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Subscribe to RSSCEDAR RAPIDS, IA -- Speaking to reporters this afternoon, presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann brushed aside her last-place finish in the Florida Straw Poll. And in a speech before that, she urged voters to consider her ahead of the race's two front-runners, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney.
“We can’t settle. We have to have a candidate who has it all,” Bachmann repeatedly said during her speech before a few dozen supporters who gathered at the Best Western Longbranch ballroom. The rhetoric, which appears to reference opponents Perry and Romney, was first used last week when the Minnesota Congresswoman was speaking at GOP events in the Sunshine State.
Asked by NBC to comment on the results of the straw poll -- in which she received just 1.5% of the vote out of eight candidates -- Bachmann said she made a decision to focus instead on last month's Ames Straw Poll, which she won. “We put our effort and our money and our time here in Iowa in the straw poll because this straw poll in Iowa was crucial."
Bachmann also said that she permitted her supporters to vote for other candidates. “We had let it be known early on, and we released our supporters in Florida because there are straw polls all across the country right now,” Bachmann added. “We told all of our supporters in Florida that they were free to vote for anyone else that we wanted because we weren't participating.”
But Bachmann has only spent nine days in Florida since she got into the 2012 race, and Florida GOP officials say she does not have a big ground operation in the state.
“The fact that I don't hear from the campaign means that they don't have any organized staffing from a campaign staff perspective,” Sarasota County GOP Chair Joe Gruters said. "The path to victory is even harder than it was a week ago, as a result of the Tea Party voters in Florida getting behind Herman Cain. But she's still in contention."
The statement released by the Bachmann campaign following her straw poll finish last weekend makes no reference to “releasing” delegates. Instead, the statement focuses on her win in Ames on Aug. 13.
The statement: "Florida is an important state in the presidential race, but we chose not to participate in the P5 Poll which is open to select delegates. We got into the presidential race late and dedicated our resources to the Iowa straw poll which is open to all Iowans with a valid ID; Michele won the Iowa poll with less time and money than the other candidates in the race."
Bachmann told reporters today she's happy where her campaign is now despite losing in Florida.
“We're positioned perfectly,” she said.
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Obviously she has no grasp of reality. I wonder if she is the other side of the looking glass? Hello???? Alice????
I don't really care for Bachmann but if you watched the debate, they really didn't ask her any questions that had substance..........
Give florida a gold star. First perry gets knocked down and now this silly twit hits the dust.
Can we pray Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry away?
Exactly - Chris Christie's wife is being sweet talked by Barbara Bush, "being the first lady is not that bad" . They want him that bad.
Michelle:
Don't let the door hit ya in the ass ....
Michelle Bachmann, the first thing you do, in order not to sound stupid when you speak is to clear it with your political advisers ... I am sure you can afford one. You shold learn to spin any outcome or result in a way not to look more stupid than the result itself. You cannot release your supports in a contest vote when you are still listed. First take off your name and then release your supporters, that way if you get zero, it would look better than having something close to zero. That is bad.
All of these idiots in the GOP are so pathetic. What a parade of morons we have never seen politics this ridiculous ever! Can you people not find someone who doesn't belong in a nut house to run. And those idiots in Congress are bringing the whole nation to it's knees because not one of them understands economics and you suck up to everything the Koch brother aholes tell you to do. Get the point ,all you people who are die hard republicans, if you make less than 250.000.oo you are simply canon fodder for the rich to do away with. Good luck and for all you people who disagree, we don't give a rat's a.. what you think.
shes looking more and more like a vampire. scary!
Minnesota. The state of losers--the Vikings, the Twins, the Gophers, the Timberwolves, the Wild--and Michele Bachmann. NaNaNaNaNANaNaNa he-ey, goodbye!
Oh my goodness what are we going to do with the promise of $2.00 Gas the magic is ending pretty fast what happened along the way, I better buy a bike I wont need Gas - LOL
Yaaaaawwwwwwnnnnnn...let me know when we get people old enough to vote posting comments here. I've seen yappy little teenage chatrooms with more original thinking.
Oh shucks...I really wanted to see a Bachmann/Palin ticket. That would raise the bar for insanity and ridiculous statements. They would be like sugar and spice.
No, wait a minute! What am I saying? Those two would lead us down the road to ruin! Now Rick Perry...he's our man! No, wait...time for me to put down the imaginary crack pipe. Fact is, no Republican would do anything good for the country! Look at what they're doing now, claiming they're doing "what the people want" despite every poll -- even Rasmussen polls -- saying 70% of America wants taxes raised on the wealthy! How are they doing what the people want if 70% say the opposite? Oh, I know...the only ones they listen to are those wacky Tea Party folks...
Bachmann is as loony as they come but for that matter all the GOP canidates are loony. Mitt is the only one with half a brain but that is hard to go against the current president who has a hell of a great brain.
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012 The president of the USA fighting for the rights of all Americans not just those who can afford it.
She permitted her supporters to vote for other candidates? Does she think she owns them? Last time I checked we were a Free Country. Bachmann is Delusional.
She's become the sideshow. She should admit like Pawlenty she hasn't a snowball's chance and get out of the way, she only brings criticism to the process. Discounting the die-hard Obama haters who would back anyone against him, the only two candidates so far in contention who wouldn't look like fools in a debate with Obama are Romney and Huntsman. The biggest detraction for the "purists" are their religion. Huntsman could even insult Obama in Mandarin.
Michele Bachmann couldn't get elected President, if her name was the only one on the ballot.
She's not even intelligent enough to know that her first name is supposed to be spelled with an additional "L."
As a person who resides in Minnesota, I cringe every time Michele Bachmann opens her mouth. This woman is not only delusional, she is self righteous, ignorant and self centered. I fear for our Country if the current crop of Republican/Tea Partiers running for President (and the current ones sitting in Congress) get any more power than they already have. They should all be ashamed of themselves for doing nothing while our Country is in need of real leadership & caring!
Positioned perfectly to lose. Sorry Michelle that was a wrong choice of words.
Whatever it takes to get that @!$%# obama out of office.
Dr KKK
Judging by your handle I'd say that probably means beating, hanging or bombing! You from Mississippi?
She's a legend...in what's left of her mind.
I am not disappointed. Bacchman's world is a surreal one. It is hell bent on dismantling The United States and replacing it with a neo-dictatorship of intolerance, right wing extremism, extremist views and policies and industrial pollution promoting policies that will hurt our families, children, elderly and minorities. No one really took her seriously right? Her own self styled leadership is so at odds with the otherwise level headed candidates she is competing against. Like Palin, she is out of her depth, barking up the wrong tree, is trying to appeal to the masses with dangerous, right wing extremism, and it is not working. Bacchman - it is time for you to retire and pretend to be a senator again. Your time is up, go home, and put your feet up with a nice cup of tea party tea.
She "let her supporters vote for another candidate"? What????? More looney tunes from Michele. She's a running joke in this campaign, how sad for the GOP. First Palin, now Bachman. Surely they must have some credible women.
Bachmann has no chance of winning the GOP nomination and we don't need a straw poll to tell us that. That being said neither does Cain. The straw poll is nothing more than a popularity contest for that state Cain is from Florida he wins, Bachmann from Iowa she wins. Come on people you know as well as me neither of these people will get the nod of the GOP, but there has been some interesting reading on here.
Hey; Capone spent a lot of time setting up illinois the way it is. just think of the politicians he had in his pocket. Exactly what has happened to change things? we do still have georgie boy and obuma, with all his socialist/commie buddies. Some things never change,huh?