Michelle Bachmann 2012 ?

Dear Readers,

So you know how I’m a big Mitt Romney supporter, right? He’s brilliant, he’s rich, he worked most of his career in the private sector, he’s Republican, and best of all, he’s Mormon, like I am.

But I’m starting to have my doubts about him. I do still think he’s the safer candidate. I think he’s more electable than any of his Republican primary contenders. He has the most money, and he’s the next in line.

But did you hear about the recent Gallup poll that a generic Republican beats Obama by 7 percentage points? That leads me to believe that almost any Republican, even Elmer Fudd, would beat Obama. So if we don’t have to worry so much about electability, why don’t we Republicans go for the most extremely conservative candidate we can get?

Enter Michelle Bachmann. She’s the tea party favorite, and for good reason.

She’s more conservative than Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney at one time was Pro-Choice, (only for a brief time while he was campaigning against Ted Kennedy in 1994 in liberal Massachutes, but still). Michelle Bachmann never was. Mitt Romney supports ethanol subsidies. Michelle Bachmann doesn’t. Mitt Romney thinks we need to lower our carbon emissions to curb the effects of global warming. Michelle Bachmann thinks global warming is a hoax. Mitt Romney fits in better with the Washington elite. Michelle Bachmann is a relative outsider with tea-party street cred.

But she isn’t a loony yelling on a street corner about the New World Order. She’s a U.S. Representative with a lengthy voting record that can be analyzed for its conservativeness.

She doesn’t have the executive experience that Mitt Romney has, but I think that views on the issues are more important than leadership experience. Michelle Bachmann will want to shrink the federal government, and you don’t need as many leadership skills when there’s not as much government to lead. I think Michelle Bachmann would be instrumental in abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education, and hundreds of worthless government departments, programs and bureaucracies. Mitt Romney would make the government leaner, to be sure, but would he be willing to make the drastic cuts necessary to save the economy?

The media will try to destroy Bachmann, and they may succeed. They will be very vitriolic and crass and sarcastic, and too many people will have their opinions formed by late-night talk shows, Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and CNN. I worry about our public discourse. I worry about what happens to our Republic when candidates have to communicate in imagery and sound-bites.

I’ve watched both Republican presidential debates so far, and I’ve been annoyed with the format. They don’t give the candidates enough time to answer questions and explain their positions. Did you know that back in Abraham Lincoln’s day, candidates spoke for an hour and a half each? There were no questions from any moderator or from audience members. The candidates just gave really really long speeches. I wish our debates were more like that these days. Instead we have to take frequent commercial breaks and change the camera angles a lot so viewers don’t get bored and change the channel.

OK, see you later.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa