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James Novogrod / NBC News
Tamara Scott and former Iowa state Rep. Danny Carroll, increasingly visible surrogates for Michele Bachmann, speaking at an Ottumwa, Iowa, restaurant Thursday night.
By NBC's James Novogrod
BLOOMFIELD, Iowa -- Michele Bachmann’s 99-county bus tour reached the eight-day mark Friday, and the candidate was losing her voice. In a whisper she circulated tables at the Oasis Coffee House, greeting voters, autographing yard signs and posing for photos.
While the grueling schedule left Bachmann quieter than usual, a group of surrogates raised the volume this week on a message the campaign hopes will resonate among Iowa’s evangelical voters, in the run-up to the Jan. 3 caucus.
“Do you know that the qualifications for public office are found in the Bible?” asked Danny Carroll, a former state representative, during a visit to a restaurant in Albia on Thursday.
Carroll was citing a passage in Exodus in which Moses is counseled to trust those who "feared God, were capable, and hated dishonest gain."
“I believe that Michele Bachmann fits all of those qualifications,” he added.
Carroll, who has supported Bachmann since the summer, has hosted her at his farm in Grinnell – but had rarely joined her for public events around the state. His presence, the campaign says, sends a signal to Iowan social conservatives.
“He has a tremendous amount of credibility in that state, and people look to his opinion,” says campaign spokeswoman Alice Stewart.
After a 12-year career in the Iowa statehouse, Carroll was chairman of the board of the Iowa Family Policy Center, a group that was later spun into the Family Leader, one of Iowa’s most high-profile evangelical groups.
Carroll's message seems designed in part to punch back at the Family Leader's current CEO, Bob Vander Plaats, who earlier this week endorsed one of Bachmann's chief rivals for the evangelical vote: Rick Santorum.
The endorsement directed unwelcome attention on the Bachmann campaign, after Politico reported that Vander Plaats had tried to influence the race more directly, by calling Bachmann to urge her to drop out.
Bachmann acknowledges the call happened, but disputes the account of the discussion. (A source close to the telephone call tells NBC News that Vander Plaats called to ask that she merge her ticket with Santorum, or with Rick Perry. Bachmann, according to the source, declined.)
Since the endorsement, the Bachmann camp’s pushback has been polite but sharp.
A second surrogate, Tamara Scott – the Iowa director of a conservative women's group, Concerned Women for America – called out the Family Leader and Santorum by name Thursday, during a stop in Ottumwa.
"The Iowa Family Leader had a series of meetings, and the papers said it was to make sure [Mitt] Romney was not the nominee," Scott said.
"Bob Vander Plaats turned around and endorsed Santorum, who had endorsed Romney in the last election. I just don’t understand those kinds of politics," Scott said.
In an interview with NBC, Scott stressed that she is not speaking on behalf of Concerned Women for America, and added that Bachmann was the only candidate she felt comfortable endorsing.
“Her integrity is intact,” Scott said.
The effect of the campaign’s effort is unclear so far, but the bus tour itself has seemed to win points in rural counties. Voters in small restaurants and bakeries often said they appreciated Bachmann’s attention.
“She stands for Iowa,” said caucus-goer Kay Rouch, in Keosauqua, on Wednesday. “This is where her roots are, her beginnings, and I think that she basically has a real concern for the people in the Midwest.”
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Ministers have tried to tell their flocks how to vote in the past.
If my minister tried to tell me how to vote based on his belief that a candidate would somehow pass laws that made people conform to a certain religious sect doctrine, I'd depart quicklly and make sure to vote the other way.
The only time that you ever hear of Iowa is every three years when all the clowns come to town and put on their side show, they really don't care what the people think because after all its only Iowa. As for Mrs. Bachman I think she has a better chance of getting into the NBA than to become President, she is one scarry misinformed person, Last week she said that we should attack Iran over this unmanned Drone plane that was shot down in Iran, Come on Mrs Bachman it was just a robot, every body knows you don't go to war over a robot unless it's R2D2.
If Bachman is indeed a true Iowan at heart and "Iowa's sweetheart" as she seemingly claims to be, then why the hell is she (supposedly) representing Minnesota? Did someone like Palin get her lost on the campaign trail something? Go home Michelle...count your government subsidies!
...!
Oh goodie, crazy asking for more crazy.
She's just like Sarah Palin - her 15 mins of fame is over - but she doesn't know it yet. Didn't America's forefathers (and foremothers) leave Europe to get away from the religious persecusion that Michelle & her ilk want to bring to America now?
evangelicals don't like gay husbands.
As time goes by, the Republican Party is revealing itself to be radical party of religious zealots. These people are no different from the Taliban other than the way they choose to believe in a God. They're every bit as evil, every bit as nasty, and every bit as undeserving of a platform. In 10 months or so, we need to choose the person to lead this country for another 4 years. It won't be a Republican. The American people, by and large, are not the hateful bigots that these people are. I can't imagine that there will even be a Republican Party after the next election. These nasty people are already fighting within their ranks. Pretty soon, as they fall from whatever stature they still have, their in-fighting will increase until they destroy whatever is left of the GOP. I think we are merely witnessing the end of a once great political party - destroyed by greed, ignorance, paranoia, and bigotry.
This campaign has proven that once you get away from the far right jesus freaks, Bachmann has little or no support. These people take themselves too seriously.
The point of the public education system is to better prepare our future generations to compete effectively in the global workforce. Full stop. That's it.
Bachmann and other creationist / "Intelligent design" advocates don't see it that way. They believe that if they force their psuedomystical BS in classrooms, that it'll make it easier to proslytize to them later on. "Intelligent Design" is an *intentional construct* created by evangelicals and the "Discovery institute", made for one purpose: It is a ham-fisted attempt to circumvent the supreme court ruling that creationism cannot be taught in the public school system. The discovery institute's own internal documentation (The infamous wedge document) shows that this is their intent.
Yet Bachmann and Palin and Ron Paul and their ilk just don't care. They have no issues with making an already lackluster education system even worse than it already is if they think it'll fill a few more church pews down the road. To hell with the future! There's pandering to do!
Her opponent's new 'reason for the season'? Oops!
"The Texas Governor Who Tolled Christmas" et al.
www.voicesnet.org/displayonepoem.aspx?poemid=143128
I do NOT fear my God. I tend to look on those who promote this as a requirement as people who are more interested in their influence on others than their relationship with their creator.
The wheels on the (short) bus go round and round...
lol
In a debate with Obama she will stare at the camera blankly and utter something that has
nothing to do with the subject question. I can not believe she is a candidate at all.
Let the fleecing of the flock begin.
Oh oh!
Breaking out the pandering, a desperate move.
See ya, Michelle! It's been a blast!
" ... “Do you know that the qualifications for public office are found in the Bible?” ... "
The Tooth Faerie, The Easter Bunny and Santa Clause can be found there as well. All you have to do is look and you can find justification for anything. If you have a mind that really needs to believe. As we have seen from the Right in this country before.
Everything from justification the for racism, to the war on Islam, to the shooting Doctors because they are, according to the Bible, baby killers. Can you imagine that? You are justified in killing because they are in your mind killers?
Got to love the Christian Right in America.
Well not really.
Wonder if Perry or Bachmann will be the first to claim they experienced stigmata, and have the wounds to prove it? Or, perhaps they will handle rattlesnakes and have visions after being bitten.
People who live in the comments section are sad.
Well, welcome to our sad world. LOL.
The last thing this country needs is a religious wacko social conservative as President.
The pretender we have now is bad enough
This woman appeals to the same crowd as the insane, unlamented Winking Wasillabilly from Alaska does. Bachmann-the Hypnotized is just worst than pathetic!
Her supporters should question themselves...!
BTW: Obama/Biden win in 2012! No doubt!!
I thought, after reading a few initial posts that this site was finally coming around to rational discussion, then the insults to Bachman, GOP, Tea Party and Conservatives began flying once again. Not a rational brain among 95% of these 'Progressive', sanctimonious elites. Worthless commentary, BS interpretations of Conservative values, plenty of lefty rhetoric, and none of it worth a pile of dung.
So either Vander Plaats or Bachmann is lying - and yet both claim to be God Fearing Evangelical's - mmmm....
Im sure God loves Bachman. The rest of us think she is an a$$hole!!!
I find it interesting that MSNBC would post this story on Christmas eve. You can tell by the vast majority of liberal responses, and lack of conservative responses, that conservatives, who would normally be responding, are probably participating in family events, thus the timing is ensuring that the vast majority of early responses, which are those usually the most often read, will be decidedly opposed to Bachmann. I'm sure that's just coincidental. Isn't it??
Oh well, time to go get ready for the midnight service at church. Merry Christmas all.
Everything is a "liberal media conspiracy" with you so-called conservatives. Have fun worshiping your false God.
Well, aren't we the sanctimonious one? Gee, I went to my church's Christmas Eve service. Guess I'm holier than the rest of the posters on this site, just like you.
Actually, truth be told, I went because I sing in the choir, which I do because I like singing in choirs, not because I believe any of the religious claptrap that I have to listen to.
Stop: And I suppose you believe that there is no consideration of placement or time given to any political story. They're all just thrown out there at whatever time they happen to be ready and there is never any calculation as to when or where they show up.
If you really believe that, then you are naive beyond belief. When it comes to political stories in a campaign season, there are no accidents.
Ben: I happen to mention that I'm attending a midnight Christmas eve church service, and you somehow twist that into a personal proclamation of superiority?
There was nothing in my comment to even imply such a position. I mean, my gosh, how out of line of me to mention that I'm attending church on Christmas eve!! How dare I!!
But, since that was the best you could come up with in my comment, you just took that, ran with it, and twisted it into something that is an absolute lie. It is, however, a typical tactic of the thin-skinned, hypersensitive crowd who's mission in life seems to be finding something by which to be offended, no matter how much they have to lie to get there.
In this case, you succeeded admirably in that effort.
Well, that simply "followed" because most of your posts ARE a personal proclamation of superiority. And, probably because of your cult beliefs, it's often difficult for you to NOT behave in such a self-important, self-righteous manner.
So, you can learn from what people observe about you and report back to you, or act like so many other cultists, get defensive and shriek at them for being honest with you. Your choice.
Well, DMorgan, care to post a few of those personal proclamations of my superiority? All you have to do is click on my nic and go back as far as you wish.
I'd love to read some of them, and then I'll point out the context of the stories or comments on which they are based. My guess is that, just as in your first post about my attending a Christmas eve service, you read into a comment something you want to see, but isn't actually there. Again, trying your best to find something by which you can be offended, even if you have to lie about it.
You seem to have seen and remembered quite a few of my posts. I'm not sure whether to be flattered or creeped out about it, but again, please post those "self proclamations" of personal superiority you claim to have found.
We need Evangelicals in our government, look how well it turned out with the Taliban.
Let's take a look at welfare queen Michelle (never tells the truth) Bachmann to see what she is really like.
To answer the questions that most repukes and cracked teapots ask about what are the Bachmann's doing wrong by using public funds to allegedly treat mentally deficient people, like themselves, at their mental health clinic in MN. They are essentially pocketing the money by reading them some passages from the bible. These are two really crazy people.
Here is the answer. They don't help anyone. They just try to brainwash them with fairytale stories of biblical fantasies. Here is a story about the Bachmann's from a Minnesota newspaper:
"Bachmann and Associates, Inc., a counseling center that receives state funds and is owned by Rep. Michele Bachmann and her husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann, uses counseling methods steeped in fundamentalist Christianity, raising questions about its use of taxpayer money.
Founded in 2003, Bachmann's clinic has taken in nearly $30,000 in state funds and $170,000 in federal money since 2007. Dr. Bachmann has said publicly that God heals people at his clinic and that Jesus Christ is the "Almighty Counselor."
"We are distinctly a Christian counseling agency here in the Twin Cities," he told KKMS radio in 2008. "We have 27 Christian counselors, Christ-centered, very strong in our understanding of who the Almighty Counselor is, and as we rely on God's word and the Almighty Counselor, we have the opportunity to change people's lives."
He continued, "God heals people and if we give opportunity, if we are a willing vessel and we go according to what God's word is, it works."
When people get out her clinic, they are probably worse off than they went in. They probably become the Christian nutcases that think that they see images of Jesus in the shape of vines on telephone poles or images of Jesus in the grain of their bedroom door or images of Mary in the bottom of frying pans or in puddles of water or statues of Mary crying blood.
Once the people come out of her clinic, they really need to go for psychiatric treatment.
This expose does include the $250,000 in farm subsdies that the welfare queen and her husban take from the federal government for their family farm.
Gary Johnson, the former governor of NM is the best and most honest person running for president the repukes have, but he can never win, because he is not crazy enough.