Michele Bachmann Response Mocked By David Axelrod (VIDEO)

Senior White House advisor David Axelrod ribbed Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) for the delivery of her Tea Party-sponsored State of the Union rebuttal Tuesday, teasing Bachmann for apparently looking at the wrong camera throughout the broadcast.

"Am I looking at the right camera?" Axelrod asked mockingly, after being introduced during an interview with MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell shortly after Bachmann finished her address.

The Hill reports:

[D]uring her speech that was aired on television, Bachmann appeared to look into the wrong camera, delivering her speech instead while looking slightly to her right. (Bachmann was looking at a second camera that belonged to the Tea Party Express, which webcast her remarks, and not the television camera that also captured her remarks.)

Read more about Bachmann's response -- or watch the entire thing -- here.

WATCH:

Comments

[Jerboy]

01:33 PM on 01/31/2011

She reminded me of the movies/TV shows involving trained animals that are supposedly interacting with the protagonists/antagonists (etc) yet are alway focused on something/someone just out of camera range, generally their trainers and/or handlers.
I would expect to see, at the end of the rebuttal when cameras were turned off, someone offering M.B. some sort of treat, perhaps some faux bacon, or perhaps a nice broach...

[p c r]

11:42 PM on 01/28/2011

When I originally saw the video of her speech, I thought she was looking off to hide her dilated pupils. As a nurse, we assessed for pupils like that in determining whether or not to test for drug use.

[apoyo]

09:56 AM on 01/28/2011

She only has eyes for her small world.

Small world, small minds.

[ItsGettingWeird]

07:27 PM on 01/27/2011

The truth is a liability to the Republican party.

[houseofd]

03:20 PM on 01/27/2011

Politicians like Bachmann are the gift that keeps on giving for opposing parties, before any gaffs like looking into the wrong camera. All she has to do is open her mouth.

[Turningfool]

01:58 PM on 01/27/2011

Yes, let's get to the nub of the matter here on HuffPo, the important stuff that you won't find in the MSM reports. We know looking good on camera is how a politician is judged.

[p c r]

11:36 PM on 01/28/2011

Her looking off to the right throughout the speech has been commented on by most folks in the media, not just HuffPost. If you want an exmple about looking good on camera, read about how Richard Nixon had a 5 o'clock shadow when debating Kennedy on TV. It was one of the turning points of the 1960 election. The public just didn't think Nixon looked presidential.

[ConDsenXieN]

06:55 PM on 01/30/2011

Couldn't have anything to do with the nonsense spewing out of her mouth.

Or her lack of knowledge of American History.

Or the lies spewed from her supporters.

Nahhhh.

[jblisscamp]

01:45 PM on 01/27/2011

As I pointed on derelectgunslinger.com in a post today, titled Michele and the Klanettes, Bachmann lives in the 1960's and early seventies.

[shirleyfeeney]

12:07 PM on 01/27/2011

I'm still trying to figure out why the Tea Party won't "release" the official video of the original feed. If they loooove Michele Bachmann so much, why not? Instead they leave the MSM to use footage from her CNN appearance and her "lost in space" look. My guess is that even they don't want to be associated with her any longer, and that's why they're not doing anything to "protect" their candidate.

[IndyStacey]

05:49 PM on 01/27/2011

or there wasn't a second camera at all and she was looking at the teleprompter, not a camera.

[shirleyfeeney]

06:48 PM on 01/27/2011

However now days most cameras are behind the teleprompter. That's how everyone else seems to be looking directly into the camera...they don't memorize all that stuff.

[BlackTantalus]

10:53 AM on 01/27/2011

As a historian, I was offended by Bachmann's mangling of American history.

Hasn't even one Tea Bagger wondered why there are no historians among them?

[PatrickHenryNow]

11:13 AM on 01/27/2011

They plan to re-write history don't you know.....I am beginning to get the impression the majority of the tea baggers have a 3rd grade education...and that's the leaders of their movement

[shirleyfeeney]

12:07 PM on 01/27/2011

As an American, I was offended by Bachmann's mangling.

[KKojei]

10:45 AM on 01/27/2011

Another spoiled child who needs an abnormal amount of attention. That she and her counterparts are so adamant about the destruction of this country, while spouting platitudes that amount to nothing is pathetic and detracts from the dignity of their party. In fact, while the neocon right dispairs the President as socialist, at no time in the 40 years I have observed the politics of this nation have I seen so much of Nazism and fascism behind the propaganda machines of the Republican Party. It is creeping into plain view now and the handwriting is on the wall. America needs to wise up and stop the march of yet another Reich.

[ThosC747]

10:36 AM on 01/27/2011

Michelle Bachman lies. She makes it up or finds obscure "reports" to come with a fact. She ignores corrections. And she doesn't pay any type of consequence for all her lies, that's what I find so irksome.

[BlackTantalus]

10:54 AM on 01/27/2011

F/f. But is it really a lie if she doen't know what she's talking about?

[storeysound]

03:32 AM on 01/29/2011

Yes. Or as law enforcement likes to point out "ignorance of the law is no excuse". Ignorance of a subject one chooses to preach on is inexcusable.

[jrogere]

11:15 AM on 01/27/2011

Repeat lie, repeat lie, repeat lie, repeat lie, repeat lie, repeat lie, I'm starting to believe it.

[Wolfsghost]

09:29 AM on 01/27/2011

I look forward to Rachael's show, I respect her opinion, but I dissagree. CNN made a good call in showing the bagger rebuttal.You don't think she helped her cause do you? Without fools, none of us would be as successful.

[shirleyfeeney]

12:10 PM on 01/27/2011

It's one thing for CNN to air Bachmann's response. It's another thing entirely to give it the huge amounts of attention that it was getting prior to air, such as Wolf Blitzer's overblown excitement and the huge countdown clock. Bill Maher commented on it, their live panel commented....they gave the GOP essentially TWO rebuttals. Following that logic, someone from the Dems should have had a rebuttal to the rebuttals. It was contrived and under-handed.

[Rory Kempf]

09:14 AM on 01/27/2011

I really think all members of the house and congress get fined when they put out false information the same way sports stars are fined if they do things unbecoming and embarrass the team or league.

People believe some of the nonsense and outright lies they spew and they should held accountable if proven wrong. Male the fine high enough that they will think twice before telling outright lies and no way to back it up.

If go to meeting and make stuff just to look good Trust me I would get fired.

My Thoughts

[sean62965]

12:41 PM on 01/27/2011

You would probably get fired for not using puncuation and missing entire words in your report. Just my thoughts while trying to read yours.

[Rory Kempf]

02:12 PM on 01/27/2011

Spelling and grammar done on purpose thanks for noticing. Now people are listening.

[MSTinPA]

08:30 AM on 01/27/2011

Mocking Rep. Bachmann for looking into the wrong camera is counterproductive and juvenile. Stick to fact checking her and rebutting her rebuttal without the silliness. She looked the tea party squarely in the eye during her rebuttal looking directly into their camera and they take her seriously.

[CLSayles]

08:53 AM on 01/27/2011

Very good point, but lucky for us, they can't run on stupid for too much longer...

[shirleyfeeney]

12:11 PM on 01/27/2011

If the Tea Party is so concerned with how this is shaping Michele Bachmann's image, then why have they removed the official video feed and left the media only CNN's pool camera shot?

I'm guessing even the Tea Party doesn't take her seriously either.

[jbrantow]

12:58 PM on 01/27/2011

It's always helpful to have a stooge to distract from the facts, in this case the tea baggers platform and lack of proven mechanisms to help this country.

[realpolitic]

08:15 AM on 01/27/2011

More importantly than looking at the wrong camera, Bachmann lied about all her facts. There are no 65,000 or whatever IRS agents ready to enforce the health care bill or whatever craziness she conjured.

[senseandnonsense]

09:21 AM on 01/27/2011

That's correct. The "fact" was checked and was found to be a lie. But that doesn't matter, because she doesn't care about the facts anyway.

[realpolitic]

09:27 AM on 01/27/2011

No, she does not.

[mollysmomma]

12:44 PM on 01/27/2011

And her followers don't care about facts.....that is what is scary.

[storeysound]

03:58 AM on 01/29/2011

Don't forget her line about the government "telling you what light bulbs to buy". This is just a line to whip up outrage over "government intrusiveness" (although intruding in a woman's reproductive choices garners no outrage from the right).

The government has not told anyone what light bulbs to buy. They have set energy-efficiency standards (in 2007, under Bush, with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007) for 100w and 40w bulbs that can't be met by incandescent lamps. These standards will phase in starting in 2012. No one is telling you what you must buy, but the lighting industry is being told what they can no longer produce (unless they can find a way to make incandescent bulbs 30% more energy-efficient in the next year).

[realpolitic]

09:24 AM on 01/29/2011

Great post.   Thanks for the facts!