Why Romney was right about corporations

Jon Huntsman, 2012’s resident civility candidate, has officially started to mention front runner Mitt Romney by name on the campaign trail. In a radio interview with WKXL’s Chris Ryan set to air on Monday, Huntsman spoke bluntly about the man some say is his toughest competition.


When asked to discuss Romney’s “hypothetical answer” at Friday’s debate on how he would deal with the nation’s debt, Huntsman told Ryan, “This is not a time for theoretical answers or theoretical discussions, you live in the real world, you have to deal with the economic realities.”


“This was a time when leadership mattered,” he continued. “When you need to stand up, you take your position, you defend your position, you run a little risk in taking that position, you don’t wait until the very end as governor Romney did, you put your finger to the wind and basically come down on the safe side politically, I just don’t think that’s leadership. If you’re going to run for president of the United States, you show some leadership, the presidency is about exerting leadership, and if you’re not willing to show leadership on something as important as the debt ceiling, it begs the question, “when are you going to show some leadership?


But his statement unintentionally hit at another, underexamined fact of American life: Corporations are people. That's at least in the opinion of the Supreme Court when it comes to certain legal issues. This is the doctrine known as "corporate personhood" that came into play in the Citizens United case in 2010 that gutted some important corporate campaign finance restrictions.


To learn more about the issue, I spoke with David Cobb, an attorney and the 2004 Green Party candidate for president. Cobb is now a spokesperson for Move to Amend, a coalition that advocates amending the Constitution to end the doctrine of corporate personhood.


Well, he's correct in the sense that the U.S. Supreme Court has said that corporations are persons with inherent constitutional rights. Of course, he's wrong just as the court is wrong.


Where did this legal doctrine come from?


Legal personhood means that you can claim and assert constitutional rights. Remember that the Constitution does not create rights, it recognizes inherent, inalienable rights. That means if a legislative decision -- whether at the state, local or federal level -- infringes upon your rights, like the right to free speech or assembly, the government's action is illegitimate and you as an individual should be able to go into court and argue that this law is an illegitimate exercise of governmental power.


The court has said in most instances now corporations should be treated as persons with constitutional rights. So now local, state and even federal laws that are attempting to control corporate harm and abuse can actually be challenged in court, and often are. Many laws have been overturned, including environmental protection laws, worker safety laws, and laws protecting consumers. In a nutshell, when a corporation can claim it is a person with constitutional rights, it means their lawyers can go into court and overturn democratically enacted laws.


Was there a single case in which this idea was established?


The first time it was discussed was in Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railway in 1886; there have been a slew of other cases since then. The doctrine of corporate personhood really started to gain traction in the late 1970s, and the current court is exacerbating it even more. The basic argument the court has made is that corporations are just composed of people who have individual human rights. Therefore when those people come together to create a corporation, the collection of people should be able to exercise those same constitutional rights. That's not logical, though, because these groups of people are not speaking with one mind. And they have not created an inherent human being whenever they come together collectively.


Most recently -- and I would say most egregiously -- the decision of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission overturned the McCain-Feingold law, which was an attempt to protect the integrity of our elections. The McCain-Feingold law was very anemic to begin with, but the court said the law was treating wealthy people and corporations as an "oppressed minority" and therefore overturned a democratically enacted law. The case was decided on free speech grounds.


Another one is Louis K. Liggett Co. v. Lee from 1933, where the court overturned a law attempting to favor local merchants over chain stores. The law provided for a different tax structure for local, independently owned businesses versus corporate franchise businesses. The court overturned that, arguing that the law violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.


A corporation has not yet been able to cast a ballot. But I would argue they do not need to cast a ballot when they control the political expenditures to the extent that they drown out the voice of ordinary people.


It would entrench that money is not speech, and that only human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights. It would allow local, state and federal government to pass any number of laws. It's saying that we would be able to engage in a proper political debate about the role of not only corporations but also how our society operates. For example, we could theoretically prohibit all political activity by corporations, including lobbying and donations. These activities are currently legal because corporate personhood protects them under the First Amendment. Also we could prevent corporate mergers.

Mitt Romney owns $$$$$$$$$ in horses

Republican presidential candidate and front-runner Mitt Romney is worth as much $264 million, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. All presidential candidates are required to file a financial disclosure form. The FEC report released on Friday suggests Romney's net worth is between $85 million and $264 million.


Romney's campaign offered a slightly less estimate of $190 million to $250 million.


Last year, Romney made at least $9.3 million - mostly from stock and bond options, dividends, interests and sales. Romney and his wife do not manage their money. The family's account is held in a blind trust under the management of Boston legal office Ropes & Gary, said a campaign spokesperson.


In his 2008 run, the former Massachusetts governor invested much of his own money in his campaign. According to the Boston Globe, he spent "at least $42.3 million of his own money" in 2008, or roughly half of the campaign costs.


He has occasionally received compensation for speeches, and those have been disclosed in accordance with the law,’’ said Gail Gitcho, the Romney campaign’s communications director.


The only other Republican presidential candidate who might exceed Mr, Romney in personal wealth is former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, who has yet to file a disclosure.


The Associated Press reports Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who won the Ames Republican Presidential Straw Poll late Saturday, has a net worth between $500,000 and $1 million.


Texas Governor Rick Perry, who announced he’s running Saturday in South Carolina, is reportedly worth near $1 million.


The former Massachusetts governor has never released his tax returns, which would offer a fuller picture of his fortune, and has declined requests to do so this year.

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Can the 'super' committee fix the budget

Polish-up the front bumper and put that car on a dealer's lot, as it's all ready to go -- the only question now is will Congress' new super committee achieve anything? Or will it get stuck in neutral?


House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., completed the membership of the new, 12-member, bipartisan super committee Thursday by naming the three House Democratic members, Rep. Xavier Becerra, Rep. James Clyburn, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen.


Pelosi added that she hopes the committee can achieve balance as part of its goal of reducing the deficit, sfgate.com reported Friday. Her bottom line is for a "grand bargain" that "reduces the deficit by addressing our entire budget" including implementing tax increases "while strengthening Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security" -- no benefit cuts in entitlements.


The Democrats are represented by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Reps. James Clyburn, D-S.C., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.


What can Americans expect from this high-profile committee charged with the awesome responsibility of trimming our deficit by $1.5 trillion? The skeptic in me says not much, but the hopeful optimist in me finds some grounds for cautious optimism.


First, the skeptical part. Half of the committee will consist of Republicans who have already pledged not to raise taxes. Indeed when Norquist, head of the anti-tax American for Tax Reform, learned of the GOP picks, he tweeted enthusiastically, "Boehner and McConnell appoint friends of taxpayers to the 'Debt Super Committee' your wallet is safe."


Two of the Republicans are Tea Party freshmen: Pat Toomey and Rob Portman. A surprise was the exclusion of budget-hawk Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Toomey and Portman, however, more than make up for Ryan's absence, at least from the Tea Party's perspective. Toomey and Portman are just as much budget hardliners as Ryan.


On the other side of the aisle, Kerry and Murray have both gone on record supporting the recommendations of the Bowles-Simpson commission, which include cutting discretionary spending, changing entitlement programs and reforming taxes. Murray also chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is responsible for raising cash for the 2012 senatorial candidates. According to the GOP, this makes her likely to try to use her committee membership to press for partisan advantage.


Baucus has a reputation for being a conservative Democrat, largely because of his role in the administration's health-care reform efforts in 2009, in which he helped to water down the president's bill in the hopes of attracting Republican votes that never showed up. Interestingly, Baucus opposed the Bowles-Simpson recommendations on grounds that they would turn Medicare into a voucher program, raise the retirement age of Social Security and cut health-care benefits for veterans.


Pelosi's choices reflect the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Van Hollen, Clyburn and Becerra are known for their efforts to preserve government programs such as Medicare from the chopping block.


The broad outlines of a "grand bargain" might be seen by analyzing the political interests of the players. Half of the committee, the GOP members, is uninterested in raising revenues or repealing tax cuts for the wealthy. Two of the Democrats have signaled that they would be willing to consider spending cuts and entitlement changes. This indicates that there will probably be large cuts in discretionary spending. There will also probably be changes made to Social Security and Medicare, but the Democrats, particularly Baucus and the Democratic House members can be counted on to protect the core of those programs.


Given the essence of what has to be done -- cut $1.5 trillion in spending -- it is hard to see how that is possible without including defense expenditures. The GOP might be expected to dig in their heels here. However, Tea Party freshmen, Portman and Toomey, have indicated a willingness to consider Pentagon cuts. A wild card on the Democratic side is Sen. Murray, who represents Washington. With 80,000 Boeing employees in her state, it is highly unlikely she would push defense cuts too hard.


It is apparent that -- if taxes are off the table, entitlements are handled carefully and defense is protected from deep cuts -- what's left is the rest of discretionary spending, that is, education, health care and human services, to bear the bulk of the cuts.


However, not nearly enough savings can be had by concentrating on discretionary spending, even if defense spending were not protected and cuts were made fairly across the board. Hence, my skepticism.

2012 Election Look Like

The agony of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, is palpable these days. When she speaks on the House floor, she waves her arms and talks with great passion. She has the look of a politician in torment.


The cause of her distress is the change this year in the political culture of Capitol Hill. Congress has traditionally been dominated by the impulse to spend more and more of the public's money. In 2011, and especially in the Republican-controlled House, that has been replaced by a culture of spending cuts.


I am listening to people,” he said, bursting into an empty boardroom as if he’d rather be walking onto a football field to go over plays with his team.


He’d better be ready, because he’s looking at the same numbers the Democrats’ leader, Nancy Pelosi, saw in early 2010; Gallup’s latest poll shows only 24 percent believe their congressman deserves to keep his or her job.


Those numbers could indicate a country heading into the same volatile election pattern that swung the House 100-plus seats in either direction and seated, unseated, then re-seated one U.S. president in the late 19th century, all in a little over five years.


Most experts today are not convinced that Democrats can retake the House, at least not yet.


Not that voters are enamored with Republicans; they just have total distaste for one party dominating Washington.


“It is a tall order for the Democrats to take back the House, especially considering the bad economy and a president with under 50 percent approval,” said Mark Rozell, a political science professor at George Mason University.


If those factors remain in place, look for Democrats to run away from President Obama's policies next year, much as Republicans did in 1992 after President George H.W. Bush broke his “no new taxes” pledge.


A lot can change in a year, according to Rozell, but “if economic circumstances don't start to point in a positive direction, the math doesn't show a way for the Democrats to take back the gavel for Pelosi.”


As chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Sessions plans to hold the seats that Republicans won in 2010 and to add 16 more.


“Sessions’ goal is optimistic,” said Rozell. “Without a lot of competitive districts, turning 16 or more seats for the GOP will be extremely difficult.


So while one poll shows voters unhappy with Congress, another shows their personal values leaning strongly conservative, favoring Republicans.


Democrats also will face a more difficult time from a unity-and-enthusiasm perspective, given progressives’ dissatisfaction with the federal debt deal and with Obama’s lack of leadership following the nation’s credit downgrade.


And if last week’s recall elections for six Wisconsin state senate seats were a harbinger of 2012’s U.S. House races, consider this: Wisconsin’s vote was "presidential,” meaning that Democrats brought out people who usually don't vote – the poor, blacks, students – yet independent voters went conservative and voted for Republican incumbents, demonstrating that they are just as passionate about budgets, taxes and entitlements as are unions.


The next election could produce a Democrat House, a Republican Senate and, possibly, a second Obama term, according to Purdue University political science professor Bert Rockman, not so much “because people think Obama’s doing so well than because of the weakness of the Republican presidential field.”


Huge “wave” elections, such as those in 1994, 2006 or 2010, hinge on trust and blame. What’s unclear today is whether voters blame one party or the other for what’s wrong.


“Which is why I will spend my time out there on Main Street listening to voters’ concerns,” replies the GOP’s Sessions. “I may not like everything they say but that is how you understand how the country feels about your decisions.

Sunday shows, Bachmann, Bachmann and Bachmann,everywhere

The Iowa straw poll has just concluded, and though Tea Party darling Michele Bachmann emerged the clear winner, as many expected, it's unclear where that leaves the GOP field, which has literally just grown to Texas-sized proportions, with the state's three-term governor, Rick Perry, already surging in national polls, partially upstaging Bachmann's victory with his formal announcement Saturday that he's running in 2012.


The straw poll didn't include Perry, though he's had supporters on the ground for weeks pushing Iowa voters to write his name in, anyway – and quite a few did. The big loser was clearly former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who's tried for nearly two years to gain a solid footing in Iowa – to no avail. Out of juice, and practically penniless, Pawlenty said Friday that if he failed to do well, he would have to reassess his campaign – and given his third place finish, his withdrawal from the GOP race may be imminent.


ABC's "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and ex-Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.), with George Will, Laura Ingraham, Matthew Dowd, Kay Henderson and Amy Walter.


Bloomberg's "Political Capital with Al Hunt:" Bachmann.


CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Reps. Bachmann and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) with Dan Balz and John Dickerson.


CNN Fareed Zakaria "GPS": Ahmed Rashid, David Goodhart, Theodore Dalrymple and Kennedy Rogoff.


CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley: Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) with Phillip Rucker and Neil King.


Fox News Channel "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Bachmann with Bret Baier, Steve Hayes and Matt Strawn of the Iowa Republican Party.


NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Bachmann with Gov. Terry Branstad (R-Iowa), Mike Murphy, Chuck Todd and Jonathan Martin.

Bachman,'First step' toward White House

Today, Iowa is important. At the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Republican presidential hopefuls are jockeying for a momentum boost in the Ames Straw Poll, which is an early test of organizational mettle going into the Iowa caucuses in the winter. It's an opportunity for candidates to get heckled, eat fried food, and laugh at Ron Paul. This year, the top three candidates are likely to be Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, and Tim Pawlenty, but yesterday, only one candidate displayed the guts to swallow the competition.


She's celebrating her victory today in the Iowa straw poll. During a day of speeches by the Republicans on the ballot, Bachmann had vowed to "make Barack Obama a one-term president."


The Minnesota congresswoman, a favorite of the tea party, got more than 28 percent of the 17,000 votes cast in the nonbinding exercise. She has a following among the evangelicals who make up the GOP base in Iowa and elsewhere.


Today's vote provides clues about each candidate's level of support and campaign organization, five months before the Iowa caucuses.


Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who has support among libertarians, finished a close second. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who was hoping for a strong showing to boost his struggling campaign, was a distant third.


Finishing fourth was former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, followed by businessman Herman Cain.


Rick Perry wasn't on the ballot -- but on the day that the Texas governor officially entered the race, his name was written in by his Iowa supporters, and he finished sixth -- just ahead of Mitt Romney.


Barely registering support were Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich.


188-a-11-(Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., Republican presidential candidate, in remarks)-"the country back"-Republican Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann says the next president can improve the nation's future. (13 Aug 2011)


00:11 "the country back"


183-a-09-(Congressman Ron Paul, R-Texas, in remarks)-"here at home"-Congressman Ron Paul says bringing U.S. military personnel home would help boost the economy. (13 Aug 2011)

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Early boost for Bachmann with Iowa win

The battle for the "Bible belt", one of the most crucial constituencies in the Republican White House race, will begin in earnest in Waterloo, Iowaon Sunday, where Texas governor Rick Perry, who announced his candidature on Saturday, is to speak at a dinner in the Electric Park ballroom that will also be attended by congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

Bachmann changed her diary to be there, setting up an early showdown between two Christian evangelicals either of whom could be Barack Obama's opponent in the presidential election next year. Bachmann received a big early advantage on Saturday night when she came top of the Republican straw poll in Ames, the biggest political festival in America this year. In the second biggest vote in the history of the straw poll, with almost 17,000 voting, Bachmann took 4,823. Perry, as he had not declared in time, was not on the ballot but still managed to win 718 write-ins. The victory provides Bachmann with a short-term advantage but it is unlikely to last long with the arrival of Perry. The real race begins now.

The importance of the evangelical vote is huge, representing an estimated 40% of Republicans who will vote in the Iowa caucus, which is scheduled for February. Iowa, as the first of the contests, matters – helping to propel candidates to the front of the race and seeing others heading for oblivion.

Around 17,000 Iowans took part in the event. Ms Bachmann, a US representative from Minnesota, edged out Ron Paul, another US representative, and rolled over the rest of the Republican field to capture the nonbinding Iowa mock election.

Nearly a dozen Republicans are seeking the chance to challenge Barack Obama for the presidency in 2012.

The straw poll has no formal place in the party's election machine, but it can catapult a candidate into frontrunner status or send a hopeful into the class of also-rans.

The win gives momentum to Ms Bachmann's campaign, but she still faces tough competition from Mitt Romney who skipped the poll and Texas governor Rick Perry, who has just kicked off his own campaign.

Ms Bachmann won 4,823 votes to Mr Paul's 4,671. Tim Pawlenty, who had focused on a strong showing in the straw poll to rescue his struggling campaign, finished a distant third with 2,293 votes in a bruising setback.

Ms Bachmann has been campaigning for just over a month, but has fired up supporters with her rhetoric and her style.

In South Carolina, conservative Texas governor Rick Perry formally jumped into the race with a blistering attack on president Barack Obama.

"We cannot afford four more years of this rudderless leadership," Mr Perry told a conference of conservatives, promising to reduce taxes, regulations and government intrusion in people's lives.

Mr Perry, a staunch social conservative with a strong job creation record in Texas, is expected to immediately vault into the top tier of contenders along with front-runner former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Mr Perry visits Iowa on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin says she will make a decision within the next couple of months if she will also run.

Marcus Bachmann ‘Elbowed Me Into A Golf Cart’

According to CNN, Lemon and another reporter from the network were among a ring of press and supporters that surrounded Bachmann after she spoke briefly at the Iowa State Fair and tried to make her way to a drive cart to exit.


“As both CNN staffers tried to question Bachmann, Lemon said he was pushed by two members of Bachmann’s staff,” reports CNN. “Lemon also said that Marcus Bachmann, the congresswoman’s husband, pushed him.”


As the clip below indicates, the gay anchor tried to ask Bachmann respectful questions about her debate performance Thursday and her expectations for the Ames Straw Poll, which takes place today.


Lemon said afterward, “I told them, asked them not to elbow me. And then her husband, Marcu,s started doing the same thing. And then he elbowed me into the cart. And I said, ‘You just pushed me into the cart.’ And he goes, ‘No, you did it yourself.


Lemon noted that Rep. Bachmann was supposed to give a speech, as many other candidates were, at 5, but “showed up at 5:30, talked for five minutes” and left. Lemon and his team followed, but found themselves in a troublesome situation:


I asked her very respectful questions about her performance last night, where does she think she’s going to end up in the Straw Poll. And her two campaign aides… started elbowing me and pushed me through the crowd and her husband Marcus did the same thing– even pushed me, elbowed me into a golf cart where I hit my head and it caused people to spill things.
According to the CNN report, Rep. Bachmann’s press secretary said “it was just too crowded,” and that they were only looking out for the Congresswoman’s safety. It also notes that Marcus Bachmann apparently told Lemon “you did it yourself” when he protested to being tossed into a golf cart. “I don’t know why this happened,” Lemon noted, “it was an embarrassing display on their part.”


CNN also released the raw footage, where it does appear to be a large crowd and, while the cameraman isn’t able to fully capture the action, Lemon can be heard protesting, concerned for his safety.

Michele Bachmann For President

If the presidential election were held today conservative radio talk show host Glenn Beck would cast his vote for Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. For Beck, the choice was between Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the New York Daily News reported.


"Michele Bachmann is no lightweight. Neither is Rick Santorum. Neither one of them are going to give in the end on their principles. They'll go out in flames," he said on his radio show Thursday according the paper.


Beck was torn between the Tea Party favorite and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.


"Michele Bachmann is no lightweight. Neither is Rick Santorum. Neither one of them are going to give in the end on their principles. They'll go out in flames," he said on his radio show Thursday, where he asked his co-hosts who they'd vote for if they had a "gun to your head."


The Fox News host then blasted the mainstream media for what he said was unfair treatment of Bachmann, including allegations that her family-owned Christian counseling clinic urged patients to "pray away the gay."


The media "needs to take anybody that is going to change course, they need to take them out," the ex-Fox News host said. "...Nobody is going to be talking about praying the gay away in 12 months from now when our economy is in absolute shambles."


Beck also weighed in on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.


"I think he's an honorable man, but I don't trust him," said Beck, acknowledging that Romney would "decimate" Obama in the debates.


He then gave an ominous warning, predicting "race riots are on the way."


"The next president needs to prepare to be Abraham Lincoln, be willing to fall on his sword. The next president needs to be willing to sacrifice his life because the choices that this next president will have to face are going to be awful," he said.


"I firmly believe race riots are on the way. They are being encouraged. The Obama administration will take this country down. If it looks like they are losing - the uber-left - they will take it down.

Sarah Palin defends Michele Bachmann, jabs Rick Perry

AMERICA, having been reduced to bankruptcy and social disintegration by a messiah, is now in urgent need of a saviour. That is why the presidential election of 2012 is so important. It is also why the failure of any towering champion of authentic conservative values to emerge so far looks ominous. Yet there is no good reason to write off an effective challenge to Barack Obama at this stage; it is all still to play for.
The declaration of his presidential candidacy by Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has brought most of the likely contenders into the ring. Conventional wisdom holds that he and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney are the Republican front-runners,


which is probably true for the time being. Perry's announcement came too late for him to feature in last Thursday's debate in Iowa, which exposed his competitors to the most intensive media scrutiny so far.


It was enough to confirm the effective elimination of Jon Huntsman Jnr, formerly Obama's ambassador to China, whose most useful function was to illustrate the irrelevance of the Republican establishment in the Tea Party era. Tim Pawlenty, former governor of Minnesota, whose campaign has been lacklustre, launched a fierce personal attack on local favourite, congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who responded strongly, so Pawlenty probably did himself no favours.


The other candidates reinforced their anonymity, apart from two GOP big beasts: Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul (only marginally GOP). Paul allowed his libertarian instincts to displace his conservative credentials: expressing indifference to Iran becoming a nuclear power was carrying conservative isolationism a tad too far. Gingrich is formidable too; but he has about him the aura of Republican history rather than contemporary politics. Yet both these older mavericks have intellectual credentials that belie the notion the Republican Party is short of talent; when sycophantic Beltway commentators describe Obama as an "intellectual", it is a euphemism for socialist. Meanwhile, the aggressively non-intellectual Sarah Palin is still teasing the media about her intentions.


The man they have to oust, Obama, currently enjoys a Presidential Appeal Index rating of -22. Pro-Obama activists make much of the fact that younger Democrat voters still support him; but Rasmussen polling also shows they now have less enthusiasm for him than any other age group. In voting terms, in that demographic, that means most of them will stay at home. Among other indicators, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd is trashing the president - the closest parallel cultural phenomenon in this country would be Polly Toynbee denouncing Labour. Yet, although the one-man disaster area in the Oval Office commands personal ratings that make him about as popular with Americans as George III, polls show a generic Republican candidate enjoying only a narrow lead over him in voting intentions for 2012.


Palin called the comparisons "so passé," calling it "ridiculous" for people to make an issue of the fact that "there may happen to be two women in a race."


"It's kind of even a sexist notion to consider that two women would be kind of duking it out," she added. "No. If I'm going to duke it out I'm going to duke it out with the guys and the gals."


Palin also criticized Newsweek magazine over its Bachmann cover, which featured an unflattering photograph of Bachmann and the headline "the queen of rage."


"I've had my own experience with Newsweek because they put me on the cover wearing running shorts which was quite ridiculous too," she said. "I think that the headline is really worse than the picture. 'The queen of rage.' Because I don't think normal, everyday, average Americans, you can ask them around here, if they think that she's the queen of rage. Not at all."


Asked if Newsweek was trying to make a woman look bad, she replied, "I think that they're trying to make a particular candidate look bad right there, not necessarily having to do with her gender, but just trying to make a fiscally-conservative candidate look bad."


At left, Palin at the state fair surrounded by reporters and others.
Palin also took a subtle shot at Texas governor Rick Perry, who is entering the presidential race on Saturday. Perry is sometimes dismissed as "weak governor" by virtue of the way his state's government is structured, and Palin seemed to draw pout that distinction when asked to contrast their records.


"You have different functions in the state of Texas and the state of Alaska in terms of governing powers from the governor's office," she said, "So it's tough to compare what the executive duties are. We have a very strong governor's office... but, he's a great guy and I look forward to seeing him in those debates."


Palin later added that it will be "great" to have Perry in the race.


Palin also said Thursday's presidential debate in nearby Ames was "great" in part because the candidates took shots at each other.


"I thought it was a great debate, they certainly took some gloves off, which is good for the electorate," she said. "Good to hear the ideas and positions articulated quite aggressively. That's what I appreciate.

Bachmann 'Submissive' Question Ignites Debate Over Marriage, Sexism

WASHINGTON — She’s beaming, wild-eyed, from the cover of Newsweek magazine. Her extreme religious views are outlined in a lengthy piece in the New Yorker. And she’s wooing evangelical Christian leaders to her unexpectedly surging run for president.


The Michele Bachmann juggernaut is showing no signs of subsiding as the Minnesota congresswoman is racing neck and neck with Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential frontrunner despite her far-right views on homosexuality and other social issues.


Bachmann courted the Christian vote in Iowa recently, according to NBC, attending a church service during which the pastor called homosexuality "immoral" and "unnatural." The pastor also showed the congregation a video featuring a man who claims to have been cured of his homosexuality after having a conversation with God.


"I am so happy God has given me natural affection for a woman," Adam Hood said during the video, adding that his wife is nine months pregnant. "We need to have compassion for people that are bound by that sin. And it is a sin. Call a spade a spade."


That type of talk puts Bachmann firmly out of step with the majority of Americans, including many moderate Republicans who support same-sex marriage in a country that’s growing increasingly accepting of homosexuality.


Nonetheless Bachmann, whose husband reportedly runs a counselling clinic that claims to "de-gay" its clients, isn’t shy about waging an apparent culture war, mixing religion with politics as she relentlessly romances Christian pastors and other religious voters in advance of the so-called Iowa Straw Poll today.


Late last week, the Bachmann campaign endorsed more than 100 state pastors and religious leaders.


"Michele has a long track record of standing firm on and fighting for conservative issues on the local, state and national level," Pastor Brad Sherman said in a release from the campaign.


"She has been in the battle for decades and has shown that her core values are non-negotiable in political storms. She has earned her claim to having a ’titanium spine’ on the issues we care most about."


Another pastor added: "Michele has fearlessly taken a stand for life and traditional marriage, while championing fiscally conservative legislation."


Similarly, fellow GOP candidate Rick Sanctorum, a Catholic, said, "It's sad that these questions are asked because of ignorance of what the Bible teaches."


Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, cited the verse's source, Ephesians 5, to clarify that biblical theology demanding submission and love between husbands and wives relates to marriage, not the workplace.


Land told ABC News that while the wife is called to subject herself to her husband, "there is a good many more things a husband is required to do than the wife is required to do."


In Ephesians chapter 5 verse 23, husbands are described as the "head of the wife" and are called in verse 25 to "love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her."


Land explained that the husband is called to be the head of the house and give himself in sacrificial service to his wife.


Given that both men and women are called to give of themselves in marriage, Nance lamented that the male presidential candidates were not asked the same or a similar question.


Earlier this month, women expressed similar concern for the unfair treatment of female politicians when Newsweek magazine featured a wild-eyed Bachmann with the words "Queen of Rage."


Miss America 2011, Teresa Scanlan, the latest of several female figures to denounce the portrayal, accused Newsweek on national television of being sexist for portraying Bachmann differently than it does other male politicians.


"Whenever they've had a male on their cover, even if they don't agree with them as far as policy goes, they portray them in a serious light; they take them seriously and they portray them in a positive light," she asserted.


Neither Bachmann nor former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin were given the same respect in their cover pictures, said Scanlan.


Palin was pictured on a 2009 Newsweek cover posing in a tight red shirt and bicycle shorts. Palin told Facebook fans that the picture was taken for Runner's World magazine and said its appearance on Newsweek was "out of context."


Scanlan said of Newsweek, "They simply try to degrade women and make fun of them and portray them in a negative light, and I think that shows extreme sexism."


She also criticized American culture for not taking sexism allegations seriously.


Bloggers, political pundits and even liberal group National Organization for Women also criticized the latest cover.

Michele Bachmann 'Submissive' Wife Idea a Matter of Interpretation

At Thursday’s GOP Presidential debate, many believed Michele Bachmann’s answer regarding the question of submitting to her husband as showing weakness. Many critics questioned her perspective on leadership and authority.

Yet the idea of submission turns out to be central to what the President of the United States must do in order to lead our country.

Bachmann answered by saying submission equals respect. “I respect my husband,” she responded. “He’s a wonderful godly man. We respect each other and we love each other.”

The words respect and love would not be found as synonyms for submission in any thesaurus. Submission is often used as a negative connotation dealing with slavery, abuse or manipulation. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines submission as “an act of submitting to the authority or control of another.”

It appears that submission lacks freedom.

Bachmann’s belief of submission differs from what has been ingrained in today’s culture. How could it be that submission equals respect or even love?

Take for example a marriage proposal. Popping the question is the ultimate expression of love and in return asking, “Do you love me enough to spend your life with me?” The man is disposing his power by showing vulnerability and giving the option up to the woman. She has the choice to say yes, no, or even make a dramatic exit by running away in tears not being able to decide. It is a risk he is taking; a risk that exudes love.

Granted that the woman says yes, marriage ensues and the concept of submission again comes into play. In the context of the question Bachmann answered, submission meant putting her husband ahead of herself. Sacrificial love is another name for it. While it is a foreign concept for most of us, sacrificial love aims to help others—submission by serving.

In another way, take the perspective from two parents who see their grown child make choices that ruin his or her life and while they may try to direct their child in the right path, out of love they must ultimately surrender their will and let the child decide for him or herself.

Love does not impose.

Biblically, the story of submission is shown by God sending Jesus down to the earth to become human. He submits himself to death in order for the curse of sin to be broken for all of mankind.

Submission is the greatest act of love and respect.

Finally, take the President of the United States. While the president leads, guides and aims to be the stabilizer of the nation, ultimately he or she must grant the power to the people of the country to decide for themselves. It is in their power to vote, to live however they choose and to exercise their innate rights. We are a country of freedom, not dictatorship.

As the presidential election grows closer, the candidates must learn more and more the art of submission. Submitting to the mercy of the media through every step they take, every trip they make and too often than not, every persona they fake is part of the deal. Their ability to submit and respond with grace weeds out the weak from the strong.

Following the chorus of boos after the submission question was asked during Thursday’s debate, Bachmann’s answer followed with a celebratory cheer from the crowd. Her answer on the surface dealt with the way she treats her husband, but it also had larger implications. It expressed the way she looks at the world, the lens she views our country out of.

If Michele Bachmann were to become president, her act of submission would not be the kind that is weak. It would not be the kind of submission that gives up. To her, submission is showing complete sacrifice to the nation.

One of the most talked about moments at Thursday night's GOP debate on the Fox News Channel came when Bachmann of Minnesota was asked a question that raised some eyebrows. The question stemmed from a speech she gave in 2006 when she was running for Congress.

Bachmann told a church in Brooklyn Park, Minn., that she hated taxes, but went on to study tax law in order to be "submissive" to her husband.

"My husband said, now you need to go and get a post-doctorate degree in tax law. Tax law, I hate taxes. Why should I go and do something like that? But the Lord says, 'Be submissive.' Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands," Bachmann told the crowd at the Living Word Christian Center. "Never had a tax course in my background, never had a desire for it, but by faith, I was going to be faithful to what I thought God was calling me to do through my husband, and I finished that course of that study."

Her response Thursday night to the Washington Examiner's Byron York was broader but no less faithful. Bachmann said she loved her husband and was "so proud of him."

"What submission means to us, if that's what your question is, it means respect. I respect my husband. He's a wonderful, Godly man and a great father, and he respects me as his wife," she told York and the millions watching. "That's how we operate our marriage. We respect each other, we love each other, and I've been so grateful that we've been able to build a home together."

The teaching is rooted in the fifth chapter of Ephesians in the New Testament: "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

The mainstream media and others are trying to wrap their arms around the concept they don't understand," Brody said. "Even though tens of millions not just evangelicals, but Christians around the country understand they are being put on the spot to explain.

Although Brody thought the question was unfair, Bachmann's spokeswoman Alice Stewart said she saw it "as an opportunity for her to clear up any concerns people may have had about that word. Clearly, people view that word differently. But for Michele and her husband that's the way they describe their relationship in terms of having a mutual respect for each other; and they do, they have a fantastic marriage, a very loving couple, and when they're using that term it's their expression of how they have a mutual respect and love for each other."

And Bachmann's Iowa campaign chairman Kent Sorenson agreed, also saying it was a "great opportunity."

"Anybody can ask any question they want. I don't think she's afraid to answer those questions. The audience sounded like they had a little different response," Sorenson said.

Bachmann's husband didn't shy away from commenting today at the Iowa State fair. "I think the fact that she is talking about two people who respect, honor, and communicate to each other about decisions just makes a lot of sense," Marcus Bachmann told ABC News. "I think the American people can see that that makes for a good marriage.

Michele Bachmann Wins! Scenes from the Ames Straw Poll Circus

AMES, Iowa — Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann scored a victory in the GOP Ames Straw Poll on Saturday, a win likely to provide her considerable momentum as the 2012 race ramps up.


“What we saw happen today is this is the very first step toward taking the White House in 2012, and you have just sent a message that Barack Obama will be a one-term president,” said Bachmann (R-Minn.) after her victory was announced.


Bachmann took 4,823 votes, narrowly escaping a major upset at the hand of Texas Rep. Ron Paul who won 4,671 votes. Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty placed third with 2,293, a showing that is likely to raise questions about his ability to continue in the contest.


The order of finish beyond the top three: former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (1,567), businessman Herman Cain (1,456), Texas Gov. Rick Perry (718), former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (567), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (385), former Utah governor Jon Huntsman (69) and Rep. Thad McCotter (Mich.) (35).


Perry, Romney, Gingrich and Huntsman did not actively campaign in Ames. Nearly 17,000 vote were cast, the second-largest turnout in the history of the Straw Poll.


For Bachmann, the victory solidifies her as the frontrunner in the Iowa caucuses which are set to kick off the presidential balloting process in early February 2012.


Bachmann entered the poll as the favorite, as polling suggested that her popularity was surging in the state and Romney chose not to participate in an event he won in 2007.


Taking no chances, Bachmann saturated Iowa with television ads in the run-up to the Straw Poll and barnstormed across the state in the final days before the vote. (On Friday, she did five events, including an evening rally in which she threw cornballs into the crowd and jitterbugged with her husband, Marcus, onstage.)


On site at Ames, her operation had the whiff of disorganization in its early hours as people formed long lines to get into her tent — where country singer Randy Travis was performing.


Ultimately, more than 6,000 of the $30 tickets to vote were distributed by her campaign, according to a source inside her tent, giving her the edge and making her the first woman to ever win the Ames Straw Poll after 4,823 of them cast ballots for her.


"Thank you everyone for being here," Bachmann said to cheers, emerging briefly from her campaign bus to shake hands and thank supporters after being declared the victor. "This is the very first step toward taking the White House in 2012 and sending the message that Barack Obama will be a one-term president." The one-term president line has become a signature in her stump speech, so much so that the coliseum audience chanted it along with her when she used it in while addressing them earlier in the day.


"We love you. Thank you so much. It's your victory," she told supporters.


It's not totally clear what happened to the rest of the distributed Bachmann tickets, some 1,200 of which did not turn into votes. What was clear was that not everyone in Bachmann's long lines was an eligible voter -- there were a slew of people from Minnesota still waiting for beef sundaes toward the end of the balloting period, for example. Among them was Pat Konkleir, 58, who came down from Blaine, Minn., in Bachmann's district to help organize straw poll activities. "We brought down a bus of 40 or 50 or so," she said.


Even so, with 16,892 ballots cast, it was highest number of votes at a straw poll since 1999.


Bachmann's Iowa faith-based coalitions organizer credited her win to the churches. "I've not ever seen anything like this," he said, strolling the floor in the press center after it was clear she'd won but before the results were announced -- and before realizing he wasn't supposed to give out his name. They were "extraordinary numbers."


"At the end of the day, the story is going to be the faith-based turnout," he said. That, and Ed Rollins, Bachmann's top political adviser, who was "really an inspiration. He told us how to do it."


But in talking to volunteers wearing orange Michele Bachmann T-shirts or wilting in line for her tent, Bachmann's social conservatism stood out as only one aspect of what appeared to be a coalition that's gathered around her.


"She's a constitutionalist," observed volunteer Paul Dayton of Boone. "She's fiscally conservative. She votes the way she says she will."


"She's firm, she's solid. I love her enthusiasm. I love everything she is," effused Shirley Ripley, 70, of Charles City, a self-described "tea party person." Pressed for specifics, she pointed to "regulations up the ying yang," "how they're trying to tell us how we can't have salt, can't have potato chips, can't have pop" and what is being taught to children.


In addition to religious conservatives, fiscal conservatives and constitutionalists (which usually means people with a libertarian stance toward federal government regulations), Bachmann appeals to conservative women. Even if they are so conservative they can't always vote for her.


Dea Davenport, 73, of Diagonal, Iowa, said she was a Bachmann supporter but hadn't cast her straw poll vote for her. "If she were a man I would have voted for her," Davenport said. "I feel like a man ought to be running the country, but she'd be my second choice."


"I think she's a good candidate, though, I really do," she sighed. "I just wish she were a man."


A STALLED PAUL


Texas Rep. Ron Paul is waging his third presidential bid and has said he won't run for the House again so he can focus all his energies on it. The fact that he won as many votes as he did, 4,671, and that Bachmann could put together an operation that bested his years-long effort in just 48 days -- a number she mentioned repeatedly during her speech in the coliseum Saturday afternoon -- suggests both how narrow and deep his base of support is.


Paul has tended to win straw polls wherever he goes, but the critical difference between the Ames Straw Poll and the ones at the Conservative Political Action Conference and the Republican Leadership Conference earlier this year -- both of which he won -- is that this poll was limited to people from a circumscribed geographic area.


It's easy for Paul to gather his impassioned supporters from around the country at a conference; it's harder for him to muster support within a single locale. That was the case for him last cycle as well, when he was able to build enormous presence at GOP and conservative events throughout Iowa by drawing supporters from around the region but came in fifth in the straw poll.


This time, Paul did a better job turning out his local backers, but there was little to suggest he'd significantly broadened his appeal. His Hawkeye-State backers in Ames by and large seemed to have been with him for the long haul, rather than new supporters, raising questions about how much more backing he can gain before the caucuses. Sure, he had a dunk-tank near his tents for little kids, to compete with Bachmann's entertainingly tiny yellow blimp, which floated above her campaign bus all day to signal where her tent was, but the people who turned out for him weren't there for that or the hot dogs or his giant inflatable "Sliding Dollar" slide game.


Ray Bures, 69, of Ely, Iowa, had been a supporter of Paul's "going all the way back probably 20 years, when I first became aware of him." Tony Stuntz, 30, of Council Bluffs, had been backing him "since 2007" and says he'd "met a couple of guys who voted for him in '88." Mark Hansen, 30 and also of Council Bluffs, described himself as "a strong supporter for the last four years."


Paul's consistency has kept these voters and others like them with him, even as new candidates have entered the field. "He's always been doing the same thing," said Bill Hofmeister, 39, of Cedar Rapids, a Paul supporter since 2009. "He's not a flip-flopper.