Congresswoman Bachmann was next. She took time to introduce herself as a native Iowan and that she is a 7th generation Iowan. She noted that she is also 100% Norwegian, so that makes her “Iowegian.” She and her husband Marcus also homeschooled. They have five natural born children, and were the foster parents for 23 kids, she said that makes her “the old lady in the shoe.”
She congratulated Iowans on ousting three of the Iowa Supreme Court justices calling them “black-robed masters.” She was appalled at their audacity to redefine marriage, and said that as State Senator she offered a constitutional amendment to define marriage as one man, one woman in Minnesota. That was sparked by what she saw happening in Massachusetts when their supreme court dictated to the Legislature what law they must pass to make gay marriage legal in that state.
She said that she was the first Republican woman to be elected to go to Washington out of Minnesota. She qualified that, “I’m not just a Republican, I’m a way conservative.” She joked that Washington still doesn’t know what to do with her.
She said that she has been prolife since she was 19 having been impacted by the teaching of Francis Schaeffer in college. She also said that exercises her 2nd Amendment rights, and has a carry permit. She noted that she grew up in a house where they made their own shotgun shells in the basement, and took her first gun safety course when she was 12.
She said, “I may be 5-foot-2 and wearing a yellow suit, but I am one tough lady when it comes to protecting our freedoms.” To great applause she said, “we will make Barack Obama a one-term president. We will repeal Obamacare. She said that we have a brief window of opportunity in 2012. She said we need to run up to 60 seats in the Senate. She proclaimed, “I am in for 2012 to make sure that torch of liberty is not extinguished on our watch.”
She explained after the speech that she meant she’s “in it for 2012” to help beat Obama, it wasn’t an announcement of a presidential run. She said that she’ll decide in June whether or not to run. State Senator Kent Sorenson (R-Indianola) is an early supporter, and he said, “I hope she does run. I think she will.” Another homeschooling parent that I spoke with said, “she’s the real deal,” but was quick to mention that she like aspects of what each candidate who spoke.
Personally, after listening to Congresswoman Bachmann’s speech I felt that was the first true campaign speech I heard today. Cain’s was good, but Bachmann’s covered a wider range and you definitely had the feel that she was selling herself to the group. She does have the potential to do very well among homeschoolers specifically, and evangelicals in particular.
I have the chance to ask her about her 2012 intentions today in a one-to-one exclusive interview, so be sure to check back.
I hope she runs in 2012.
By the way, I think I mentioned before that Michele is into Christian apologetics. It’s not just Francis Schaefffer, she likes Ravi Zacharias, too. She’s a home-schooling apologetics mom!
First, Megyn Kelly explains the Wisconsin union crisis.
Michele Bachmann interviewed by Megyn Kelly:
Paul Ryan interviewed by Greta Van Susteren.
Paul Ryan also talks about Obama’s latest budget.
Ladies and gentlemen, the grown-up party.
UPDATE: Here’s a story for those who are Youtube-impaired.
Excerpt:
Two-thirds of the eighth graders in Wisconsin public schools cannot read proficiently according to the U.S. Department of Education, despite the fact that Wisconsin spends more per pupil in its public schools than any other state in the Midwest.
In the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests administered by the U.S. Department of Education in 2009—the latest year available—only 32 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned a “proficient” rating while another 2 percent earned an “advanced” rating. The other 66 percent of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned ratings below “proficient,” including 44 percent who earned a rating of “basic” and 22 percent who earned a rating of “below basic.”
The test also showed that the reading abilities of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders had not improved at all between 1998 and 2009 despite a significant inflation-adjusted increase in the amount of money Wisconsin public schools spent per pupil each year.
On Tuesday, leftist lackey Chris Matthews went on a jaundiced tirade against Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s speech for the Iowans for Tax Relief. Specifically, he derided Rep. Bachmann’s citation of John Quincy Adams as one of this country’s forebearers who worked tirelessly for abolition.
First, of all, let’s look at this post on Big Government which explains what John Adams did.
Excerpt:
As a Founder and the second President, it’s true that John Adams put the Republic above what was then an impossible issue to resolve. It is inaccurate to suggest he was a proponent of slavery with no role in its ultimately being eliminated in the U.S. No, he did not sacrifice the forming of a Republic for it, which is precisely what a strong position against it would have meant. But he did make his sentiments known (for more), taking pride in never having employed a slave. He is said to have found it “repugnant” and he argued against the Southern position that blacks not be included in population figures during the Continental Congress.
Now back to Letitia and John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams.
John Quincy Adams: according to biographies of Adams’ life, he repeatedly attempted to introduce bills by abolitionist groups into Congress calling for the abolition of slavery. Such was the opposition to his ongoing attempts, Southern Democrats passed a number of gag rules in order to prevent Adams from introducing any more abolitionist bills.
“Throughout he was conspicuous as an opponent of the extension of slavery, though he was never technically an abolitionist, and in particular he was the champion in the House of Representatives of the right of petition at a time when, through the influence of the Southern members, this right was, in practice, denied by that body. His prolonged fight for the repeal of the so-called “Gag Laws” is one of the most dramatic contests in the history of the U.S. Congress. The agitation for the abolition of slavery, which really began in earnest with the establishment of the Liberator by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831, soon led to the sending of innumerable petitions to congress for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, over which the Federal government had jurisdiction, and for other action by congress with respect to that institution. These petitions were generally sent to Adams for presentation. They aroused the anger of the pro-slavery members of congress, who, in 1836, brought about the passage of the first “Gag Rule”, the Pinckney Resolution, presented by Henry L. Pinckney, of South Carolina. It provided that all petitions relating to slavery should be laid on the table without being referred to committee or printed; and, in substance, this resolution was re-adopted at the beginning of each of the immediately succeeding sessions of congress, the Patton Resolution being adopted in 1837, the Atherton Resolution, or “Atherton Gag”, in 1838, and the Twenty-first Rule in 1840 and subsequently until repealed. Adams contended that these “Gag Rules” were a direct violation of the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution, and refused to be silenced on the question, fighting for repeal with indomitable courage, in spite of the bitter denunciation of his opponents. Each year the number of anti-slavery petitions received and presented by him increased; perhaps the climax was in 1837, when Adams presented a petition from twenty-two slaves, and, when threatened by his opponents with censure, defended himself with remarkable keenness and ability. At each session, also, the majority against him decreased until in 1844 his motion to repeal the Twenty-first Rule was carried by a vote of 108 to 80 and his battle was won.” (Source: NDDB biographies, http://www.nndb.com/people/370/000026292/)
Incidentally (or not incidentally, if you believe in Divine Providence as I do), in the last year of Adams’ life, he mentored a young Congressman to work toward abolition. This Congressman later went on to become the 16th President of the United States. Oh, what was his name? Abraham Lincoln.
She then links to this Youtube video showing the details of the connection between John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln.
Letitia is a friend of mine, so I recommend that everyone read the rest of her post. Her blog is called “Talitha, Koum”. There’s a Biblical meaning to that phrase.
My thoughts
I’m going to compare Chris Matthews to Michele Bachmann to see which one has more education, more experience and higher moral standards.
Education:
Let’s review Matthews’ academic history. He has a bachelor degree in something, no site will say what, from the College of the Holy Cross. When people don’t say what the degree is in, you can bet your bottom dollar that it is something totally useless like drama or music or education or women’s studies. And he did one year of graduate work in economics before DROPPING OUT. He then spent some time working as a police offer on Capitol Hill.
In contrast, Michele Bachmann has a B.A. and a J.D. and an LL.M in tax law from the College of William and Mary, a prestigious law school. That means she has completed her bachelor degree, doctorate in laws, and a post-doctoral degree in tax law. She worked as a federal tax lawyer before starting a successful career in politics.
Campaigns:
Matthews is a Democrat, who has worked for Democrats and he has even run for office as a Democrat.
When Matthews first arrived in Washington, D.C., he worked as a police officer with the United States Capitol Police. Subsequently, he served on the staffs of four Democratic members of Congress, including Senators Frank Moss and Edmund Muskie. In 1974, he mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Pennsylvania’s 4th congressional district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, in which he received about 24% of the vote in the primary. Matthews was a presidential speechwriter during the Carter administration, and later worked for six years as a top aide to long-time Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O’Neill, playing a direct role in many key political battles with the Reagan administration.
Michele Bachmann meanwhile has run for office at the state and federal level and won numerous times, in a blue state, no less. In all, she has spent six years as a state senator, and 4 years as a congresswoman, and was just elected again. She has not ruled out a run for the Presidency in 2012.
[…]the conservatives will find the evils of sodomy, the evils of, uh, uh, infidelity, the evils of sex of any form. It seems like the conservatives don’t like sex and they’re very focused on that and the liberals are focused on social injustice.
So he rejects Biblical morality on sex. And why should we be surprised? He is a Democrat -the party of John Edwards, Bill Clinton, Gary Condit, Eliot Spitzer, etc. For Democrats, affairs are OK – they never resign because they think that there should be no rules around sex. My opinion is that he is an atheist like most Democrats, although he is not going to come out and say that.
Note what being pro-abortion really means. Being pro-abortion means that one group (adults) can choose to kill another group (the unborn) simply because it makes them happier to do so. To make this sound more palatable, they marginalize an entire group of human beings to being non-human trash. As Frank Turek recently noted, this is EXACTLY what slave-owners did. Slave-owners marginalized an entire class of human beings to trash because it made them happier. If Matthews had been alive during the time of slavery, he would have been a slave-owner. He would have called abolitionists “terrorists”, just like he calls pro-lifers “terrorists”.
In contrast, Michele Bachmann is an outspoken evangelical Christian. Her views are consistent with the Bible across the board.
On a recent installment of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Chris Matthews could not contain his mocking laughter as he announced the breaking news that Michele Bachmann had been appointed to the House Intelligence Committee. Matthews does not make any case to support the idea that Bachmann lacks the competence to be on the intelligence committee; to him it is simply a forgone conclusion based on her gender and political leanings. Matthews has made trivializing remarks about Christine O’Donnell as well. During O’Donnell’s campaign, Matthews dismissed her as a “cute” girl that is “just having fun.” Somehow, conservative women are inherently bimbos.
However, the most glaring examples of the bimbo narrative are focused upon Sarah Palin. Matthews, along with many in the mainstream media, have repeatedly accused her of lacking intelligence. From the outset of her emergence upon the national stage Matthews has questioned her intelligence: calling her an empty “vessel” that lacks “independent thinking” which will be filled up with conservative rhetoric. When Palin’s first book deal was announced, Matthews was quick to dismiss: “If she can read, if she can write, she’ll make money.”
Last Friday, preemptively criticizing an upcoming appearance on Hannity, Matthews compared Palin’s appearance to an infomercial that would be “selling makeup foundations.” Palin was to discuss the recent blood libel comment she made in response to accusations that she incited the Arizona shootings.
On “Hardball” Thursday, Chris Matthews responded to critics who claim he recently made sexist comments about Hillary Rodham Clinton, which they say is part of a history of similar conduct.
Controversy erupted after Matthews made remarks on Joe Scarborough’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC that “the reason she’s a U.S. senator, the reason she’s a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around. That’s how she got to be senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn’t win there on her merit.”
Naturally, Michele Bachmann won’t do this – she is an intelligent woman. She knows how hard it is to actually finish graduate school and win election campaigns… unlike Chris Matthews. She actually finishes what she starts… unlike Chris Matthews.
WINTERY KNIGHT 