Bachmann is to join the presidential race today… which I find really confusing because I thought she had already announced that at the last presidential debate… which I found really confusing at the time as I thought, “If you weren’t running for president until this moment, what are you doing at the debate?” Which made me wonder how many of the other candidates at the debate weren’t actually running for president yet.
Why is who is officially running for president such an inscrutable thing where only the most inside baseball pundits seem to be able to understand. Me — like all the other rubes — assumed that if you’re at a presidential debate, you’re running for president, but no, it’s much more complicated than that… for no purposeful reason.
There is no reason to have all this pointless ceremony around running for president. It should be a simple binary thing: You’re either running for president or you’re not. There is no need for an “exploratory committee”, just say you’re running for president and if you later think it’s a bad idea then you announce you’re no longer running for president. And there should be no pre-announcements and official announcements; whenever someone makes it clear he is running for president, that’s his announcement. If he tries to have an official announcement later, the media should get together and ignore that, because no, you already announced; you don’t get to announce twice.
Really, this should be a simple thing; let’s stop pretending it isn’t.
It is really weird to me that we bother with this nonsense.
Of course everyone at the debate is running for president. Of course having ceremonies for ‘announcing’ are asinine. If they want to talk about the issues, great, but I don’t really need to hear them insult my intelligence and inform me they are running. Show up to the debates and sound smart on the issues.
In a hundred years, they will look back on how damn ridiculous and ceremonial we are today. We insult our own intelligence all the time, which tends to show we’re not actually that intelligent, I guess.
Well, keep in mind that all the people that run are politicians. We can’t just all the sudden expect them to be straight shooters.
So, are you running, Frank? A simple Yes or No answer will suffice.
If you are participating in a Presidential
feel-goody meet-updebate, and are not unequivocally running for President, then you are voting “present”, along with your hero in the White House.What – Obama’s not your hero? Then announce your freakin’ decision. I want a leader, not a little kitten with balls of yarn.
I’m announcing an exploratory committee to determine if I will leave a comment on this post.
Make things convoluted, muddy the waters, blind the obvious, make simple things seem dumb, cause more chaos, stop rational thought, always cause more chaos. This is how collectivism always works.
Interestingly, it’s also what Screwtape advised Wormwood to act upon in that Lewis book.
It’s like my wife saying she’s “sorta” pregnant.
Related to Michele Bachmann, she recently made a major flub. She said she had the same spirit as Waterloo, Iowa’s John Wayne. Only problem is that it’s John Wayne Gacy who is from the town.
Imagine the shame of associating yourself with a lifelong Democrat!
Basil, are you a flake?
I’m announcing my candidacy as soon as I’m unable to find my birth certificate!
Basil, I’d like to apologize for that. I messed up. I’m sorry. Some people took that as an insult. I was just trying to bring up an issue that’s out there. I learn something new every day. However, today wasn’t one of them.
I can tell you’re not buying my apology.
Chris Wallace, you ignorant slut!
I will announce my run for president, if and depending upon, various and certain conditions as they may arise, and with consultation with my advisors, family, party, and ouija board, and depending upon what the meaning of “is” is.
As long as Bachmann is in, I’m fine with whatever announcements she wants to make.
If you do not formally announce that you are running for president and you are a conservative, when will the leftist propaganda machine know when to attack your kids, wife/husband, and other family? When will whorethehay soros know when to spend mega-millions trying to make you look foolish?
It always amazes me how blatant the duplicity of the newspapers and television with the marxist party is flaunted, yet no one seems to try to counter it. Surely it is a violation os some regulation for a newspaper to give millions in free publicity to the marxists without disclosing the gift to the FEC? Apparently corporations are only evil if they donate to conservatives instead of the marxists.
I am curios how many of the 57 states the conservatives will visit in their quest for the presidency, I bet only 50.
You have to annonce that you are running in Iowa, because the people there are too busy clinging to their guns and bibles to pay attention.
I’m like Marko now. My comment needs moderating, Frank.
Does this mean Flutie Flakes is a swear phrase now?
Ah, Flutie Flakes!
Drat, it’s not a swear phrase now? That was the closest I ever came to inventing one myself.
Well, I don’t like running. It makes me tired and cranky. The only time I run is if someone chasing me is way bigger than me. So I am definitely not running.
I called Chris Wallace an ignorant slüt (without the ümlaut), Marko. Don’t try it. (And I was trying to apologize to Basil… Chris Wallace style! Geesh.)
It ain’t a swear word if it’s true!
Prior to formally announcing the Exploratory Committees can raise money with less scrutiny and generally don’t have to report donors – so this can give a leg up in total campaign fund raising. But the Exploratory Committee is limited on how it can spend the money – for example no yard signs or TV ads.
So why now? There’s an Iowa straw poll coming up on August 13. Bachmann may have decided it was time to put down some local promotion – something she couldn’t do without announcing.
So don’t blamne the candidates – the FEC sets the rules – candidates have to play them to their own best advantage.
Frank, while you are demoderating comments, please do me
Oh wait!
Don’t worry if you don’t have a birth certificate. You don’t got to show no stinking birth certificate. We’ll get one to you later if you need it.
Ya’all gots to think of them there candidates as being like refried beans, cook um once, good, cook em twice better. Now we git the hot air….
Announce / unofficial announce…isnt as much a matter of ceremony as it is “advertising”.
Would have been really cool if she had reached under the podium and brought out a handful of files saying “And I brought along my BC, school records, and resume”.
Lookout! DamnCat has put on his smarty trousers.
I just want to make one thing perfectly clear, even though I have a valid birth certificate I absolutely am not a candidate for the office of President of the United states. Furthermore, if nominated I will not run…and if elected I will not serve…so there! So it looks like you won’t have zzyzx to kick around anymore…although feel free to kick Biden around as much as you want.. In conclusion I would just like to say what his country really needs in all 57 states is a good 5 cent cigar….zzyzx PS: Fifty four forty or fight.
If the above post seems a bit incoherent it’s because it’s my birthday and I’m on my fourth snifter of Glenlivet…but I still ain’t runnin’.
Run or run not, Hmm? There is no committee exploration.
-Yoda, Political Consultant
Happy birthday zzyzx!
DamnCat is right, it’s all about campaign finance laws. Thanks again McCain. Or Feingold. Whatever. If we just said “anyone can give whatever he wants to anyone he wants, as long as it’s disclosed before the candidate cashes the check” we could go back to our regular programming with the knowledge that the 1st Amendment is alive and well.
When you look like Michelle Bachmann, you can come on my TV and announce you are running for POTUS every night! I’d like to see her in a debate with some democratic hags! BWAAAAAA! Oh yea…she does that every day in the House of Representatives!
How many pictures do you suppose Anthony Wiener sent her?
I announcing that I’m officially supporting Michelle Bachmann for POTUS! Unless the polls say otherwise and then I will jump off her bandwagon and on to someone elses before you can say “traitor”!!!
Tonight I heard Michelle Bachmann say that she’s not going to get into a mud-wrestling match with Sarah Palin. Is a jello-wrestling match out of the question?