Michelle Bachmann swept in to the downtown Des Moines Marriott just after lunch today, delivering a high-octane speech criticizing President Obama and big government ?arrogance? in Washington.
?I want a waiver for the last two years of president Obama,? she said, referencing the practice of giving waivers to business exempting them from the president?s health care law. ?Are you with me??
Iowans packed the hotel ballroom to hear the Minnesota Republican congresswoman, and cheered her populist message heartily. Her emergence this week as a significant factor in the GOP primary lent a buzz to the moment.
In contrast to Haley Barbour?s homespun demeanor and Newt Gingrich?s professorial presentation, Bachmann spoke in all caps for much of her remarks and barely stopped to take a breath.
She ran through Obama's policies, calling them wrong-minded and ineffective. She criticized his stimulus bill, his health care bill, his tax policy, and his energy policy. She pegged her talking points to specific numbers, showing slides with a big white number on a all black background on screens on both sides of her.
She showed a slide that said, ?3.8 million." That was ?approximately the number of words in the tax code.?
?Happy reading!? she chirped with a smile.
She also touted her introduction of a law to revoke the government's regulation of light bulbs, boasting: ?I introduced the light bulb freedom of choice act!? The crowd roared at that one.
Bachmann did not mention that the light bulb law was signed into law by former President Bush.
Bachmann spent little time on the issue of moral values, but showed a deft touch in her handling of the issue.
After railing for most of her remarks against big government meddling in people?s lives and hurting economic growth, Bachmann said that ?it is families that are the solution and the ultimate building block for America.?
?Because no stimulus, no entitlement reform, no health care initiative, no education revamp can match the power of an intact two-parent family in driving economic growth, health and well being in the United States,? she said.
Bachmann noted that her parents divorced and said she understands ?the difficulties that single parent families have. This is not to denigrate them in any way.?
She did not get into many specifics detailing how she would counter Obama?s policies, sticking to general principles. Bachmann was at her most populist near the end of her speech.
?The preservation of our nation is too important to entrust it to mere politicians,? she said. ?The founders recognized that it could only be entrusted to the brain trust, and that?s the people of this nation.?
But Bachmann?s position on the role of religion in politics was somewhat contradictory. She sent positive and negative signals about whether religion is required for the nation to be moral.
The Founders, she said, ?understood it was our values that were the underpinning of this nation. John Adams wrote, it is only for a moral and religious nation, this constitution that we write, it is wholly unsuited for any other.?
But then Bachmann said that Adams? quote was ?not saying what kind of religion a person has to have, or if they have to be religious at all. What it is saying is that we cannot build a nation unless it is built upon a rock solid foundation. And America has that. It is the character and the values of our people.?
That statement would appear to be at odds with the belief expressed by many, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, that faith in God of some sort is needed for a nation to retain its ?character and values.?
Bachmann left after her speech without answering questions from reporters.
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