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Michele Bachmann: Her Career, Her Controversies, Her Campaign
ResumeWe take a deep look at Republican Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann, her career, her controversies and her soaring climb in the polls.
Michele Bachmann can fire up a Tea Party rally and divide American voters faster than anyone in the Republican raft of contenders for the United States presidency.
The three-term Minnesota congresswoman with five kids, twenty-three foster kids, and in-your-face views on God, government and gays likes to say she has a titanium spine. In the last three polls in Iowa, the first GOP caucus state, that damn-the-torpedoes spine, has put her at the top of the Republican pack.
She makes critics seethe. And she is surging in the polls.
This hour On Point: All about Michele Bachmann.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
Michael Crowley, senior correspondent and deputy Washington bureau chief for Time magazine.
Tom Emmer, former Republican state representative in Minnesota and a GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2010.
Melissa Harris Perry, professor of political science at Tulane University,and author of "Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America."
From Tom's Reading List:
- Time: "Moreover, Pawlenty’s reputation for niceness, while perhaps appealing to voters who dislike negative politics, has come with a downside. After Pawlenty declined to bash Mitt Romney in the last GOP debate, some party activists wondered whether he lacks the toughness for the savage presidential arena. A few well-landed punches will help to dispel those concerns."
- Time: "After the apology of senior advisor Vin Weber for referring to Michele Bachmann’s “sex appeal,” Tim Pawlenty’s team is learning the hard way that campaigning against a woman can be uniquely tricky. The charge of sexism constantly lurks just around the corner."
This program aired on July 18, 2011.