Michele Bachmann: Not Palin’s Clone
The media was forced to learn an important lesson on Monday night: not all conservative women are the same.
Prior to the Republican debate on Monday, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was some lesser-known clone of Palin: Brown hair, large family, good looks, conservative, nasal accents… They treated her the same way because of some ridiculous tech issues last winter after the State of the Union and some very sexist comments made by Chris Matthews.
While I’ve yet to figure out who I’m supporting, I’ve always liked Bachmann. I met her two years ago at the height of the ACORN scandal when she spoke at a Heritage Blogger’s Briefing. She was very personable and took the time to individually meet all the attendees in the room. She was also one of the few members of Congress that kept urging activists to protest on Capitol Hill during the Obamacare fight.
Bachmann is sharp and highly-educated woman who often gets dismissed because of her accent and conservative views. As a Southern, conservative woman, who has been discriminated against because of my accent (and I barely have one), that always upsets me.
It’s also intensely sexist of the media to act as though only one conservative woman can be in the spotlight at once. Look at the others in the field. With the exception of Herman Cain, are any other contenders that different? All are white, middle-aged, educated males. Romney, Pawlenty (and Huntsman) are former governors. Gingrich, Santorum and Paul either were or are in Congress, and Pawlenty, Gingrich and Santorum are all vying for the religious right vote.
Funny, how no one is saying that we can only have one candidate appealing to the religious right or one candidate with a strong business background, yet that’s exactly what Mark McKinnon did at the Daily Beast:
Sarah Palin can’t be happy to be suddenly sidelined by a new political American Idol. So, don’t be surprised to see her come out swinging hard and soon to reclaim the stage. She will not give up her crown easily.
This could get very entertaining.
Palin and Bachmann share many of the same views and have campaigned together, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for both in politics. At this point, we don’t even know if Palin is running!
Even the Daily Telegraph in the UK all but admits they only view Palin and Bachmann as one-dimensional clones:
And how eloquent she was! Bachmann is seen by the liberal press as a rival to Sarah Palin because the two are conservative women. But while Palin has a “complex relationship” with the English language, and often wings it with generalities, Bachmann came off like a policy wonk. She reminded the audience of how much legislation she had either authored or tried to scrap, and made frequent reference to her trailblazing leadership of the Tea Party in the House. Her answer on abortion was rather beautiful. The debate’s hosts tried to trap her by asking about what she would do in cases of rape and incest. Bachmann replied with a lyrical explanation of the value of life, side-stepping the specifics completely. Right-to-lifers will understand what she really meant; independents won’t care because it sounded so good. That’s how you sell conservatism.
As The Right Scoop noted, Martin Bashir tried to trick SE Cupp into bashing Palin on MSNBC when he asked, “Is Bachmann the thinking person’s Sarah Palin.”
S.E. Cupp succinctly put it as “I hate these comparisons to Sarah Palin because they both have a uterus.”
Cupp nailed it, but not apparently all women even get it. Jessica Grose at Double X posted a story about Bachmann under the headline, “Michele Bachmann’s Maverick-y Move at the GOP Debate: Impressive or Insulting?”
Hmmm…Maverick was the word frequently used by John McCain in 2008 and was adopted by Palin. It’s most associated with her.
Can’t event the feminists see past the labels in this race?
Women are just as complex as men. Just because there are fewer of us in elected office doesn’t mean that we’re all clones of one another. Would anyone dare to treat Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty as clones of each other? Never!
Why does this continue to happen with women? Why are women continuing to perpetuate this stereotype? This isn’t helpful to women running for office on the right or left.
Image: CNN
How were Chris Matthew’s statements sexist? Taking a shot at a woman isn’t itself sexist; taking a shot at a woman because she’s a woman is.
Bachmann’s a hell of a lot more qualified than Palin, though the same could be said for just about anyone. The reason people lump the two together isn’t solely because they’re women–its’ because they’re both heroes to the Tea Party, they’re both highly gaffe-prone, and both are considered “outsiders” within their parties to a greater extent than any other conservative women. There’s nothing inherently sexist about comparing the two.
Both Palin and Bachmann run rings around our now Vice President!! Speaking of gaffe-prone—-Hello Joe Biden. In addition they treat the American Taxpayer with respect far more often than our now President–Hello Barak Husein Obama.the Great Pretender.
Any woman who has raised 5 children and kept a household going could run the United States Government with far more skill than the men in office, now, who have never balanced a checkbook, kept a pantry filled, and gotten every child to the right activity on time. Either Palin or Bachmann would do a great job of balancing the budget, providing for those in true need and getting the country “marching in the right direction”. We’ve had enough of the “slickters” in Washington. OUT with ALL of them!!