Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 04:43 pm
On ABC’s This Week, Michele Bachmann attempted to woo Republican voters by claiming that she is the only tax attorney in the 2012 race.
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TAPPER: Well, one of the — one of the dilemmas that you’ve had is that a lot of the voters that you are competing for, conservative voters, Christian evangelicals in some cases, are also being wooed by Rick Santorum and Rick Perry. And Santorum has momentum right now. He is at third place in the Des Moines Register poll. And if you look at the last two days, he’s in second place. He has strong social conservative credentials. He’s fluent in foreign affairs. He won statewide twice in a key swing state, Pennsylvania. So why should voters go for you and not him?
BACHMANN: Well, because I’m the strongest core conservative in this race. There is no comparison with all of the other candidates and my credentials. No other candidate has current national security experience in the race. I sit on the House Intelligence Committee. I am daily involved with the issue of national security. No other candidate is.
And as what we — what we are seeing happening with Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, that will be a formidable issue immediately with the next commander-in-chief. I’m ready. No other candidate is currently ready in that issue.
Also, I’m the only federal tax litigation attorney in this race. When it comes to dealing with the number-one issue that’s on voters’ minds, which is out-of-control spending, I have that credential in spades over any other candidate, because no other candidate was leading on this issue in the halls of Congress or in Washington or nationally. I’m the one that called for saying “no” to letting Barack Obama increase the national credit card limit.
And when it comes to social issues, there’s no one who can — who can compare with my record. I’m a mother of five, a foster mother to 23 children that we’ve raised, and also I have an unassailable record on life, on marriage, on religious liberty. So when it comes to values and issues, there is no one who comes close to where I am on those issues.
Bachmann being Bachmann undercut her own claims of expertise by referring to debt limit as our national credit card. Apparently, her new strategy is to talk to the American people like they are six years old.
Jake Tapper followed up by pointing out that Bachmann has been saying these same things since the summer, and she is in last place in Iowa now. Bachmann’s basic reply was that the polls are wrong because momentum has shifted to her. She had nothing to back this up with, but she knows it has.
One has to question the logic of trying to woo Republican voters by with the claim that you are qualified to be president because you were a federal tax attorney. Her pitch becomes especially dubious when one considers that she is trying to win the nomination of a political party that opposes all taxes by touting the fact that she used to handle tax collection cases for the IRS. (Of course, she left that little detail out).
As much as the critical tax attorney vote might be wowed by her appeal to them, the American people aren’t sitting around thinking, “You know what would really fix this country right up? A tax attorney president, that’s what we need.”
What it comes down to is that Michele Bachmann is out of money, sunk in the polls, and her staff has already moved on. When a candidate hangs their hat on the fact that they are the only tax attorney in the race, they are totally screwed.
It has been an odd little ride for Michele Bachmann, but in the end she is going end right where everyone thought she would be, at the bottom of the polls and heading back to Minnesota before the first blooms of spring.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
