STFU Michele Bachmann

redofromstart:

1. “Not all cultures are equal, not all values are equal…France had a beautiful culture — the French culture is actually diminished, it’s going away.” (2005) [This is not really logically fallcaious, it’s just untrue. However, if the premises were true, it might be a case of the hasty generalization.]
2. “I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?” (2008) [False dichotomy; red herring.]
3. “Carbon dioxide is portrayed as a harmful gas. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.” (2009) [Again, this is just fundamentally false, but might imply a hasty generalization or a negative form of the appeal to authority.]
4. “I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out under another, then another Democratic president, Jimmy Carter. I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it’s an interesting coincidence.” (2009) [False cause (confusing correlation and causation) mixed with apophasis (“mentioning by not mentioning.”)
5. “Don’t misunderstand. I am not here bashing people who are homosexuals, who are lesbians, who are bisexual, who are transgender. We need to have profound compassion for people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life and sexual identity disorders.” (2004) [Begging the question.]

See? Logic and rhetoric make funtimes.

(Source: telegraph.co.uk)

The big news Monday in the political world was that Rep. Michele Bachmann has surged to the lead in a new Republican poll in Iowa.

The even bigger news is that Bachmann’s lead over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney may be significantly wider than the four percent margin reflected in the poll, and we may in fact be under-selling her surge in the Hawkeye State

A closer look at the Voter/Consumer Research poll shows that among voters who are described as the “most attentive,” Bachmann leads by a much-wider 14-point margin, 32 percent to 18 percent.

Those numbers matter for several reasons.

One, of course, is that attentive voters are more likely to turn out to vote. And that’s especially true in Iowa, which uses a caucus system dominated by — you guessed it — more attentive voters. These kinds of voters are much more likely to be willing to trudge through the snow on a Thursday night in the dead of winter to cast their votes.

But the more important reason is the enthusiasm gap in the GOP presidential field. Put plainly, Bachmann is the candidate that evokes passion in Republican voters at the moment. Her opponents, by and large, don’t. And that gap means her lead could very well grow.

“What it means is the news stories are probably not over-estimating her current momentum….in fact, they may be under-estimating it,” said GOP consultant Dan Hazelwood. “And second, she has a sizable base to mobilize for a caucus event.”

Oh dear god, please don’t let her get anywhere near that nomination.

(Source: washingtonpostcom)

Michele Bachmann sets record straight: ‘I’m a substantive, serious person’ (via ryking)

(Source: diadoumenos)

Yasha Levine:

Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government “handout” as socialism. What her followers probably don’t know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen. That’s right, the anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts thanks to corrupt farming subsidies she has been collecting for at least a decade.