I have a hard time believing that anyone who signed an anti-pr0n manifesto produced by an all-caps fringe group can ever be elected president. I just don’t see that happening, no matter how bad the economy gets. But the movement to paint the girl with far away eyes as a surprisingly serious homegrown Hamiltonian has begun in earnest:
Here was Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann on CNN June 28, responding to a question about whether she is being taken seriously: “I’m introducing myself now to the American people,” she replied, “so that they can know that I have a strong academic scholarly background.” Here is her husband, Marcus, in a new National Review story, describing their early courtship in strikingly high-minded terms: “Michele was interested in intellectual, philosophical, and political conversations.” And here she was in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks back, describing her affection for the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises: “When I go on vacation and I lay on the beach, I bring von Mises.”
While it’s been hard to hear over the liberal blogosphere’s hooting and hollering at her recent gaffes, Michele Bachmann is pushing hard to establish her intellectual bona fides. If she succeeds, it will help dispel any lingering public misperception that she is a Midwestern version of Sarah Palin.
Bobo was burned by his decision to portray Bush II as a Churchillian genius, so he may go the “I can see why voters like Bachmann given the way Obama has blah blah blah” route rather than the “Bachmann has ennobled and saved American conservatism” route. Only time will tell.
eric
She loves von Mises to pieces. How clever she be.
Xecky Gilchrist
“so that they can know that I have a strong academic scholarly background.”
That’s supposed to sell with the Republican voter? Or are they counting on brand loyalty for the Repubs and thinking this will fool enough on the left to push her over the line?
kdaug
When all those intellectual elites are liberal, you still need something to call “smart”, don’t you?
Yutsano
Question for Michele Bachmann: if a woman is to submit to her husband at all times, does that mean all your decisions as President must therefore be approved by your husband?
It’ll never get asked, but it’s a legitimate thought.
Bnut
Maybe Bachmann or Palin will win in 2012 and New Zealand will finally approve my visa based on sympathy. Silver lining and all that.
MoeLarryAndJesus
Most intellectuals are creationists who went to Anal Roberts Law School and think you can turn gays straight by filling them up with Jesus pastry, right? This will totally work.
Ash Can
Meh. It’s the silly season, these reporters can write only so much on the Obama-Boehner staredown until something actually happens, and in the meantime they have editors breathing down their necks for copy. What are they going to do? They’re going to get buzzed on Laphroig and churn out whatever crack-dreams come to mind. I’m betting this shit gets worse before it gets better.
Lolis
Newsweek wrote a huge fluff piece on Palin (complete with pictures of her posing leaning back on a dock) that makes me think Palin is delusional enough to run for president. I want her and Michelle to debate. It would be awesome and pure win.
Linda Featheringill
She may be trying to distinguish herself from Palin, which is something she’s going to have to do. Political junkies like us have noted several differences but other folks, mired down in trying to stay alive, may not have made these observations.
[But the Austrian school of economics? Yuck!]
and
eric #1
:-)
Dennis SGMM
Me, I bring sunscreen. OTOH, I bet that Bachmann is so smart that she has a smartphone. Fuck me, after decades of dissing “pointy headed intellectuals” why do the shit-eaters, and the second hand shit-eaters like Brooks, seem to feel obligated to prove any intellectual bona fides?
Yutsano
Just out of curiosity, why Kiwiland? It’s a woman isn’t it? :)
Ugh. Eighteen more months of starbursty goodness. But maybe Levi will get naked again.
dmsilev
I saw that story; didn’t have the guts to read it. I did note that the subheadline was something along the lines of “Palin: why I think I can win”. Combined with that cover photograph, maybe she thinks she can starburst her way into the White House.
middlewest
So when is someone going to ask Ms. Intellectual why her clinic doesn’t give their patients informed consent forms before engaging in ex-gay therapy?
replicnt6
When you’re trying to sound intellectual, I suggest you use the correct verb: to lie. I lie on the beach. I don’t lay on the beach. Lay is a transitive verb. I lay my towel on the beach. Lay is also the past tense of lie, which it why things get confusing. I lay on the beach yesterday. To summarize:
I lay on the beach yesterday.
I lie on the beach when it’s sunny.
I will lie on the beach tomorrow.
I laid my towel on the beach yesterday.
I lay my towel on the beach when I want to lie on the beach.
I will lay my towel on the beach when I’m good and ready.
“I lied on the beach yesterday,” indicates that I uttered falsehoods while visiting the beach.
Valdivia
you got a double ‘has’ on the hyperlink. not to nitpick or annything
jl
There is a line from the movie, A Fish Called Wanda, I think, something like ‘Apes can read Nietzsche, they just don’t understand it.”
I remember the line because it was the Jamie Lee Curtis character who said it. For some reason, I only remember her lines from the movie.
But that is a mean joke, and unfair to compare Bachmann to an ape. Bachmann could be brilliant. Maybe she was a brilliant tax attorney, we might even hear testimonials about her prowess as a tax attorney. That doesn’t mean she does not have crazy ideas. Lot’s of very brilliant people have crazy ideas.
We can start with.. well, Nietzsche himself. Or his eventual alter ego, Wagner. Or, say John Nash, he was a brilliant mathematician, but crazy.
The reactionaries only have three strategies left:
misdirection (Bachmann is brilliant)
fantasy (which is a polite way of saying lies and ignorance): Bachmann’s portrayal of Paul Revere as a Exceptional American proto John Wayne, riding into the British army to tell them to bug off
Fear (of islamocommufascisoshulism, or what the reactionaries themselves might be forced to do if they don’t get their way right now): maybe we will shut down the government and throw it into the ocean where no one can find it again.
Best to fight back with issues.
Problem is that the national affairs media in the U.S. is so broken and egregious, they cannot deal with issues except as short slogans and cartoon clips.
So, probably best PR pushback is to say she is a brilliant crazy person, and they are especially dangerous.
kideni
If she wants to impress people with her academic cred, she needs to learn the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs. What does she lay on the beach?
eta: and I see replicnt6 beat me to the grammar scolding
jl
On the other hand, maybe this is a sex scandal brewing. Does she mean von Mises, the books, or…. who IS this von Mises? Sounds like some kind of obscure wealthy Eurotrash nobility to me.
Edit: I think eventually von Mises went crazy. His libertarianism started out not so glib, with allowance for little bits of modern civilization such as public education, public health programs, and stingy but liveable social insurance. Something about post WWII European developments, especially in UK and Scandinavia drove him a little crazy and extreme.
Dennis SGMM
@jl
I’m thinking that she’s referring to the notorious Baron Shwanzstucker von Mises. It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Joseph Nobles
I know that Romney is going to be the Republican nominee, but it is still a fucking insult that a plurality of Republicans consider this reality-denying bullshit artist the equal or better of Barack Obama.
FlipYrWhig
Definitely not her makes-Lindsey-Graham-look-butch husband.
Yutsano
@Joseph Nobles: If she wins two out of the four early states, then all bets are off as far as Mittens is concerned. And she has a decent chance in Iowa and South Carolina right now. If she gets New Hampshire too, watch the money boys line up behind Willard like toy soldiers.
kdaug
@jl: Herein.
Great movie, for the uninitiated.
jl
@23 kdaug: thanks. I forgot it was ‘philosophy’ not N (too lazy to type the name out). Otto read N and thought he was one of N’s hyperborean supermen, izzat right?
Walker
Speaking as someone with Kiwi in-laws, NZ is only a good country to live in if you are under 20 or over 60. There is a reason that the country is continually losing population among working age adults (many of whom go to work in Australia, as they can do this without a visa).
Bnut
@Yutsano
Nah, it’s an amazingly beautiful country the one time i got to visit on a MEU float. It has its own issues, but not ones that involve anything approaching ours. I put in an application a year ago, it normally takes 2-3 years to get one if you have the right qualifications. However, NZ girls do like Americans. Apparently NZ men are selfish lovers.
edit: the post above mine disagrees. It’s not set in stone. Just an option.
kdaug
@jl: Yup. Just don’t call him “stupid”.
gocart mozart
cbear
Pre-supposing that the Bachmann’s enjoy an average hetreosexual marital relationship (a stretch, I know) which
normally involves at least some form of sexual bargaining, I think the real question would be whether executive decisions would be made based on the quality of Michelle’s ministrations in the marital bed:
Mrs Bachmann: “Honey, I was thinking it might be kinder to send the gays to re-education camps rather than the prisons as you suggested—-is that ok?”
Mr. Bachmann: “I’ll consider it—use the finger.”
Yutsano
@cbear: Brain. Bleach. NOW.
@Bnut: I’m kind of stuck until I get a CPA credential on paper, then I’m reading for both the EU and Australian exams. Unless R-Jud decides she wants her own in-house tax agent.
handsmile
I fear our belle Michelle must submit to more reading as she “lays” on the beach if she aspires to overtake Caribou Barbie as the reigning intellectual among distaff GOP presidential hopefuls.
For instance, the earnest Congresswoman declared that the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Concord took place in Concord, New Hampshire; a claim distressing to the Tea Party descendants of Massachusetts.
The Half-Term Governor, meanwhile, was able to cite, with a little help from her admirers, an obscure historian of the American Revolution to bolster her claim about Paul Revere’s bell-ringing and musket-shooting ride.
Of course, with her authoritative knowledge of the Austrian School of economics, the subject of American history may be a little too jejune. Keep in mind as well that as Mrs. Bachmann lays on the beach reading her weighty tomes (is von Mises on Kindle yet?), she must cock one eye on her husband who keeps chatting up the male lifeguards.
hilts
Palin pretends to be thinking of running for President:
h/t http://www.newsweek.com/2011/07/10/palin-plots-her-next-move.html
jl
Sorry, I feel a geek attack coming on. Pie, or scroll or whatev, this if you are not in the mood.
Looking over the Wikipedia article, I am reminded that von Mises was actually a pretty formidable thinker. He was wrong, IMO, and got wronger as he got older. But he asked good questions, and was serious enough to work out his theories well enough so that subsequent (very serious and sober, not crazy at all) researchers felt it important to follow up on some of his ideas.
von Mises was the first one to work out a systematic theory of a capitalist economy as a decentralized information processing system. In a capitalist economy, when certain oonditions are met, the price system is the most efficient way for each consumer to get the information about his or her preferences to producers.
And some mathematical economists investigated this way of looking at the economy and found it was true. Problem was, later research showed that this was only true when the economy was in general equilibrium. And a favorite hobby horse of mine is to point out that there is no way for anyone to tell whether the economy is in general equilibrium or not. If the economy is pushed out of equilibrium (and this is admittedly a theoretical concept, since we cannot know ever if we are even close to general equilibrium), then the amount of information the price system needs to transmit between producers and consumers to get it back into equilibrium is unbounded, it goes to infinity. No real world, or even fancy math fantasy, price system can transmit an unbounded amount of information.
So, von Mises was right about capitalism, if only we could know the whole economy was always in equilibrium, and it always stayed there.
von Mises also realized there was a difference between how a capitalist economy worked for say, growing different kinds of food, or career choice, and consumer goods, and for capital goods.
I think von Mises had some correct and important insights about the importance of free markets for consumer goods. I mean, do you want a lot of government control over what kind of food is grown (No! you can’t have green tea ice cream, that is silly, you can only have vanilla or chocolate!)?
von Mises realized that decisions about capital markets (physical, financial, and human) were a little different.
A person wants what they want is OK for what to eat and wear and where to live, etc. The consumer’s choice is kind of the ultimate standard. It is hard to see how a sensible person could systematically make mistakes about what kind of food they liked to eat, or what kind of climate they liked to live in.
However, in making choices about investing capital, investment projects, planning retirement, von Mises could see how a person would want something, and the subjective preference should be respected, but if sufficient conditions were not met, systematic mistakes could be made. In other words, von Mises realized that capital was always a means to get to ends, and it was possible, if ‘certain conditions’ were not met, for mistakes to be made about the best way to arrange the means.
He was obsessed with capital and monetary theory. I think his monetary theory is hopelessly confused, even a very smart person can get hopelessly confused if they get trapped in a bad conceptual framework.
But on capital, he had some insights. He thought that mistakes in the allocation of capital had extremely severe consequences for an economy. Capital HAD to properly priced. And this meant no subsidies for anybody, even rich capitalists, of any kind, unless you could make a very strong specific argument that there was a reason for them. And von Mises thought there were very few exceptions to the general rule. Anyone who made decisions about capital investments had to have proper information and responsibility.
So, need to ask Bachmann about oil and gas subsidies, agricultural subsidies, in addition to bail outs (I am not sure what her line is on bank bailouts today).
I wonder if anyone will ask Bachmann about what von Mises actaully said, both the convenient and the inconvenient.
Rome Again
Doug, I just wanted to say thanks for the Rolling Stones reference, although I fear that I will never hear that song the same away again now.
Origuy
Not that I eat Slim Jims, but do you suppose it entered her head that buying one at a gas station is going to cost more that at a supermarket?
Mark S.
Ugh, yet another horrible article from Slate.
DrBDH
I’ve enjoyed the Stones’ lyrics, and now Richard Thompson!
“She came down the stairs in a cocktail dress,
She fell on her prey like a lioness…
You dream too much.”
Dennis SGMM
@Origuy
From all appearances, far more exits her mouth than has ever entered her head.
FlipYrWhig
What’s the white equivalent of a minstrel show? The Palins’ whiteface act is galling.
piratedan
@jl: whut? there were no God fearing, real ‘Merican scholrs available for her reading list? What would Rush say?
Nash
I’m just happy someone else listened to Richard Thompson. :)
SRW1
So, Marcus goes all Karl Rove on Michele being a brainy one and the WSJ obliges with lionizing her as a beautiful mind. At least Michele didn’t abuse Camus for that exercise. Probably a matter of style difference between Ed Rollins and Karl Rove, cause the target audience for this stuff sure ain’t the Tea Bagger rubes.
So, how many seminal papers on tax law did you author, Michele?
Daniel
Someone else delighted to see the RT quote!
We were low as dogs and high as kites…
DougJ in Damascus
This one is Richard Thompson!
The Ancient Randonneur
@DougJ in Damascus #44: That may be, but I don’t doubt for a second that enough people who would so pleased to see her as a Presidential candidate they would run 20 red lights in her honor they could get her elected.
Stuart Katz
Thanks for the RT reference!
someguy
So she’s pro-slavery. So what? Who isn’t a little pro-slavery from time to time? Let he who has never been in favor of slavery, cast the first stone…
Rome Again
DougJ, I’m talking about the description of Michele Bachmann as The Girl with Faraway Eyes. That is the Rolling Stones. :P
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Away_Eyes
Rome Again
@someguy – that would be me, but I’m really not in the mood right now. Let’s just laugh at her instead, shall we?