Gaffe Watch #4 – Clowning Around with Michele Bachmann

Mad Bad Michelle Bachmann served up a doozy today. A moment before officially announcing her candidacy for the Republican nomination from her town of birth in Waterloo, Iowa, she did a piece for Fox News.

She told the interviewer, “John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit I have”.  She went on to repeat this to an NBC camera crew saying, “I’m not pining for nostalgia back in the 50’s and 60’s, that isn’t it…But that sensibility of how we’re grounded here is so important. For instance, another American that was born in Waterloo was John Wayne.  We were a very patriotic ‘yay rah rah America’ city and nation, and I think that’s what Americans are looking for again”.

A number of problems with this total guff.  The main one being she got her John Wayne’s mixed up.  The hero of The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The High and The Mighty, famous for his conservative politics and inimitable slouched walk was actually born in Winterset, Iowa.

The John Wayne that Michelle Bachmann was mistakenly referring to was John Wayne Gacy, the “Killer Clown”.  Gacy was born in Chicago but grew up in Waterloo, Iowa and was executed for the rape and murder of 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978.  On weekends he volunteered at hospitals and various charity events as “Pogo the Clown”.

Easy mistake to make?  Not really.  But Michele might be pleased to know Mr Gacy was an active member of the Democratic Party.

Early Lead for Romney and Bachmann in 2012 Race

A new poll coming out of Iowa shows Mitt Romney and tea party nut-job Michele Bachmann leading among the state’s GOP (fanatics) caucus-goers.

The poll conducted byThe Des Moines Register shows Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, with support from 23% in Iowa. Bachmann, the Minnesota representative who launches her campaign in Iowa later today, has 22 percent support.

Romney was the No. 2 finisher in the caucuses in his bid for the 2008 GOP nomination. Bachmann is a three-term congresswoman and newer face in the 2012 White House mix.

The results are based on interviews with 400 likely Republican Iowa caucus-goers from June 19 to 22. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

Romney has said he plans to run a scaled-down Iowa campaign, compared to the all-out, $10-million effort he waged for the 2008 caucuses.

Tim Pawlenty has been the most aggressive about campaigning in Iowa, having lined up top Iowa and national consultants, been a frequent visitor to the state and ran the 2012 campaign’s first Republican candidate television advertisements last week.

However, only 6 percent of Iowa Republicans expected to attend the 2012 caucuses prefer the former Minnesota governor as their choice, according to the poll.

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose campaign has struggled since widespread staff departures this month, has support from 7 percent, the same as Texas Representative Ron Paul.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has 4 percent, followed by former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who has said he will not campaign in Iowa, with 2 percent.

Pawlenty and Bachmann make gains…Gingrich out of sight

An AP-Gfk poll threw out some interesting numbers today.  A large gain this month for ‘Mad Bad’ Michelle Bachmann whose favourability increased from 41% to 54%, largely based on the strong performance in the NH GOP debate.  Doesn’t change the fact she’s nuts though.  Arguably more interesting is the rise for Tim Pawlenty, from 33% to 43%, strange considering how his classic “ObamneyCare” quip went down like a lead balloon and his stark refusal to bang Romney on health during the same debate.

Newt Gingrich’s bad run of form continues, seemingly hemorrhaging staff as quickly as electoral support.  His favourability has sunk from 61% to 43% in the space of one month, whilst Mitt Romney is still in the lead at  61%.

Rick Perry’s Niche

Maybe I’m slow to pick up on this, but the list of Republican candidates so far is overwhelmingly Northern.

Michelle Bachmann: born in Iowa (represents Minnesota);
Mitt Romney: born in Detroit (Governor of Massachusetts);
Tim Pawlenty: born in Minnesota (Governor of Minnesota);
Newt Gingrich: born in Pennsylvania;
Rick Santorum: born in Virginia (former Senator of Pennsylvania);
John Huntsman: born in California;

With the exception of Ron Paul, representing Texas (well…he was born in Pittsburgh), no major candidate is either from, nor representing the traditional Republican heartland of the South. Will this be a consideration when deciding on whether to run? Perhaps giving Governor Perry a certain niche in the market so to speak.

There is, of course, the wider argument that another Republican from Texas would be unpalatable to the national electorate in November 2012. But I’m ignoring that for now.

Isolationism to play a key role

Interestingly, the GOP has seen a huge step change in it’s overall response the foreign policy. It’s seems that the post 9-11 interventionist foreign policy, “Bush Doctrine”‘ has been replaced by the pre-9-11 GOP favourite of non-interventionism.

How times have changed

Early in the 2008 race, presumptive frontrunner Rudy Giuliani gained huge leads following his aggressive stance towards foreign policy. Support was even high with the religious-right even though he was seen as a socially liberal, New York yankee. Giuliani may not have been a Ron Paul style constitutionalist, Pailin pro-lifer or Bachmann pro-gun; but he was pro-war. 2008 was all about pro- war to the conservative base.

Obama’s War

2012 is different Bachmann, Paul et al, are socially conservative, isolationists, they poll well with the conservative base. But, it’s easy to see how they could easily be a turn-off for the wider country. Isolationism will become a key discussion in this race, interestingly GOP candidates have been trying to paint Afghanistan as “Obama’s War” fore the past two years.

With a mounting debt crisis, a dead bin Ladin and a growing US soldier body count, isolationism could play big right across the board, for Republicans and Independents alike, it did for Bush in 2000.