Topic: The 9-12 Tea Party Express Republican Debate

[trapeze]

Bachmann is STILL hammering Perry on the HPV thing. This was in the Politico this morning from an appearance on the Today show:

"I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Fla., after the debate. She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter," Bachmann said.

She continued: "The mother was crying what she came up to me last night. I didn't know who she was before the debate. This is the very real concern and people have to draw their own conclusions."

Asked if she would continue to hammer away at the HPV issue, Bachmann said it was an appropriate way to draw "very real distinctions" with Perry over the use of executive power.

"You can't abuse executive authority with executive orders, because there could be very negative consequences that the American people have to pay," she said. "There is no second chance for these little girls if there is any dangerous consequences to their bodies."

Tell me how this helps anyone. It doesn't. The issue has been more than discussed and it has ZERO to do with the number one issue which is the economy. Why she is fixated on this one issue is a total mystery. It isn't helping her. The type of rhetoric quoted above is sensationalistic. It's anecdotal. It is hearsay.  And it plays to emotions. That's Democrat stuff. How does this fire up the base and inspire the independents? It doesn't. I want to hear about how the candidates are going to kick Barry's little socialist ass out of office. Not crap like this. It's irritating beyond belief.

Every time I think we are making progress beyond the "Stupid Party" label something like this happens to reinforce the stereotype yet again.

LINK

The Today show staff must have just loved this.

[Pandora]

About the only thing Newt Gingrich has gotten right is him telling the moderator he'll not be tricked into forgetting Duh Wun is the man to beat, not other Republicans.

Appears no one else got the message.

[trapeze]

Sorry, but I am in pure rant mode over this.

The debate last night was a GOLDEN opportunity to talk about the President Zero's new "jobs" bill. If it was discussed at any time I totally missed it.

President Dumbass wants to create jobs by spending more money. He wants to get 95% of the money from increasing taxes.

If that isn't handing the Republican candidates a club to beat him with I don't know what is. But what do we get?

We get Michelle Bachmann in near hysterics over a policy decision in Texas that the governor has already apologized for repeatedly while Mittens looks on gleefully. And not content to be left out of that opportunity, Santorum piles on, too.

These debates should be used to hammer the administration for f**king up the country. There is so much low hanging fruit here it is beyond belief. So instead of going after any number of economy related topics we have HPV and Gardasil in Texas. That topic should have had all of two minutes of the spotlight but thanks to Bachmann and Santorum it's still being discussed this morning on the Today show. That means that that is ALL the MFM took away from the debate.

ZERO job growth in August. Did anyone mention that in the debate? YEARS of record unemployment. Record levels of regulation by the feds. Some of these issues were briefly touched on but for the most part they were largely ignored so that we could watch Perry squirm about a social issue in Texas.

Attack the president, you imbeciles! That's what the public wants. They want someone who will proudly tell the truth about what Barry has been doing to our country for the last three years...what the Democrats have been doing to our country for DECADES.

The only ones who came close to doing this last night were Gingrich and Cain.

I know there are no perfect candidates but you would think that if a group of players showed up at a baseball stadium they would be ready to play baseball. These guys came dressed for football and then shot hoops for two hours. It's embarrassing.

[LadyVirginia]

These folks are posturing for the primaries...they need to realize it's about the election!

They're wasting time.


  I hate when these people make me feel like I could do a better job...

[AmericanPatriot]

Lady V, you could do a better job.

Lady Virginia for President!

 

[trapeze]

Ed Morrissey at HotAir goes into detail on how Bachmann took a winning argument point and seriously over-reached into the "vaccinations cause brain damage" urban myth never never land.

Huh? “Mental retardation” typically takes place in a pre- or neo-natal event. Autism becomes apparent in the first couple of years of life — and primarily affects boys. Gardasil vaccinations take place among girls between 9-12 years of age. Even assuming that this anecdote is arguably true, it wouldn’t be either “mental retardation” or autism, but brain damage.

The FDA has received no reports of brain damage as a result of HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix.  Among the reports that correlate seriously adverse reactions to either, the FDA lists blood clots, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and 68 deaths during the entire run of the drugs.  The FDA found no causal connection to any of these serious adverse events and found plenty of contributing factors to all — and all of the events are exceedingly rare.

The “mental retardation” argument is a rehash of the thoroughly discredited notion that vaccines containing thimerasol caused a rapid increase in diagnosed autism cases.  That started with a badly-botched report in Lancet that allowed one researcher to manipulate a ridiculously small sample of twelve cases in order to reach far-sweeping conclusions about thimerasol.  That preservative hasn’t been included in vaccines for years, at least not in the US, and the rate of autism diagnoses remain unchanged.

Unforced error with zero discernible benefit to anyone.

[LadyVirginia]

Lady V, you could do a better job.

Lady Virginia for President!

 

But I don't know how to   ::kissup::   

[Libertas]

(sigh)

Why does my gal have to step in it?

 

Need one of these other idiots to do something stupid to draw attention away...

...given some of these jokers track records, I think that'll happen soon...

...but my gal blew this one big time by doubling-down on this...

 

If this keeps up I may not be voting at all...I get stuck with a sh*tty choice again I swear I am gonna pull a Claude Raines!

[jpatrickham]

LINK

The format and to some degree the focus of Monday’s debate, which is co-sponsored by CNN and the Tea Party Express, could provide an opening for Mrs. Bachmann. CNN plans just one moderator posing questions, Wolf Blitzer, and will allow questions from the audience of Tea Party groups in 31 states, and from Tea Party panels watching nationally.

This debate is inexplicably up against Monday Night Football's season opener but it's also damn close to the one we just had. Go figure.

Who are the GOP Candidates Debating, Each Other or the Moderators?

By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown

Brian Williams must crave attention. In the last Republican debate, instead of moderating, he personally debated all the participants. The actual discussion between candidates was more civil and constructive than the endless string of gotcha speeches foisted as questions on the panel by NBC's Williams and his Politico sidekick, John Harris....

http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/09/12/who-are-the-gop-candidates-debating-each-other-or-the-moderators/

[Pandora]

And I'll say again that Newt chose the best way to handle it when he pointed out what Williams was doing and stated his refusal to play.  You'd think the others would've noticed the audience's positive response to that.

[Libertas]

People must have some bad people giving them bad advice...I hate it when spindoctors & handlers run amok and think people like voting for non-commital automatons incapable of being allowed to speak spontaneously...


I still favor Bachmann over the rest of these people, but maybe I am in the minority...and if Palin stays out it will remain that way...

[LadyVirginia]

I thought Bachmann seemed to have the best potential for sticking by her principles and plowing forward but maybe that's what's getting her into trouble.  Good traits also have a flip side that's often hard to control.

Palin has it too I think but if neither of those two woman are in then we'll have the same old thing.

[jpatrickham]

I thought Bachmann seemed to have the best potential for sticking by her principles and plowing forward but maybe that's what's getting her into trouble.  Good traits also have a flip side that's often hard to control.

Palin has it too I think but if neither of those two woman are in then we'll have the same old thing.

Haven't watched the debate yet, have taped it. Just heard on Fox News that Bachmann won. To little to late. I wish she would endorse Sarah Palin, and in doing so drop out. Palin would not only grab Bachmann's People but, half of Perry's. Then, and only then would we have a clear and precise Candidacy!

[trapeze]

I thought Bachmann seemed to have the best potential for sticking by her principles and plowing forward but maybe that's what's getting her into trouble.  Good traits also have a flip side that's often hard to control.

Palin has it too I think but if neither of those two woman are in then we'll have the same old thing.

That's just it...by choosing Gardasil (and, ugh, the vaccination myth) as her hill to die on she is effectively abandoning her "principles" (Constitution and Declaration of Independence) and is instead focusing on one little side issue. The question is "why?" Those things were working great for her. She has been boasting about winning the Iowa straw poll and, although she shouldn't be repeatedly blowing her own horn ("Hey, remember me? I won the Iowa straw poll! I'm relevant!), she did win it and that win had zero to do with Gardasil. It was all about standing for the Constitution.

I haven't heard the Limbaugh show yet (but I will via podcast) but Ed Morrissey sez that Rush was pretty unhappy with Michelle over this. Disappointed is more like it. I am, too. I liked her and wanted her to do well but this throws her whole campaign into serious doubt. Over a minor social issue in a state. Over abortion? Sure. You bet. That's a national issue. Over immigration? Sure...that's a national issue. But Gardasil?! And then to throw in the whole urban myth over vaccinations causing brain damage as your way of doubling down on it?

Maybe she recovers from this, I don't know, but this is a totally worthless and unforced error.

[Pandora]

Rush was upset; he pounded her pretty hard on it, as well as her vaccine/brain damage/autism lapse.

I'm disappointed in her too; I figure she's getting very, very bad advice, Ed Rollins' departure notwithstanding.

[LadyVirginia]

For me the issue is broader than the debate over vaccines.

The way to use the Gardisil issue would have been to harp on his use of executive order and mandating it. 


The issue it raises is this  -- does he trust people to make an informed decisions or not on this or anything else?

[Libertas]

For me the issue is broader than the debate over vaccines.

The way to use the Gardisil issue would have been to harp on his use of executive order and mandating it. 


The issue it raises is this  -- does he trust people to make an informed decisions or not on this or anything else?

If you review the record that was her initial position and one I don't have a problem with...somewhere along the line this got morphed into a weird gal vs guy thing and then the ill-advised brain-damage comment came in.  Without having stepped in the latter I would be OK, but somebody must have given her bad advise on this or she started taking it too personal or something.  Either way restraint was lost, and now we have this mess.  All things considered it seems a small mess to me and one that can be recovered, but something has to change in the candidate & campaign or she will lose ground.  I just wish she'd stick to Tea Party bread & butter issues and nail Obama and declare herself the only person currently in the race capable of principled leadership to do what must be done.  Picking this as your battle seems underwhelming.  The point on it being a wrong decision implemented poorly by Perry has been made, should have moved on.

[charlesoakwood]

Bachmann's argument that states have no more right than the federal government to mandate a purchase was also corrected at Redstate.  This error is the second worst, the first was calling Perry a felon.  She could have made her points without stepping in it.  Hope they had a good time last night because every point they scored was as short term as the carbonation in a Coke.

Michele Bachmann’s Constitutional Ignorance     

According to the Tenth Amendment and centuries of constitutional precedent, states governments have inherent powers, subject only to the express limits placed upon them by the Constitution. The federal government, on the other hand, is a government of enumerated powers. What that means – as any first year law student or person of ordinary common sense can tell you – is that when asking whether a State has the authority to do X, you ask whether the constitution forbids it, and when asking whether the Federal government has the authority to do X, you ask whether the constitution authorizes it.

I am so pleased they are having these weekly debates.  The varnish is starting to peel of and we are getting to know the candidates. Separating wheat from chaff and children from adults.

[Predator Don]

Perry enters the race, Bachmann numbers drop....so she attacks the frontrunner. Predictable.
 I believe she made a mistake. She made her point, but couldn't leave it alone. She is acting like a poorly trained salesman now.....She had the sale, but is talking herself out of it. Now she is desperate, or so it appears to me.

[LadyVirginia]

I am so pleased they are having these weekly debates.  The varnish is starting to peel of and we are getting to know the candidates. Separating wheat from chaff and children from adults.

I just hope the last one standing is an adult I can stand.