you don't. She is a Christan Taliban. Total fringe. This article from the Aug. 15th, edition of the New Yorker is worth the read. RBR, I'd be interested in your take on the Iowa Straw Poll.
Monday, August 15, 2011
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| Bell Curve | The Law Talking Guy | Raised by Republicans | U.S. West | ||||||||||
| Well, he's kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace "accidentally" with "repeatedly," and replace "dog" with "son." | |||||||||||||
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3 comments:
I just realized that Bachmann and Delores Umbridge, the nasty Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher from Harry Potter's Order of the Phoenix have a lot in common.
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Delores_Umbridge
Funny!
That's a great article in the New Yorker. Thanks for posting a link.
RE: The Iowa Straw Poll. It's a corrupt popularity contest that has all the predictive power of the cover of Sports Illustrated (for you non-college football fans, the SI cover is famously cursed).
A brief look at the results on the wikipedia page shows that GHW Bush won it in 1979 and lost the nomination to Reagan. Pat Robertson won it in 1987 and lost the nomination to GHW Bush. In 1995, Bob Dole tied with Phil Gramm. In 1999 GW Bush won. But in 2007, Romney won the straw poll but lost the nomination to McCain. Now Bachman has won.
You know, it's fair to say that the winner of the Iowa Straw Poll has never won the popular vote in a national election.
Now, is it an indicator of anything at all? Probably not much. It's been plagued by accusations of voter fraud. There have been a series of reformed intended to clean up. However, even now it is perfectly allowable for candidates' campaigns to offer to pay the $30 participation fee for their supporters. That means that candidates that do not actively campaign at the event (like Perry - who was a write in - or Romney this time) have their supporters having to pay $30 a piece to vote for them. But candidates willing to make it a priority - like Bachman and Paul - can cover the voting fee for their supporters.
In effect, the Iowa Straw Poll works just like Republicans want all elections to work. You have to pay to vote, the wealthiest candidates can compensate their supporters for their votes and the whole thing has the atmosphere of a state fair complete with petting zoos and beer tents.
Wheww! What a relief to hear that about this thing. I would love to hear some Democrats stand up and call it "corrupt" and expose more loudly what you just said in your last paragraph!
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