Matt Taibbi: Rep. Michele Bachmann "Exactly The Right Kind Of Batshit Crazy" To Win GOP Nom

[Hissyspit]

VIDEO GALLERY: Michelle Bachmann's Craziest Moments http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/michele-bachmanns-craziest-moments-20110616

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/michele-bachmanns-holy-war-20110622

Michele Bachmann's Holy WarThe Tea Party contender may seem like a goofball, but be warned: Her presidential campaign is no laughing matter

By MATT TAIBBI
JUNE 22, 2011 8:00 AM ET

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It may be the hardest thing you ever do, for Michele Bachmann is almost certainly the funniest thing that has ever happened to American presidential politics. Fans of obscure 1970s television may remember a short-lived children's show called Far Out Space Nuts, in which a pair of dimwitted NASA repairmen, one of whom is played by Bob (Gilligan) Denver, accidentally send themselves into space by pressing "launch" instead of "lunch" inside a capsule they were fixing at Cape Canaveral. This plot device roughly approximates the political and cultural mechanism that is sending Michele Bachmann hurtling in the direction of the Oval Office.

Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government. She kicked off her unofficial presidential campaign in New Hampshire, by mistakenly declaring it the birthplace of the American Revolution. "It's your state that fired the shot that was heard around the world!" she gushed. "You are the state of Lexington and Concord, you started the battle for liberty right here in your backyard."

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In modern American politics, being the right kind of ignorant and entertainingly crazy is like having a big right hand in boxing; you've always got a puncher's chance. And Bachmann is exactly the right kind of completely batshit crazy. Not medically crazy, not talking-to-herself-on-the-subway crazy, but grandiose crazy, late-stage Kim Jong-Il crazy — crazy in the sense that she's living completely inside her own mind, frenetically pacing the hallways of a vast sand castle she's built in there, unable to meaningfully communicate with the human beings on the other side of the moat, who are all presumed to be enemies.

Bachmann's story, to hear her tell it, is about a suburban homemaker who is chosen by God to become a politician who will restore faith and family values to public life and do battle with secular humanism. But by the time you've finished reviewing her record of lies and embellishments and contradictions, you'll have no idea if she actually believes in her own divine inspiration, or whether it's a big con job. Or maybe both are true — in which case this hard-charging challenger for the GOP nomination is a rare breed of political psychopath, equal parts crazed Divine Wind kamikaze-for-Jesus and calculating, six-faced Machiavellian prevaricator. Whatever she is, she's no joke.

[jezebel]

1. I know most here don't agree, but I actually see Bachmann as a threat. People who are politically

aware see her as the looney she is. But most of America doesn't know her, she hasn't been defined. They see her as an accomplished woman with a great personal story (23 foster kids). But behind all that, she has the passion of the batshit crazy teaparty folks who love her second only to Palin.

[harun]

3. I agree. I have predicted for some time she will get the nom and win.

Obama's core just isn't going to be motivated enough to go vote. It will be about turnout.

"We aren't as bad as the other guys" is not an effective strategy.

[ProSense]

6. So

"Obama's core just isn't going to be motivated enough to go vote. It will be about turnout."

...they're all going to stay home and then say, "it's Obama's fault why there's a President Bachmann"?


Yikes!

[FiveGoodMen]

12. If Bachmann started a handful of wars, everyone here would oppose them.

Since Obama's doing it, half of 'us' are A-okay with it.

[SoapBox]

8. I'm split between two Thug types...

On one hand, I could see CrazyShelly in the position...but then again on the other hand, someone like Huntsman, that is crazy (or lying) on the inside but presents a more "normal" outside (a GWB type).

It will call for the Extra Large Bucket of Popcorn, as we watch to see which branch of the GOBPer/RushThug Party prevails.

Will it be the radical, as far right as possible, KKKoch Brothers/DicKKKhead Armey T.HATERbaggers/FuxsNooseChannel supported crazy...OR is there still some part of the party that can ram through someone like Huntsman, so that they can simply take back the White House in 2012. And then work on their Fascist agenda from there...

Watch closely.

[Johonny]

10. The Conservative money people know her

they generally undermine people like Bachmann during the primary. There have been a lot of people like her to run for the Republican nomination, yet none of them have ever won it.

[bluestateguy]

2. Wait a minute. She was an attorney for the IRS?

Talk about a wet dream for her opponents ad makers.

[libodem]

4. so true

[Dawson Leery]

5. Bachmann/Perry?

[izquierdista]

7. Chosen by God

And what a practical joker he is! "Hey Abraham, come here, bring your kid, let's barbecue him! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

[TomClash]

9. Spot on

"Snickering readers in New York or Los Angeles might be tempted by all of this to conclude that Bachmann is uniquely crazy. But in fact, such tales by Bachmann work precisely because there are a great many people in America just like Bachmann, people who believe that God tells them what condiments to put on their hamburgers, who can't tell the difference between Soviet Communism and a Stafford loan, but can certainly tell the difference between being mocked and being taken seriously. When you laugh at Michele Bachmann for going on MSNBC and blurting out that the moon is made of red communist cheese, these people don't learn that she is wrong. What they learn is that you're a dick, that they hate you more than ever, and that they're even more determined now to support anyone who promises not to laugh at their own visions and fantasies."

[PCIntern]

11. Remarkable article...frightening and informative...also

fantastic literary style!

[Bozita]

13. !

[Hissyspit]

14. kick nt