Ameritocracy

Politics lesson #47: Saying stuff on the TV is dangerous

Especially in the age of YouTube. And Ameritocracy.

One of our goals here is to hold people accountable for what they say and to help you decide whether or not their words have been taken out of context.

Do did Michele Bachmann make an enormous, career-ending gaffe?

Just a few days ago (October 17) on Chris Matthews’ show Hardball, Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachmann came on to discuss robocalls, specifically the one that links Barack Obama to Bill Ayers.

Here is the full interview:

At one point in the interview, Bachmann went on to say this

“I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-American or are they anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that.”

Bachmann subsequently tried to turn on her own words. To a crowd in St. Paul, Minn.:

“I did not say that Barack Obama was anti-American, nor do I believe Barack Obama is anti-American. He loves his country, just as everyone in this room does. Nor did I call for an investigation of members of Congress for their pro-American or anti-American views. That is not what I said.”

Nope. Watch the video again. Indeed, she did not call for an investigation. She called for the media to run an expose on who is and who isn’t pro-American in congress.  To be fair, her idea outsources McCarthyism and anti-American paranoia to the press.

She claimed, too, that she had never seen Hardball and wasn’t properly prepared for what she would be facing. That’s hard to believe that she, a politician on the national stage, would not be aware of Matthews’ show, but even take at face-value, part of her response was to blame Matthews:

Her response takes a bit of logical gymnastics to accept, regardless of how much of lines up with the objective truth (take what she says in this video and re-watch the Matthews interview).

Other responses from Bachmann:

“Chris Matthews was using the term anti-american over and over… I was not using the term”
“My response was that it isn’t for me to say…this was a gross distortion of what I had said”
“I made a big mistake for going on the show…I didn’t recognize that he would lay a trap the way that he did”
“People got the wrong perception of what I was trying to say”

Politico goes on to report:

“Before Friday’s “Hardball” aired, Bachmann was favored to win a second term. National Democrats, sensing opportunity, announced Monday they would pour $1 million into TV ads in the district, which lies on a corridor from the Twin Cities northwest to St. Cloud.”

Finally, KARE 11 in Minneapolis/St. Paul has this story:

GOP, eyeing House losses, pulls Bachmann, others’ TV ads

WASHINGTON — National Republicans have yanked TV advertising for Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann’s re-election bid after she suggested Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may have “anti-American” views and urged an investigation of unpatriotic lawmakers.

In a word, oops.

In other words, holding people accountable for what they say when they say it…well, it apparently can have an impact.