The Woman From Waterloo

Michele Bachmann, officially in:

WATERLOO, Iowa – Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota formally opened her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination on Monday, presenting herself as a forceful conservative who will confront the party’s establishment and not compromise on principles to capture grass-roots enthusiasm that has risen up in opposition to President Obama.

“I seek the presidency not for vanity, but because America is at a crucial moment,” Ms. Bachmann said. “I believe that we must make a bold choice if we are to secure the promise of our future.”

And the video version:



And yes, the text. Read it. Says a lot about how folks can continually be duped into believing in the American Dream.

Everyone deserves the blessings she has. Times have changed, but this country has not lost its spirit. Dreams may be distant, but they are not lost. Trust in god and neighbors, but not government. Americans want solutions, and they don’t much care who it is that dishes them out.

And of course, it’s all about out-of-control government spending.

And here, most interesting. The emphasis is mine.

I grew up a democrat. My first involvement in politics was working for Jimmy Carter's election in 1976. But when I saw the direction President Carter took our country; how his big spending liberal majority grew government, weakened our standing in the world, and how they decreased our liberties, I became a Republican. I remember standing in the kitchen of my grandma's house on Lafayette Street in Waterloo listening to my dad, a Democrat debating the merits of the Great Society with my grandmother, a Republican. I remember her prophetic admonition to my father that the Great Society wouldn't work because it wouldn't be my father's generation who paid for it, but rather my brother, David and me. And now that prediction has come true and neither my democrat father nor my republican grandmother would have condoned this spending and debt.

If you apply that logic, bye-bye Social Security.

Today, Michele Bachmann tugged at the heart strings of the most deeply ingrained precepts of American culture – hard work, individuality, exceptionalism, patriotism – and she did it largely without an overblown sense of nostalgia or sentimentality. A quite smart tactical move, if you ask me.

It will be interesting to see what happens, if she can stick to her script.