Rep. Michele Bachmann opened CPAC this morning with a quippy speech about needing unity in the conservative movement so they can kick Obama out of office in 2012.
She started out with a zinger about being told she needs “to find the right camera,” referencing her widely mocked post-State Of The Union tea party speech, in which she didn’t make eye contact with the right TV feed.
Bachmann continued that regardless of whether someone is a fiscal conservative, concerned about moral values, or worried about national security, the conservative movement is a “three-legged stool” and, Bachmann said, “I am one of you.”
She listed the gains Republicans made in 2010 — but emphasized that the new goal is taking over the Senate and ousting Obama, who has “ushered in socialism.” It’s not enough, she said, for Republicans to win either — it has to be conservatives.
Bachmann called health care reform “the neverending liberal gift that keeps on giving to liberals,” and described the “moral tragedy” that is the Obama agenda that is “consuming the future” of generations of Americans.
Regarding the U.S. debt to China, Bachmann referenced Chinese President Hu Jintao, and said that with all that debt, it’s safe to say “Hu’s your daddy.”
“We cannot shun each other,” Bachmann said of conservatives, in order to win “the triple crown” of 2012 - the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
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