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Mark Axelrod

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Michele's Makeup; or, What's Political Representation Got to Do With It?

Posted: 11/25/2011 5:11 pm

So, have you noticed Michele Bachman's makeup recently? Very provocative. And her hair style? Very Hollywood. According to OpEdNews.com, Bachmann spent about $4700 on a makeover in June, presumably in anticipation of the June 13 Republican Faux Debate.

Now if she were to spend the same amount over the course of the 26 debates (and there's no reason for her not to since she's not in it to win it anyway) she will have spent a tidy $122,200 on her hair and her makeup alone. Certainly, that money could have been better spent in taking Con Law Tutorial sessions or in that Remedial American History class, but, no, it will have been spent on hair and makeup.

But what's more egregious than the money wasted on a non-candidate for president of the United States, is that she's really used the debates as a platform for her own self-aggrandizing. Does anyone beyond her base really care about her book Core of Conviction: My Story, a 224-page self-adulating book published by Sentinel on November 21st for $26.95 (already discounted at Amazon for $17.54) even though the enticing blurbs read "Michele Bachmann is one of the most compelling leaders in America. But despite all the magazine covers and cable television stories, most people don't know who she really is, where she comes from, or what she believes. So she decided to tell her own story and let the reader decide"?

Really? Most people don't know who she is? She's been the face of the Tea Party for years now and her political gaffes are fodder for high school political science classes, but "most people don't know who she is?" When she inked the deal with Sentinel in August, "Publisher Adrian Zackheim acquired the book and the politician won't receive an advance (in accordance with congressional rules)." Perhaps, she'll get some backend points for the sale, but clearly it wasn't the kind of deal that Palin inked with Harper Collins since "literary iterations" generally don't match the original.

Regardless, it's not really the makeup or the hair style or the book tours or the late night comedy show appearances that are irritating about Bachmann, but the fact that she's as narcissistic and as self-promoting as Palin with the exception that she has a constituency that she ignores. Of course, Palin had a constituency that she ignored as well, but at least she abandoned them first.

In September, Brett Neely of Minnesota Public Radio wrote, "Bachmann didn't vote in Congress a single time in September. According to House records, the congresswoman has missed 58 percent of the roll call votes since July 1, when her presidential campaign went into high gear." And though Neely goes on to write that, "While Bachmann's recent attendance record is poor, it's not out of line with past presidential candidates in Congress," for some reason I find that reasoning rather unconscionable given the fact that Bachmann knows, you and I know, and the rest of the United States knows she'll never get the nomination.

So, one must ask the obvious question: Why is she still running? She has nothing new to contribute to the faux debates, she offers no keen insights (other than her security breaching gaffes), her talking points are stale and in the most recent Gallup Poll (November 23, 2011) she's hovering at 5%, which is only 5% higher than Mitch Daniels who's not running and 5% lower than the aging hippie-cum-heroin advocate Ron Paul. Clearly, she's not doing this for Republicans nor is she doing this for her constituents.

No, Bachmann is doing this for Bachmann Inc. primarily because she took the cue from Palin on how to make money without really trying and is going to stretch her Warholian fifteen minutes into as many months as she can and for as much money as she can. Will her constituency in the 6th District of Minnesota be concerned? Probably, not. As Gore Vidal once said about Nixon, "You get what you vote for," so they're probably as keen on Bachmann now as they were when they voted for her and are probably the strongest demographic area for the purchase of her book.

One really has to question what the system is all about when folks like Bachmann and Cain and Perry et al have the hubris to believe they're qualified to be president of the United States. With all due respect to Toole and Southern, such political poshlost could give a new meaning to the titles of a Confederacy of Dunces and The Magic Christian.

 
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Vapula
Failure is not an option
11:14 PM on 11/29/2011
Bachman represents much that is wrong with America and nothing that is good about it.
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l78lancer
Wisdom is the principal thing
07:16 PM on 11/28/2011
While I agree with most of the content of this article, it could have been stated in half the words. Bachmann is not the fastest boat on the lake. She has the sex appeal of a can of rootbeer. Still many people don't know her. She hasn't done anything of worth or note since she has been in congress. And because not everyone follows every word of every political pundit and talking head, some people will never be completely clued in to the woman with the strange eyes on the magazine cover.

I get it. She's an unlikely cantidate. But because I don't care about her hair, makeup or style, this article comes up short and is quite catty.
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09:56 PM on 11/27/2011
"One really has to question what the system is all about when folks like Bachmann and Cain and Perry et al have the hubris to believe they're qualified to be president of the United States."

Democracy?
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LeftLeanWing
Ah.. I said..Ah Said I said... Proceed Guv'nah
10:55 PM on 11/27/2011
Palinocratic Appeal......

Electoral appeal by  Contentiously Opposing Something......| Good Looks and a Penchant of unapologetically Saying Whatever comes in one's Mind to make the case.. against something or someone
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blueshield
06:31 PM on 11/27/2011
Criticizing Bachmann for not working in Congress misses the point completely. The GOP believes deeply that elected officials should do as little as possible - that is, minimize government's influence.

Republican led Congresses - where they controlled both Houses - have set the highest number of vacation and non-working days of any session since the formation of the country. The least days worked by any Congress was during George W. Bush's Presidency, as the nation slid into two deficit exploding wars, economic meltdown, the country's longest recession ever, the evaporation of 40% of American retirement assets, and the largest increase in government spending.

That's not to leave Dems in Congress without blame - they failed completely to overrule Republicans, and many voted down the same path, until President Obama was elected.
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zanzig
07:17 AM on 11/28/2011
Perhaps elected officials should be paid strictly on the basis of how many days they actually attend to government business?
04:32 PM on 11/27/2011
I'm one of Bachmann's constituents and I'm ok with her ignoring us for a while. She's less destructive when she's off in her own little world and not in DC. Looks like it took her running for Pres (read: putting number 1 first) to finally get rid of her out of here.
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kemstone
Just another opinionated nobody.
05:50 PM on 11/27/2011
Unfortunately for New Jersey, Chris Christie decided not to run.
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Akshay Singh
The Devil's Orchard
02:17 PM on 11/27/2011
The jumbled, scrambled maze of thoughts and opinions in my head, condensed and written so succinctly.
01:15 PM on 11/27/2011
The hubris to believe they're qualified to be POTUS? Exactly what people said about Obama. Poor attendance record? Have you checked out Obama's record while he was running?
jhNY
Mercy.
01:48 PM on 11/27/2011
Well, gee, but here's a distinction that ought to matter: Obama always polled higher after a few months than Michelle Bachmann ever did, past maybe 2 weeks after her successful caucus in Iowa. The author objects to the Bachmann campaign at this point, because, as is the case for most candidates from Congress, her campaign has caused her to miss many votes, but her campaign has no chance of victory in the Republican nominating process, and thus, seems like a vanity run-- while her actual constituents watch her not doing her day job. Of course, were I in her district, I'd be happy-- but I'm a Democrat.
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Dianne Jarreau
02:33 PM on 11/27/2011
Yes, as a matter of fact, largely he was out of the bldg. during his work in the Senate where he was trained by a cadre of Senators who took him to where he needed to learn what was going on in our world. Similar, not on the floor experiences during campaign were perfectly acceptable; the Democratic Party wanted him to be President. Think over the logic when you venture a suggestion of failure to perform a commitment to duty. Only Republicans had the hubris to criticize his work to become President based on the fact that he knew a great deal more than the citizens about Constitutional Law. He taught it for 10 years when he lived in Chicago after being honored by his classmates who voted him President of the Harvard Law Review. His wife, Michelle was working at that time as executive in charge of Community Outreach at the University Hospital (of the university where he was teaching Constitutional Law in Illinois) They invited her to come back at the end of Pres.and Mrs. Obama stay in the White House with Sasha and Malia and their grandmother, Mrs. Robinson, who had always been their baby-sitter in their Kenwood house and then at the White House.
12:32 PM on 11/27/2011
To only get to 48% of the voting in MN for such a hard fought campaign is the core of her conviction.As a Minnesotan I think she is quite disappointing.
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trumbull desi
If I have something pithy to say, see below
01:31 PM on 11/27/2011
I'd love to meet some of the folks in her district and ask them what her appeal is.
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Eiolgj
thoughtful person
12:17 PM on 11/27/2011
Male candidates hair and haircuts have also been in the news. How much they spend on that stuff should be news because it reflects their values. How much they spend on themselves as opposed to giving to charities reflect their values.

I suppose some of the guys are also wearing makeup; I'm not sure. But when I look at a woman in public and I see the makeup before I see the woman herself, I think, "Too much makeup." That is what I taught my girls when they were at the age of make up experimentation. Michele needs to move on to the next stage.
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WeSeeYou
I want to believe...
12:09 PM on 11/27/2011
"One really has to question what the system is all about when folks like Bachmann and Cain and Perry et al have the hubris to believe they're qualified to be president of the United States."

That statement really does sum it up, doesn't it?
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Guscat
01:18 PM on 11/27/2011
Fanned.
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Dianne Jarreau
03:57 PM on 11/27/2011
Very disappointing in Texas; do you happen to know the Lieutenant-Governor's name there? Perry was Bush's Lieutenant-Governor and imitated him in regard to death sentences executed, more of them than in previous administrations and more of them really questionable as to the advisability of executing someone who was a mental incompetent or whose trial had been a miscarriage of justice.

While Perry has been campaigning with his opponents, Texas, East of Austin experienced one of the worst wild fire outrages ever because the ground was too dry in an over-heated climate that is one of the hall-marks of oi-producing territories.(You may have seen the wells set afire on the Kuwaiti shore of the Persian Gulf when Poppy Bush had to withdraw, at what point in his one term presidency I really do not recall; but I do remember seeing the oil being burned off by the people to whom those wells belong -- as a notable gesture like making obscene hand signs at Bush and the U.S. for encroaching upon the Iraqis'oil. Since then the people find the climate unbearable, and they have no electricity for fans or air-conditioning. The people, themselves, had done absolutely nothing to George Herbert Walker Bush,sr. to deserve this war so that he could obtain oil dividends from the sale of oil in the U.S.).
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Sherrill Roehrl
11:37 PM on 11/26/2011
Why are you attacking Bachman? Could it be because she is a conservative woman? If she were a Democrat candidate, it would be different. Right? Just as liberals are attacking Cain. If he were a Democrat black candidate, all would be right with the world.
Gilmarien
How did it come to this?
01:11 AM on 11/27/2011
Sherrill, if Cain were a Democratic Black candidate he wouldn't be saying the things he is, so there'd be no reason to attack him. It isn't always about identity politics, you know.
01:47 AM on 11/27/2011
Why can't Beachman be a Democrate white woman. And why do Cain have to be a Democrat blace candicate You have to let everyon know that Cain is Black ,why you did not let everyon know that Beachman is white . But you let everyone know what kind of person you are
12:04 PM on 11/27/2011
Who is Beachman?
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Sarah Trickey
love, luck and lollipops. Narf!
09:34 PM on 11/26/2011
I have to say this for her: she has inspired me to read "Letters to the Earth" and the "Diarys" by Sam Clemens to my son as my father did to me. I also need to find my copy of the "Biscuit Bible"....
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dwillisno1
Learning to Butt Heads Without Being Buttheads
09:23 PM on 11/26/2011
Core of Conviction! Ever notice how repub/teaper Autobiographies have titles more appropriately used by biographers? To write a book about your self and begin the embellishments with a grandiose title is the height of false pride. Superlatives just seem to sould better coming from anyone else other than the superlatived!
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mainemomma
I don't want a micro bio
06:43 AM on 11/27/2011
Well said.... she really does think highly of her made up story about herself.
12:06 PM on 11/27/2011
she's much more accomplished than you
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catboycolo
I'll have the coffee, not the KoolAid
07:08 PM on 11/26/2011
Spot on!
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MinneMike
I am 1% deal with it
03:36 AM on 11/27/2011
Here, Spot!
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pakaal
Pigs, in cages, on antibiotics
07:07 PM on 11/26/2011
"her political gaffes are fodder for high school political science classes"

Now that's really unfair, we make plenty of use of her statements in college classes too! In addition to her problematic knowledge of history, her ability to (ab)use logical fallacies is stunning; she provides great teaching points.
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Sherrill Roehrl
11:39 PM on 11/26/2011
Please outline what her political gaffes were. Thanks.
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SonOfUgh
Your micro-bio is empty
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Tom Iarossi
A proudly progressive veteran and educator
09:27 AM on 11/27/2011
It's dangerous to ask a progressive a question like that. We do our research and tend to have a lot of evidence.
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Guscat
01:20 PM on 11/27/2011
Fanned.