Michele Bachmann and The Art of Dodging Questions (And "Why I Kinda Like Ron Paul")

It's been awhile since I've posted for at least three reasons.

1. Events in Libya have developed quickly. (I have a ton to catch up on there and will devote my next post to this.)

2. I've been busy. On top of my standard classes I have been awarded a fellowship to study several contemporary writers from around the globe and will have the chance to meet and interview them in a few weeks. That's on top of the papers and readings I have to keep up with.

3. The presidential campaign hasn't really changed much since it kicked off with the first GOP debate. (I'm becoming a bit of a fan of Ron Paul mainly because of that debate. I'm not entirely sold that he can win the nomination.)

This morning though, I wanted to talk a bit  about Michele Bachmann's comments over the past week and specifically about her appearance on Face the Nation today.

In case you missed it, she "joked" about God sending a message to politicians to "listen to the American people." (See an article with video on that here.)

Here's my issue with that comment (I don't want to go too deep in Biblical discussion). If you are a Christian, I assume that you believe the Bible to be a record of God's deeds. There are cases in the Bible that show God using natural forces to make a point. Here's the difference Michele: In those cases, God had messengers (Moses, Noah, angels, Prophets, etc) that would warn those intended recipients of God's coming wrath and why it was coming. If God wants to help people he doesn't need a politician to do his work.

Jesus never ran for President.

The other problem is that Hurrican Irene and the East Coast Earthquake didn't really target just politicians. They hit everyone indiscriminately.

So this morning, after someone probably pointed this out to the candidate, she dismissed it as a joke. Which is fine. I tell jokes and not every one of them are received the way I intend.

What really bugged me is the way she ducked Bob Schieffer's simple question.

From Huff Post:

Schieffer asked Bachmann whether she believes "God uses weather to send people messages."
"I believe in God. I'm not ashamed to say that I believe in God. I'm a woman of faith and a woman of prayer, but the comment that I made right then was a metaphor. That was very simply what I was doing," Bachmann replied.

It's times like this that I wish there was a news program that would not try to cram so much into a one-hour format. I would have liked to see ole droop-eyed Shieffer dig in a little bit and make her give a simple answer to a simple question. In the long run it's not a big deal. Or maybe it is? Is America ready to go back to the days of having a leader that travels the world with his/her foot in her mouth?

It might help Saturday Night Live be funny again.

It might have been a joke, but when Kramer started dropping N-Bombs to a comedy club full of black people the joke didn't fly that well. At this point I don't think Bachmann can make the cut, but there is plenty of time to change my mind.

A brief word on Ron Paul.

I kinda like him based on this one thing. His apparent knowledge of the Foriegn Policy blunders this counrty has put into action over the last century or so. In my opinion, one of the reasons the rest of the world hates America is not because we love freedom and liberty and that kind of stuff. It's because every other part of the world is centuries older than us. They have long histories that they know. American's can't remember things that happened ten years ago. We can't understand why Iran can't get over the fact that the U.S. overthrew their government in the 1950's and put in a puppet monarchy.

Ron Paul sees this. He addressed it in the first GOP debate and made Rick Santorum so mad that he looked like he would fly accross the stage and stab old Ronny Boy to death with the dull end of a microphone. I will talk more in this later.

Sly.