U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann launched her presidential campaign on Monday in Iowa.
Bachmann is a favourite amongst Christian conservatives and Tea Party activists in the United States, and has captured the attention of many for her sharp tongue and questionable record for accuracy.
But what else do we know about her?
Background
Born in Waterloo, Iowa, Bachmann moved to Minnesota with her Norwegian Lutheran Democratic family. After high school, she spent a summer working on a kibbutz in Israel. She attended Winona State University, graduating with a Bachelors of Arts degree.
In 1978 she married Marcus Bachmann, who she met in college as an undergraduate. The couple has five children together, and has also cared for 23 foster children. The Bachman household was granted legal status as a treatment home, where teenage girls would stay anywhere from a couple of months to over a year and receive treatment for eating disorders.
What she stands for
Bachmann grew up in a Democratic household, and first got into politics while working for Jimmy Carter’s 1976 election campaign. Bachmann says she became a Republican because of President Carter’s policies on government spending, which she says “weakened [America’s] standing in the world.”
She got her first real taste of media attention in 1991 when she and 30 other pro-life activists protested at a Ramsey County board meeting. A local hospital that performed abortions was to be funded with $3 million for the construction of a new morgue. Bachmann and the other activists argued that taxpayers’ money shouldn’t be used to fund the hospital.
Bachmann is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Minnesota’s 6th congressional district.
She is a supporter of the Tea Party movement, which supports reduced government spending, lower taxes, and reduction of the national debt.
Bachman is a constitutional, social, and fiscal conservative.
Her platform
On Monday, ipon officially launching her campaign for 2012, Bachmann’s website http://www.michelebachmann.com revealed her top priorities in her run for the White House. These include creating millions of jobs, repealing Obama’s healthcare legislation, slashing the national debt, strengthening the American family, and defending the traditional definition of marriage.
Bachmann is opposed to Obama’s healthcare initiatives. She refers to “Obamacare” as an “unmitigated disaster for America that would kill jobs, result in a shortage of physicians and reduce the quality of care while unconstitutionally strengthening the hand of the federal government.”
Bachmann opposed the government’s bailout bill, voting against the $700 billion financial institutions bailout, and criticized the Big Three automaker bailout.
She said it
Much like fellow Tea Party favourite Sarah Palin, who has yet to announce her candidacy for the presidential race, Bachmann has been accused of delivering controversial, inflammatory, sound bites.
Bachmann once falsely said that U.S. taxpayers would be on the hook for a $200 million per day tab for a trip U.S. President Barack Obama took to India.
Bachmann has also said that she believes global warming is a hoax, and has referred to carbon dioxide as a “harmless gas.”
Fact-checking website PolitiFact.com has issued a report card on Bachmann’s public statements, with ratings ranging from “true” to “pants on fire.” View Bachmann’s report card here.
Here are some other controversial Bachmann quotes:
"Not all cultures are equal, not all values are equal.” – November 2005, when asked about rioting in France and Europe at the time.
Bachmann goes on to say that French culture is being diminished because of youth “watching cable TV, listening Al Jazeera…They are being prompted to go ahead and start these riots all over France.”
“There is a movement afoot that’s occurring and part of that is whole philosophical idea of multi-cultural diversity, which on the face sounds wonderful. Let’s appreciate and value everyone’s cultures. But guess what? Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal.”
"I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it’s an interesting coincidence." – April 2009, when speaking about the swine flu crisis.
Bachmann’s observation was based on incorrect information, as it was actually Republican president Gerald Ford in office at the time of the 1976 swine flu outbreak.
"Iran is the troublemaker trying to tip over apple carts all over Baghdad right now because they want America to pull out. And you know why? It’s because they’ve already decided, that they’re going to territory, they’re going to partition Iraq and half of Iraq, the western northern portion of Iraq is going to be called, the United…I’m sorry, I can’t remember the actual name of it now, but it’s going to be called, the Iraq State of Islam, something like that. And I’m sorry, I don’t have the official name, but it is meant to be the training ground for the terrorists. There’s already an agreement made; they’re going to get half of Iraq and that is going to be a –a terrorist free,-a terrorist safe haven zone." – February 9, 2007, interview with Larry Schumacher, St Cloud Times.
“Don’t misunderstand. I am not here bashing people who are homosexuals, who are lesbians, who are bisexual, who are transgender. We need to have profound compassion for people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life and sexual identity disorders.” – November 2004, speaking at EdWatch National Education Conference on homosexuality as a mental disorder.
With a file from The Associated Press
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