Bachmann plays gender card as Iowa GOP vote nears

AP ^ | 1/1/2012 | BRIAN BAKST

[markomalley]

Desperate for a late lift in Iowa, Republican Michele Bachmann is increasingly stressing a distinction in the presidential field: She's the only woman competing for the nomination.

The Minnesota congresswoman has made the gender card central to her closing argument. She's urging voters to embrace the idea of a "strong woman in the White House" and is molding herself as "America's Iron Lady" in the vein of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It's a play that carries as much risk as potential reward because some of the ardent religious conservatives she's aggressively courting have traditional views about gender roles.

History is not on Bachmann's side, either. Iowa has never elected a woman as governor or to its congressional delegation, a footnote shared only with Mississippi.

It was only a few years ago when GOP presidential nominee John McCain energized his campaign by putting Sarah Palin on the ticket, inspiring a hot pink-shirted army of voters the folksy former Alaska governor affectionately coined "mamma grizzlies." Palin opted out of the 2012 race and so far isn't pushing her followers in any direction.

[markomalley]

Gotta love the un-biased title. Still, it would have been nice had Michele gone out with a little class.

[Old Retired Army Guy]

Stick a fork in her!

[TwelveOfTwenty]

After the way the lefties attacked Clinton in 2008 and Palin continuously, I'm not sure I disapprove of this. Reminding voters of how the Dems treated Hillary, especially after all the Clintons meant to them in the 90’s, is probably a good strategy, if she pursues that.

[whitedog57]

I would love to ask all Republican candidates what their solution is to this problem (from Zero Hedge):

The Federal (Un)Balance Sheet – $65 Trillion Financial Hole = $550k Per Household Or $2.2 million per de-facto taxpayer, take your pick!

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/the-federal-unbalance-sheet-65-trillion-financial-hole-550k-per-household/

[Cicero]

Since she is a Republican, she is accused of playing the gender card.

If she were a Democrat, they would say to vote for her because she is a woman.

[cripplecreek]

some of the ardent religious conservatives she's aggressively courting have traditional views about gender roles.

I just gotta roll my eyes at that crap. Reminds me of Chris Wallace asking her if she would be submissive to her husband as president.

[cripplecreek]

A quick rundown of her fiscal plan from her website.

REPATRIATION. More than 1.2 trillion United States dollars could be brought back to America in days as an immediate "stimulus" if the government would zero out the tax rate on that money until December 31, and then permanently keep it here in the U.S. if taxed at a rate of 5 percent. Foreign earnings totaling over $1.2 trillion is more than the President's failed stimulus and it won't come out of taxpayer wallets. It would increase the value of the dollar, provide valuable capital for the job creators in this country and pump tremendous amounts of money into our economy.

CUT SPENDING AND GOVERNMENT. I have already voted to cut federal spending in the years ahead, every single time I have had the opportunity. In addition, I would phase out quasi-governmental enterprises, such as Fannie and Freddie, and eliminate duplicative government programs and costs. We must decrease government salaries to bring them in line with their private sector counterparts, and we must decrease the number of government employees. Over-spending by the government hurts job creation by devaluing the dollar and stealing capital from the private sector.

REPEAL OBAMACARE. Healthcare is one-sixth of the U.S. economy and this unconstitutional takeover of healthcare by the federal government is creating crippling uncertainty for employers across this country. This legislation does nothing to address the true problem with our healthcare system – cost – and will cost states trillions. I believe it is an intentional backstop to imploding healthcare entitlement programs — Medicare and Medicaid — to transition toward a single payer-system. This is the number one hindrance to job creation in the United States (according to a recently released UBS study).

CUT TAXES. I've demonstrated a firm commitment to cutting spending and balancing the budget. We need to reduce the number of tax brackets, repeal taxes outlined in Obamacare, fix the Alternative Minimum Tax, and eliminate the Death Tax. In addition, we must make the corporate tax code simpler and fairer, and allow U.S. companies that generate earnings overseas to bring back those profits and invest them in American jobs and growth.

REPEAL THE JOBS AND HOUSING DESTRUCTION ACT, ALSO KNOWN AS DODD-FRANK. This law tightened regulations on banks, made it harder for Americans to obtain credit, and failed to address the systemic problem that caused the Wall Street collapse — leverage. This 849-page bill calls for 400 new sets of rules that will be written on 6000 Federal Register pages, all written by bureaucrats, many of whom have never worked in the financial services field. The law also creates a potentially intrusive Financial Services Consumer Protection Bureau that is not accountable to Congress and which has but a vague mandate to combat misconduct – so in the wrong hands, it could cause its own kind of misconduct.

LEGALIZE AMERICAN ENERGY PRODUCTION AND AMERICA'S NATURAL RESOURCES. This could create 1.4 million jobs, bringing $800 billion of new revenue into the U.S. Treasury, and increasing domestic energy supplies by 50 percent. The price of energy has a direct impact on nearly ever facet of our lives. We have to abandon the parochial and political energy policies of the past and install a comprehensive energy plan that not only reduces our reliance on unfriendly foreign regimes, but also creates millions of American jobs and generates increased tax revenues. According to the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. has more energy potential than any other country in the world. We should use that potential. It is a better policy to create American jobs and explore in an environmentally-sound way, than to rely on foreign dictators who give little regard to the environment. This includes specific strategies like reviving the logging, timber, mining and metals industries, and bringing federal lands back into productive activity by repealing radical environmental laws that kill access to natural resources.

REPEAL JOB KILLING REGULATIONS. America's job creators and small business owners have lost economic liberty under the weight of $1.8 billion annually in compliance costs with government regulations. Together we sent $2.2 trillion in taxes to the federal government this year. By comparison, job creators spend nearly as much annually to comply with bureaucratic mandates. Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, and the string of mandates and rules from the Environmental Protection Agency — as well as other agencies — are creating such incredible uncertainty in the market. The House Republican leadership has identified 219 planned Obama administration regulations, each of which will cost the economy more than $100 million. This red tape rampage must stop.

INCREASE EXPORTS. This President has been holding hostage trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea as he tries to negotiate favor for Big Labor. The world needs to know that we are open for business and U.S. Companies need to expand beyond our borders to the 95 percent of people who do not live here.

UNLEASH AMERICAN INVESTMENT. By eliminating unnecessary taxes and regulation, and expanding trade, we will create an incentive for investment in America again. We must do whatever it takes to restore our ability to manufacture here in the U.S. We can do this by reforming the tax code, providing incentive for growth, and allowing the private sector to control the market with little government involvement.

PAVE A PATHWAY FOR INNOVATION. Recent reports indicated that the United States has now slipped to 5th in the competitiveness rankings, and 47th in education. How do we expect to lead the world economically when we are not doing what is needed to inspire and foster innovation here at home? The future of the American economy lies with the innovation of this and future generations.

ENFORCE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAWS. The failure of the federal government to enforce its immigration laws costs federal, state and local governments billions of dollars annually. Our nation was founded on the rule of law, and we must ensure U.S. immigration laws are respected and enforced not only to preserve our national security, but to protect federal, state, and local budgets, and to curb the unfair strain on our country's job markets.

[rintense]

Agreed.

[Sudetenland]

Michelle Bachmann, you are no Margaret Thatcher . . . not by a long, long shot. Get over yourself and your 23,000 (or however many) children you raised. /rolleyes

[jdub]

She started this in one of the early debates. Someone on her team convinced her to try and create a special interest group in order to boost her numbers. It failed. She truly was never in contention. I like her policies, but she doesn’t have the credentials yet, and I’m afraid this campaign is going to stick to her in the future.

[jdub]

She started this in one of the early debates. Someone on her team convinced her to try and create a special interest group in order to boost her numbers. It failed. She truly was never in contention. I like her policies, but she doesn’t have the credentials yet, and I’m afraid this campaign is going to stick to her in the future.

[MestaMachine]

I gotta admire your tenacity and loyalty, CC. Happy New Year to you and yours!

[TheWriterTX]

My thoughts exactly.

[trebb]

She has a relatively good head on her shoulders, but has had a few too many "blonde" moments to instill a sense of comfort as a nominee. They claim Newt steps on his own d**k by too quick and not-well-thought-out responses, but she has sounde a bit unbalanced a time or three. Her latest Iron Lady allusions and specifically saying we need a WOMAN like that to straighten things out had me thinking great shades of Kagan - a female Latino has experiences and views that make her superior...

That said, if she makes the ballot, I won't hesitate to touch the screen to vote for her.

[cripplecreek]

I just don’t care about the stupid crap. I know where I stand and I’m sticking with it.

And a happy new year to you and yours as well.

[Oystir]

Harpy, go home.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

The AP employee knows of the "card" -- how does he deal with the race card..

google search, 10 per page

"BRIAN BAKST" "race card" -cain Page 6 of 57 results (0.13 seconds)

It starts off saying that there are about 752 hits. But when I ask google to skip to the last page I get the above message that there are 57 results, six pages at ten results per page.

I did not look at all 57 the few I looked at contained quotes from Limbaugh for example accusing others of using the race card and other results contained mention of "race card" but not from anything that Mr. Bakst wrote.

Certainly if Mr. Bakst has ever used the term in his news "reporting" to describe actions of minorities it has been extremely rare -- except it appears that he may have used it in "reporting" on Herman Cain.

Note: I had to exclude Herman Cain ( -cain ) because otherwise I got 952 results.

[Iron Munro]

GOOD:

Hillary Clinton 2008 - “It’s time to elect a female to the presidency.”

BAD:

Michele Bachmann 2011 - “Embrace the idea of a “strong woman in the White House”

[montag813]

Trying to recall even one AP article from 2007-2008 which said Barack Obama was “playings the RACE card”.

[deport]

Michelle Bachmann, you are no Margaret Thatcher . . . not by a long, long shot.

---

“America’s Iron Lady”

Sounds like a title for a reality show, books, cross country tours, etc. that she can move onto once her failing campaign closes shop.