Bachmann Touts Conservative Credentials for President

From IowaPolitics.com

WATERLOO – The Tea Party movement hit a new high Monday when Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, founder of the U.S. House Tea Party Caucus, officially launched her bid president and touted the party’s ideals of fiscal responsibility and a constitutionally limited government.

“My voice is one that is part of a much larger movement to take back our country,” Bachmann said as she kicked off a three-state announcement tour from Waterloo, where she was born. “I want to take that voice to the White House. It’s the voice of constitutional conservatives who want government to do its job and not our job, who want our government to live within its means, not our means and certainly not our children’s means.”

Bachmann calls herself a constitutional conservative. She said while the Tea Party started small, its voice is growing louder and stronger. She said the movement is made up of Americans from all walks of life.

“It’s made up of peace-through-strength conservatives, and I am one of those. It is made up of fiscal conservatives, and I am one of those. It is made up of social conservatives, and I am one of those. And it’s made up of the Tea Party movement, and I am one of those,” Bachmann told the crowd of about 200, which included several dozen journalists, on the front lawn of the historic Snowden House in Waterloo.

“The liberals – and to be clear, I am not one of those – want you to believe that the Tea Party movement is just the right-wing fringe of the Republican Party. But I am here to tell you, nothing could be further from the truth,” she said. “It’s made up of disaffected Democrats. It’s made up of Independents. It’s made up of people who have never been political a day in their life. It’s made up of Libertarians and Republicans. We are people who simply want to get America back on the right track again.”

Bill Vance of Hazelton, who attended Bachmann’s campaign kickoff events in Waterloo both Sunday night and Monday, said he supports Bachmann’s bid for president because he agrees with her conservative principles.

“I believe that she is a genuine Republican and she’s going to follow the Republican Party platform and do what the Republican Party needs to have done in Washington,” Vance said. “The other candidates have leaned towards the Democratic Party or the middle and what they want to do is they want to garner everybody instead of standing on her own principles. Michele is going to stand on the principles that she believes in, that I also believe along with her."

Vance said if Bachmann does what she says she’s going to do and be a “genuine Republican,” he believes she’ll win the 2012 presidential election.

“Because the Republican Party is leaning towards the Democratic Party and wanting to be ‘lite’ and will not stand on their principles, we are going to need a third party,” Vance said. “And if the Tea Party can garner that support and grow, then we’ll have another party as Republicans we can go to and stop supporting moderates in the Republican Party that are going to run and do nothing but cave into the Democrats."

Iowa and Minnesota Democratic leaders have to date focused their attacks more on former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty than on Bachmann. That’s because they say that while they may disagree with Bachmann, the three-term Minnesota congresswoman makes it clear where she stands, while they say Pawlenty has flip-flopped on several issues.

Yet Bachmann is making no secret of the fact that members of her family were Democrats for years. She said in her speech Monday and again in an interview with IowaPolitics.com that her switching parties to be a Republican is part of her story, and how she’ll appeal to the middle if she eventually wins the 2012 Republican nomination for president.

“I think that the message that I’m bringing is one of being a unifying candidate because of my background,” Bachmann told IowaPolitics.com. “I grew up being a Democrat into my college years and worked on President Carter’s candidacy and then was disaffected when I saw how his policies failed to deliver what he had promised.”

Bachmann compared that situation to the current day. She said many young people got on board with President Barack Obama in 2008 and now feel disaffected, like she did when she chose to switch political parties.

“The policies that he put forward haven’t panned out and that’s why they want to see the economy turn around and have jobs created,” she said of Obama. “That’s what I want to focus on as president. I’ve got that background as a former federal tax lawyer, I understand the devastation of high taxes on farmers and businesses and individuals. I’ve seen it all.”

Bachmann said if elected president, she would severely restrict government spending, repeal “Obamacare,” lower tax rates and reduce the regulatory burden on businesses so they can expand and grow jobs.

“I’m committed to the repeal of Obamacare,” she said. “That will become, I believe, one of the largest beauracracies and one of the most expensive spending programs in our country. I’ll stop that, I’ll nip it in the bud before it goes too far.”

In the interview with IowaPolitics.com, Bachmann said her appeal to Americans -- to practical people who are interested in solutions and just want the country to work again -- is a very mainstream view. She said that’s evident in the results of both in the latest Iowa Poll and polls taken after the June 14 New Hampshire debate.

“This isn’t a bad place to be when today is the day that we have our formal announcement that we’re running for president of the United States and we’re already in second place in a fairly large field,” she said. “So we’re grateful for that and we don’t take it for granted. So all we need to do is continue to expand our message and talk about our message and meet as many people as we possibly can. I’m confident that the voters will see that this is the winning message to be able to turn the economy around and create jobs.”

Bachmann made no mention in her speech Monday of wanting to be the nation’s first female president. In an interview, she said voters are looking at the character qualities of presidential candidates rather than their gender or their race. However, she said getting a woman in the White House would be “an added benefit.”

“I think a lot of women and men would like to see a woman as president of the United States. They want to see primarily, though, someone who has a real appreciation for the economy and also a real background in knowing how to solve these problems,” she said. “I hope when people look at me, my message, my character, that they’ll someone who will make their life better and the nation better.”

See Bachmann announcement photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iowapolitics/sets/72157626935572713/

Listen to the IowaPolitics.com interview with Bachmann:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/1009/110627Bachmann_interview.mp3

Listen to a portion of Bachmann’s speech:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/1009/110627Bachmann_speech.mp3

-- By Lynn Campbell