Up in the national stratosphere, Michele has millions of fans. Here on the ground in her Sixth Congressional District of Minnesota...
Her Dem opponent fights on, battling the media attention that's made Bachmann nationally notorious. Clark is up against the Tea Party, the secular conservative media, the evangelical conservative media, and the national billionaire boy's club that wants to see Bachmann triumphant.
Clark is doing the "all politics is local" strategy, focusing on media hound Bachmann's failure to take notice of her own constituents. Here she is a major district newspaper, the St. Cloud Times:
"She’s failed, and she’s trying to cover it up by
running around the country," Clark said. "Who’s she
working with to actually make things happen? The
answer is: No one."
(CONTINUED)
Then comes the string of charges leveled by Clark against Bachmann.
--Bachmann has missed U.S. House votes so she could appear on television programs. (True. Her campaign cites a news report matching Bachmann appearances on Fox, etc, to show that Bachmann missed House votes so she could make media appearances.)
--Bachmann's running misleading campaign ads. (True. For example, Bachmann claimed Bachmann opposed the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment--an initiative that would raise sales taxes to support environmental protection. But reporters are now pointing out that Bachmann personally touted her support for the Amendment at the 2008 Game Fair.)
What about all those Bachmann statements that fail independent fact checks? (i.e.) lies that have been exposed as such
"Many things she says are just factually wrong. I think she knows it," Clark said. "But it does create headlines; it does give you a certain notoriety."
http://www.sctimes.com/...
You can go to Politifact (the premier fact-checking site statements by politicians) and read uninterrupted refutations of Bachmann lies. She's batting a thousand at Politifact for lies there--and remember: that's just a list of things Politifact has checked, not a complete list of Bachmann lies.
The latest Bachmann smear is the charge that Nancy Pelosi stuck taxpayers with a $100,000 alcohol tab for her business flights. Another lie, already exposed as such.
Politifact just refuted that one, rating it liar, liar, pants on fire. (Not the first time they've rated a Bachmann statement that way.)
http://www.politifact.com/...
Will the strategy of "she's a liar and she's not there for you, constituents" work?
I don't know. Clark gets points for pointing out that Bachmann's a liar--but I wish she'd use that word. The voting demographics in this very conservative district have always favored a conservative Republican; Clark is pinning her hopes on gradually peeling away people who care about getting actual representation for the district in Congress.
It's clear to everyone, even the loonies in the district--that that is not what Bachmann's "about." Representing the immediate interests of the district (eg, dealing with the highest rate of home foreclosures in the state) has never been on Bachmann's "to do" list, it's all about her national ambitions and acting as a high-profile mouthpiece for talk radio conservatism, evangelical conservatism.
People in the Sixth who know Bachmann, know that. Clark is calculating that this year, at least some of them will have "had enough" of the demagogy-over-representation style--and that this minority will defect to Clark this fall, and make the difference in November.
I don't know. And I admit that my personal priorities are different than Clark's--my priority has never been to elect a Democrat, it's been to "stop Bachmann." The reason: Bachmann is a McCarthy whose success has already inspired a wave of new McCarthys to capture GOP nominations and enter policy making.
Conventional political wisdom says that McCarthys eventually fail because the voters eventually identify their lies as such, and send them home. That is not likely to be our experience with this generation of McCarthys. Because this generation of McCarthys have a media of their own so powerful that the original McCarthy couldn't even imagine it. Fox, conservative broadcasting around the nation, evangelical broadcasting around the nation (all of which operate locally, here in the Sixth, to promote Bachmann.)
Extremism is becoming the mainstream in the GOP, and Michele Bachmann is figurehead for that development. Bachmann (the nut who everyone said would go away if we just ignored her) is now is a position to fund other crackpot politicians.
Defeating her is key, it would be a huge setback for the unapologeticly crazy new right--and at this point we can only hope that Clark's traditional "all politics is local" approach to this very "national" race will work.
No, I haven't seen any new polls.
ACTION LINK: Please contribute to Tarryl Clark. A small amount makes a statement, you can look back and say: "I tried to get Michele Bachmann out of politics before she got on to a White House ticket. I was there, to fight extremism in national politics."
http://tarrylclark.com