Bachman's New Narrative
by digby
Bachman came up with a very creative and potentially dangerous new line of attack at the Republican Leadership Conference yesterday and she's reportedly repeated it in Minneapolis this morning at the Right Online confab:
NEW ORLEANS — Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, the latest candidate to join the Republican presidential campaign, suggested Friday that President Obama secretly wanted Medicare to go bankrupt so retirees would be forced to enroll in the new national health care law.
“This hasn’t been talked about very much – the president’s plan for senior citizens is Obamacare,” Ms. Bachmann told party activists here. She added, “I think very likely what the president intends is that Medicare will go broke and ultimately that answer will be Obamacare for senior citizens.”
In a speech to the Republican Leadership Conference, Ms. Bachmann recounted how she attended a closed-door meeting at the White House and said the president was asked three times to produce his plan to address the financial burdens facing the Medicare program. She said the president’s “gift to senior citizens is to steal from them $500 billion out of Medicare.”
The anecdote, which Ms. Bachmann did not explain in detail or offer additional corroboration, was the latest example of a red-meat, crowd-pleasing declaration that has become a theme of her political rise – whether or not the statements withstand scrutiny. She drew enthusiastic applause as she pledged that her top priority – should she reach the White House – would be repealing the health care law.
How do you like them apples?
Needless to say this is an amazing projection since the truth is that Paul Ryan's Medicare plan much more closely resembles "Obamacare" and the GOPs fondest dream is to force everyone from cradle to grave back into the health insurance system of the early 20th century --- i.e, those who are rich enough to afford health care can have it. It's the liberals who want to turn "Obamacare" into Medicare.
Still, you have to appreciate the cleverness of her approach here. Where other candidates like Romney and Pawlenty speak in wonk speech, Santorum in the style of a culture warrior and Palin in snarky word salad, Bachman has a way with weaving certain ideas together in a way that speaks to the right's Fox-addled conspiratorial worldview. It's hard to know if she's personally confused or just opportunistic, but when someone weaves together various strands of conservative talking points into a coherent story like this it can be very powerful. And it's the kind of thing that turns liberals into pretzels trying to rebut.
She's going to be influential in this race. It will be interesting to see how the others deal with her.
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