Bachmann: What is her legacy?

Alas, the “President of Crazyland” is retiring, said Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com. Facing a federal investigation of her campaign finances and a possible loss in November, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann last week announced that she would not be seeking a fifth term in office. For the past four years, the Tea Party darling has presided over the paranoid, right-wing world of Crazyland, warning that President Obama was an “anti-American” socialist who was “turning our country into a nation of slaves”; Obamacare will “literally” kill women, children, and senior citizens; and the Muslim Brotherhood has achieved “a very deep penetration” of the U.S. government. With Michele gone, “who will protect us now from Census workers using sharia law to kill us with homosexual Obamacare?” Bachmann wasn’t just wacko, said Charles M. Blow in The New York Times. She was a vicious and unapologetic liar. “A whopping 75 percent” of her 59 statements since 2009 were false, according to PolitiFact—a record unmatched by any elected official.

Bachmann was certainly a “political provocateur,” said Liz Halloran in NPR.org. But she was also a trailblazer. Bachmann used a combination of sheer audacity and an “unrepentant, cable-ready persona” to propel the Tea Party movement to national prominence, and she even briefly led the otherwise all-male field of GOP presidential candidates in 2012. Her leadership will be sorely missed, said The Washington Times in an editorial. Bachmann’s unwavering advocacy for her pro-life, limited-government principles made her a favorite target for the Left, which never failed to pounce on her gaffes while absolving Vice President Joe Biden and Obama of theirs. Though she wore the liberals’ contempt as a badge of honor, Bachmann “can’t be blamed for seeking a break from the constant assault of pettiness.”

Just don’t expect Bachmann to disappear from public life, said Steve Almond in WBUR.org. She’s the epitome of an increasingly common kind of politician: the “brandidate.” Like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, Bachmann was bored by the nuts and bolts of legislating and governing. “That stuff is for suckers.” Instead, she turned herself into an ideological brand, by channeling and amplifying the far Right’s resentment and extremism. Brandidates make lousy politicians, said John Avlon in TheDailyBeast.com, but go on to pocket millions as public speakers, authors, and TV pundits. Now Bachmann is free to pursue what she’s most qualified for: “a Fox News contract.”

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