That a teabag makes a statement, and that the media covers a woman holding a teabag to make a statement, tells much about American politics and American media.
Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota seized the media spotlight on Thursday by merely leaking out the possibility that she might — someday, maybe months from now — form an exploratory committee to consider running for president.
She has learned to listen to media advisers who are teaching her all about spin.
The flurry of headlines was a testament to her ability to heighten interest by being dramatic, and even provocative, in her statements. Just a day earlier, for example, she warned against the “black-robed masters” in Iowa. In other words: judges. (The comment came in a speech in which she applauded voters for turning out three members of the Iowa Supreme Court who had voted to legalize same-sex marriage.)
Would that include the black-robed masters who handed the 2000 election to one George Walker Bush?
In appearances in Iowa this week, Ms. Bachman made no attempt to tamp down the speculation, repeatedly uttering two words: “I’m in!” But in a brief interview, when asked to expound on her remarks, she said: “I’m in to make sure that Barack Obama is a one-term president. I am in, in terms of 2012, to make sure that we do have a rock-solid conservative.”
What she fails to understand is that if they make sure they have a rock -solid conservative as the party candidate just about guarantees Barack Obama becomes a two-term president. One can only hope she continue to think so, to agitate so, and to help make it so.
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