Is Michele Bachmann a flake or is Chris Wallace just calling attention to himself?

Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Sharon Angle, Christine O’Donnell, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham

We all know of the liberal media bias against conservative women as seen in the vicious attacks and slanted reporting. I googled “media attacks on conservative women” and got hit upon hit of comments many of which would cause me to blush – if that were possible. I then googled “media attacks on liberal women” and got mostly referrals to attacks on conservative women by liberals (with” liberal” and “women” being in the same search) or attacks by talk show hosts on Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters. Now I am as put off by Rush Limbaugh’s comments on Hillary Clinton’s ankles and Michele Obama’s weight as I am by liberals referring to Sarah Palin as a cheerleader and Michele Bachmann as a prom queen. However, the liberal media’s domination of the major newspapers and major networks means that more of their comments are widely disseminated than those of talk radio. I know that many would have said “talk radio and Fox News”. But Fox News has had its moments as well. There was Chris Wallace astoundingly asking Michele Bachmann if she was a flake. (By the way, Wallace also had a “gotcha” moment when he asked Herman Cain about “the right of return”. Cain did not have a clue as to what Wallace was talking about. If Wallace had phrased the question differently by asking Cain his position on whether Palestinians should be allowed by Israel to reclaim the land of those displaced by the 1948 Palestinian War, there would have been no hesitation on his part). However, Wallace would not have asked the “flake” question to Nancy Pelosi or Maxine Waters or Sheila Jackson Lee – all certified flakes. Britt Hume even commented that Bachmann’s gaffes may hurt her campaign. What gaffes? The media has pounced on four. The first is her saying that John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. The second was the comment that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery. The third is in a speech in New Hampshire, she said that she was in the state “where the shot was heard around the world at Lexington and Concord.” Lastly some have ridiculed her for saying that the Great Depression was caused by the “Smoot-Smalley tariff”. John Wayne was from Winterset, Iowa which is 150 miles from Waterloo. Some of the Founding Fathers did own slaves but others such as Alexander Hamilton and Ben Franklin were adamantly opposed to it. Significantly, the Northwest Ordinance in the Articles of Confederation of 1787 banned slavery in the new western territories. Would such a stunning ban in 1787 have existed were not there significant opposition to slavery among the founders? Bachmann’s speech in New Hampshire was a gaffe since Lexington and Concord are in Massachusetts. But is this any less of a gaffe than candidate Obama when he said "It is wonderful to be back in Oregon," Obama said. "Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states. I think one left to go”? Maybe Britt Hume would explain to us how this hurt his candidacy. Finally, I am impressed that any person today would even have heard of the Smoot-Hawley tariff much less recognize its critical role in the Great Depression. That she mispronounced it is trivial. Remember when Obama pronounced the “s” in corpsman? Where was the ridicule from the media there? A good deal of the attacks against conservative women come from the liberal equivalents of the talk show right (Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Rachael Maddow, Ed Schultz) who basically speak to themselves because their audience is so small. Indeed, most of us would not have even heard of them if conservative talk show hosts didn’t waste our time relating to us their comments. I have often said that Chris Matthews must talk about Rush Limbaugh so much because he knows that Limbaugh can’t resist talking about himself and in so doing calls attention to Matthew’s show. Finally, Chris Wallace asking Bachmann if she was a flake reflects on Wallace’s ignorance. Here is Bachmann’s response "I think that would be insulting to say something like that because I'm a serious person. I'm 55 years old. I've been married 33 years, I'm not only a lawyer, I have a post-doctorate degree in federal tax law from William and Mary. I've worked in serious scholarship. My husband and I have raised five kids, we've raised 23 foster children. We've applied ourselves to education reform. We started a charter school for at-risk kids. I've also been a state senator and member of the United States Congress for five years." Flake indeed. Any liberal woman with these credentials would be canonized by the media, not scorned.