The first Republican presidential debate had a clear winner: Mitt Romney. As the frontrunner, all Romney had to do was sit-tight, not say anything stupid and look like a potential president. Last night, he managed all three and, as such, won by default. Tim Pawlenty flunked his chance to attack Romneycare (attempting to give healthcare to the uninsured being Romney’s Achilles heel, naturally), Newt Gingrich sounded like an angry nutcase and Ron Paul, well, is a nutcase.
US blogs, however, went wild for one candidate: Michelle Bachmann. Salon gave her a rave review. As did Time. Ezra Klein is a long-standing admirer, if not supporter. The main dissenting voice was Andrew Sullivan, who thought Klein and co were buying into a Bachmann Bubble.
Sullivan, however, is being a little unfair. Bachmann won’t win the nomination. She has low name recognition and her views are too far to the right for most moderate voters. But that is not the point. Where Bachmann would come into her own, however, is on the ticket with a candidate like Romney, whom the Christian right of the party regard with suspicion. She brings the same Tea Party votes as Palin, without Palin’s toxic baggage.
Like Palin, Bachmann is a God-fearing, child-rearing, gun-toting, pro-life voting, homo-haranguing right-winger. Unlike Palin, however, Bachmann is able to string a sentence together and, while in the main reprehensible, her views have an ideological framework to them. Bachmann would plug many of the holes in Romney’s CV, without being as much as a liability as Palin proved to be.
Romney and Bachman 2012? It could happen.
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