U.S. Republicans may have to choose between two women – Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann – for their presidential candidate in 2012.
Minnesota Congresswoman Bachmann, the GOP House of Representatives leader of the Tea Party movement, repeated her charges Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama is running a “gangster government.” She did not withdraw her comments that his polices are "anti-American."
Rep. Bachmann previously has expressed deep respect for the Torah and said last year, “I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . that as a nation, we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play.”
She volunteered on a kibbutz after high school. She is not Jewish and has stated, “I am a Christian, but I consider my heritage Jewish, because it is the foundation, the roots of my faith as a Christian.”
The Congresswoman has paid more official visits to Israel than to any other country, but the focus of her speeches has been the American economy and "ObamaCare." Speaking on Meet the Press Sunday, Rep. Bachmann declined to state when she will decide one way or the other if she will run for the Republican presidential nomination.
She emphasized her charges that President Obama’s Health Care reform law “hid” from Congress expenditures of $105 billion over the next eight years. Interviewer David Gregory did not ask her about foreign policy issues, except for the Libyan rebels' war against dictator Muammar Qaddafi. She said that the United States must be very careful before entering another foreign confrontation.
Directing her attention towards President Obama, she said, "I don't take back my statement [that Obama is running a] gangster government… I think that there have been actions that have been taken by this government that I think are corrupt, thoroughly corrupt.”
Asked by Gregory if she regrets once having called the president “anti-American,” she answered, "I said I had very serious concerns about the president's views. And I think the president's actions in the last two years speak for themselves."
Rep Bachmann, like former Alaska Governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is becoming a “love her or hate” political personality, who has been alternately called an extremist and the answer to the financial problems in the United States.
Terry Branstad, governor of Iowa, where she was born, said he would support both women for president. “If Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann participate, this could break all records and could get to be really, really wide open and very interesting,” he said last week.