Michele Bachmann Not To Run For Reelection

[Maxwell]

     Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief here.

[King]

I don't know why Democrats are rejoicing.  This gets rid of a chance at a seat pickup for a quieter Republican who will vote just as she did.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Hallelujah!


Now we just need to get rid of the Republican Party.

Fixed.

[Anti Democrat Democrat Club]

I wonder if the closet case will run for her seat.

[Blue3]

I don't know why Democrats are rejoicing.  This gets rid of a chance at a seat pickup for a quieter Republican who will vote just as she did.

This is more about the integrity of Congress and American government than any partisan feeling (at least for me)

[King]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/michele-bachmann-god-wants-me-to-earn-7-figures-fo,32618/

[Torie]

I sort of wished she had run and lost, to send the Pubs a message that what she represents is just politically toxic these days. Given Santorum's comments I think the Pubs need to get that message more clearly.

[Blue3]

I sort of wished she had run and lost, to send the Pubs a message that what she represents is just politically toxic these days. Given Santorum's comments I think the Pubs need to get that message more clearly.

Because of gerrymandered districts, it isn't toxic in many of these districts. (though politically deadly on a larger scale, of course)

[SPC]

Tom Emmer will likely run.

[Indy Texas]

I don't know what lobbying firm would want her anyway. She's leaving after 8 years in the House, which isn't long enough to cultivate the kind of relationships and influence that lobbyists find useful. And she's crazy as hell. Can you imagine a pharmaceutical company wanting to hire a firm that had her on its payroll when she was running around in 2012 talking about vaccines causing mental retardation?

[TDAS04]

Mixed feelings.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Tom Emmer will probably run.. and he's basically Michele Bachmann... but without the charm.  And that's saying something.

[Torie]

I sort of wished she had run and lost, to send the Pubs a message that what she represents is just politically toxic these days. Given Santorum's comments I think the Pubs need to get that message more clearly.

Because of gerrymandered districts, it isn't toxic in many of these districts. (though politically deadly on a larger scale, of course)

She barely won last time in a Pub +9.6% PVI CD - as an incumbent. That is toxicity city to me - as it was (an absolutely disastrous electoral performance for an incumbent not then tarred by scandal). Now, she is being investigated up the wazoo. I think she really did fear that she would be tanked, with her opponent better known now, and she just an ineffectual and maybe ethical tarnished to crimbo (we shall see how it comes down in due course) clown.  

[PJ]

I don't know why Democrats are rejoicing.  This gets rid of a chance at a seat pickup for a quieter Republican who will vote just as she did.

The point is that she's crazy and she shouldn't be in the law-making process.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

BTW she was running internet ads this year (I saw one before a YouTube video, for some reason YouTube seems to think I live in her district, their IP locator must not work all that well...or maybe YouTube only sells ads by state or media market or something.) It was all about how she's fighting to reduce health care costs by repealing Obamacare, the typical obvious bullsh!t but prettied up stuff. So this clearly wasn't out of lack of interest in continuing her career.

Good chance she saw the writing on the wall and that there was only so long she could continue with this, and the federal problems she gave a Suspiciously Specific Denial to, and possibly also the NRCC telling her they weren't spending anymore on her and she's on her own now. They kind of threw Jean Schmidt under the bus for a similar reason, she was a drain on resources in a supposedly safe seat, and wasn't worth the million every two years they had to spend. Getting Bachmann out and getting some generic R in is obviously in their best interests, part of why I said "mixed feelings".

That said though, Democrats should consider this at least a moral victory. I bet she wouldn't have bowed out if it wasn't for the looming threat from Graves and his money and realizing her time was running out, and if assured of reelection would've ran again.

[BluegrassBlueVote]

I sort of wished she had run and lost, to send the Pubs a message that what she represents is just politically toxic these days. Given Santorum's comments I think the Pubs need to get that message more clearly.

All that would've done is played into the Tea Party's circular logic of an all-encompassing MSM conspiracy that leads to their defeats. Nothing happened after Allen West went down.

[Torie]

I sort of wished she had run and lost, to send the Pubs a message that what she represents is just politically toxic these days. Given Santorum's comments I think the Pubs need to get that message more clearly.

All that would've done is played into the Tea Party's circular logic of an all-encompassing MSM conspiracy that leads to their defeats. Nothing happened after Allen West went down.

Well Allen baby didn't underperform that much (a couple of points in a carpetbagging mode), and it was a highly polarized district. He just didn't have much crossover appeal. Michele had crossover "appeal" in reverse in the sense that unlike with West, there was considerable crossover - of Pub leaning voters finding "appealing" running for the exits and voting for the Dem candidate. If the Pubs had a sea of Bachmanns, they would go bankrupt. The point is that it is not a Tea Party thing per se. One could characterize Paul Ryan as Tea Party central in some aspects. He runs ahead of his ticket, not behind. It is all about the presentation and the substance - and the focus.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I hated Bachmann before, but now I pitty her after watching her video announcement. She sounds like she is talking to children.