The Problem With Bachmann and the Modern Media

Michele Bachmann Doesn't Know How to Answer a Fucking Question

The question is simple and the answer is transparent.  Bachmann is asked very plainly, "Why did you say that Obama only issued one oil drilling permit when he released over 250?".

The response:  Obama hasn't released enough.

(All the articles that I have here go over to the Politifact website, my favorite news site on the web.  I like it because it's fair, even-minded and has a long, long memory.)

No where in the Bachmann lexicon is she capable of admitting that she was wrong.  Go ahead, try to find a statement that Bachmann's made that she's come back and said that she was wrong on.  Its not like she said "My favorite color is blue..." when all the Bachmann insiders have said that it's red.  I'm talking about the Treasury Secretary wants us to have a One World currency, or (my favorite) that Swine Flu can be attributed to Democrats being president, when it happened under a Republican.  Not just wrong, but insanely wrong, wrong that could only have been achieved by knowing what the correct answer was and then drawing the lines to the complete opposite facts.

I should point out that no congressman (or woman) has ever gone directly (which is the key word) from the House to the White House (though there are plenty who have tried.)  I think that Bachmann has about the same chance that Pat Robertson did back in '88.  The Evangelicals will be mobilized for a little bit but other elements of the party are going to resist the portion that insists upon the Christian religion (please see Hucakbee campaign) and want to focus on other aspects of the platform.

But in the meantime, this exchange makes two things quite clear:

FIRST:  If Michele Bachmann is incapable of saying something to the effect of "You know what, I was way off on the numbers, HOWEVER, the point about the Obama Administration's hostility towards off-shore drilling shows BLAH BLAH BLAH!", then what does this mean for her presidency?  I mean, if the US makes a mistake on the international stage (a novel concept, I know), is she going to redact it?  Is she going to acknowledge that we're flesh and blood humans capable of making a mistake?

And it's not a question of opinion that the last Swine Flu outbreak was during a Democrat.  It's an objective fact that it happened during the Ford Administration (one of the forgotten worst presidencies because Carter was so much worse ::eye roll::) Did she apologize and say "You know, what I was just trying to be snide."

I know that it's not politically-wise to apologize for cocking up and moving on, but you'll always gain the respect of the people whenever you admit that you were wrong.

Instead, all she could say was that Obama was messing something up about offshore drilling, like he was supposed to put the drill literally on his shoulder and swim to the bottom of the Gulf and get the oil up through a crazy straw... I assume Bachmann has a lot of crazy straws...  But this leads me to the second problem:

SECOND:  When she was obviously dodging the question, when she wouldn't apologize, when she wouldn't even admit that she had on several occasions said something that was not only wrong, but misleading (which is what makes it Pants on Fire), what did Schieffer do?  He said "I don't believe that you answered the question...", and then ended the segment.

There has to be a responsibility that the media has towards those that are LYING.  He wasn't even trying to pin her down in the report that she had been caught lying and just let it roll on by.  "Hope to see you down the trail."?  I'm not accusing Schieffer of favoritism with Bachmann or the GOP, but I am accusing him of laziness.  When you repeat a question, and they are giving you the same answer, ask "Why are dodging the question?" or "Why won't you answer the question directly?" or "Did you know that a decapitated monkey with Clinton bumper stickers stapled to its body has a better chance of becoming president than you?"

The unfortunate thing is that there's no recourse, there's no real chance to take a step back and to have an honest conversation about how we can't have an honest conversation.