historically ignorant. What Bachman is said is true, but it’s also beside the point because it’s a political battle that she loses just by having fought it.
Dave has the right of it; humor is the way to damage control this. Something about how she’s been thinking about New Hampshire so much lately … blah, blah blah.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, Obama has only individual, isolated gaffes. Like the one about 57+ states. And the other one about a tornado killing all 10,000 people in a town (actual death toll: 12). Or the "Spinal Tap" moment where he told a Sioux Falls crowd, "Thank you, Sioux City." Or the time he explained losing to Hillary in Kentucky by raionalizing that Hillary's Arkansas is closer to Kentucky than Obama's Illinois is? Or when he blamed the shortage of American Pashto and Farsi translators in Afghanistan on the "fact" that they were all being used in Iraq (where those languages aren't even spoken?
Nope, no pattern of gaffes there (and those was just pre-election). A thousand pixels do not a picture make - when you're on the left.
Comparing their blunders, the scary thing isn't that Bachmann's grasp of geography is so shaky. It's that hers is so much stronger than Obama's.
To second Dave, I'm having a real hard time reading those images, and I swear I'm not a spambot.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseProbably all of us conservatives should just quit bringing up the double-standard point which does not shame the guilty one iota, and begins to make us look like a bunch of whiners.
Instead of pointing out the hypocrisy, I say we just surge forward with a double effort of attack on the issue at stake and completely ignore the double standard argument as a talking point.
Those who are honest already see it is a double standard and those who aren't honest will not be persuaded.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEven if her comment is valid, it just comes off as whiny. "It wouldn't have been a big deal if nobody noticed" is a lame retort.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRe: "That puts her ahead of GOP notables such as Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Tim Pawlenty."
Which makes Bachman first among equal mediocrities.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCheese and crackers with that whine, Michele?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGods, add me to the 'I'm colour blind and the verification makes my eyes hurt' catagory.
And yes she's right. The sky is blue, grass is green, color coded verification is bad, and the MSM doesn't give a conservative an even break.
And she did make a joke line. "That's the last time I borrow the President's teleprompter."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEveryone, whether on the left or the right, thinks the mainstream media is against them. Except perhaps beltway politicos.
Al Gore did not, for example, claim to have invented the internet, despite what you might have heard: External Link
...but that didn't stop it from spreading like wildfire through the media.
The media has many, many problems, but they largely stem from the structure rather than from bias.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf you are going to cite history then get the history right. I don't think any reasonable person thinks Obama's 57 state comment was anything but either a slip of the tongue or (more likely) an attempted joke. Her mistake was flat out simple ignorance.
whining about it just compounds it.
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