Not My Kind of Tea Party

There are many reasons why I think Sarah Palin probably won't run for president in 2012. The obvious ones involve a combination of her love of celebrity (and the largely uncritical adoration that comes with it) and the growing groundswell of opinion that she can't be elected. A less obvious reason, for the moment at least, is the increasingly strident Michelle Bachmann.

The three-term GOP Representative is clearly a rising star in "tea party" circles, with all the worry that inspires in non-extremists, and she seems to have at least the superficial appearance of being more knowledgeable and having a little bit of gravitas (at least relative to Palin). However, when that veneer cracks, she reveals herself to be more divider than uniter. A case in point was her recent mix-up between New Hampshire and Massachusetts as the location of the Revolutionary War battles of Concord and Lexington.

Every political figure of note has made or will make a mistake like that, but it's the response to those mistakes that tends to show their real character. Not one to do things by half-measures, Bachmann showed plenty of her character here. Posting on her Facebook page she wrote, "It was my mistake, Massachusetts is where they happened. New Hampshire is where they are still proud of it!"

Putting aside the fact that comments like that would be disgraceful for any politician, they're especially inappropriate for someone with apparent presidential ambitions. Comments like that may win you votes in a Republican primary (such as New Hampshire's), but they ignore the fact that people don't become the President only of the states that voted for them. If that was the case, California probably would have seceded By now.

Beyond that, though, what bothers me about this is not Bachmann's pandering to the GOP base. It's that she seems OK with the idea that the basic facts of US history are there simply to be used for partisan attacks, especially not on an entire state. She can take issue all she wants with "the Obama doctrine" or whatever other divisive things she wants, but some things have to be above this kind of pettiness on both sides. If not, then what kind of foundation do we have?