Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann won Saturday’s Iowa straw poll, narrowly beating out Texas Rep. Ron Paul. Rep. Bachmann appeared on a number of Sunday morning talk shows in a victory lap of sorts. It might not be her last, but there won’t be many more. On the day that she was winning the straw poll, a very limited affair (she won with less than 5,000 votes), Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy in South Carolina. In Perry, conservatives now have someone who not only hates federal government (one might wonder why these two want a job in it) but has extensive executive experience, a military background, a record of conservative Christian bona fides and cowboy swagger the likes of which we haven’t seen since… well, you know.
But perhaps (or hopefully) the more important reason Bachmann will not, cannot, become President of the United States is that her political message is one of pure populism. Many candidates have reached into the well of populism to boost their chances of election, but in this day and age, a Presidential candidate needs more than to claim that he or she represents “the will of the people.” In her interview on “Face the Nation” Sunday, Rep. Bachmann stated that Congress raised the debt ceiling “against the better judgment of the American people.”
What the hell? I’m not going to let a Congressman perform surgery on me (unless that particular Congressman happens to be a practicing surgeon) so why would we let, say, a school teacher or actor or architect direct monetary policy for the largest economy in the world? Going from stump speech to stump speech spouting off about the “will of the people” may get some votes, but ultimately it must fail as a grand campaign strategy. To clarify, it’s not that “the will of the people” is a bad thing, but leaders can’t slap that label on the most popular sounding idea of the day (no taxes! free ice cream!) and claim to represent “the American People.” That school teacher or actor or architect may very well be intelligent enough to understand such things, but allowing the masses to direct intricate policy matters by popular edict is recipe for disaster. Rep. Bachmann’s star has been eclipsed by a larger one (insert Lone Star joke here) and her campaign for President lacks the depth to seriously counter both Gov. Perry and former Gov. Mitt Romney, still the establishment Republican front-runner.