Michele Bachmann stays incessantly on message on MTP

MR. GREGORY:  The issue of the tea party and backlash among voters against the tea party is an interesting area because conservatives and certainly leaders and tea party folks have said, "Look, there was a mandate from the 2010 election, and that was to cut spending." And yet, you have this from--analysis from our Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, written by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday:  "Among those most fearing spending cuts," they reported, "were younger voters, independents, seniors, and suburban women--groups that include many swing voters in national elections, who potentially could turn against the GOP.

"`It may be hard to understand why someone would try to jump off a cliff' to solve the debt crisis, [pollster] Mr. [Bill] McInturff said of his fellow Republicans, `unless you understand that they are being chased by a tiger, and that tiger is the tea party.'" Is the tea party chasing the broader GOP off the cliff?

REP. BACHMANN:  You know, I think that the political left has been very afraid of the tea party movement because it is not necessarily political. It's not Democrats or Republicans.  It's made up of a very broad-based coalition.  It's made up of people who want the country to work again.  They believe that we're taxed enough already, the government shouldn't spend more money than what its taking in, and that each of the three branches of government should act within the jurisdictional limitations of the Constitution.  That's a broad-based group of people.  They just want our country to work again.  And I think that that coalition is hanging together more strongly now than ever.

And how's is President Obama handling the ever changing situation in the Middle East, with Libya, for example?  Gregory asked, but Bachmann only came back with tired bromides that clearly show her not to be very serious about being fair minded or credible, instead of a caricature of a certain partisan oriented legislator.

MR. GREGORY:  What about the handling of--by this president of events in the Middle East?  Is it your view that it's in America's vital security interest to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power in Libya?

REP. BACHMANN:  I think that it's been troubling the way that the president has responded.  For instance, in Libya during the unrest, we had at least 600 Americans who were there.  The Chinese were in the process of removing 12,000 Chinese, while Americans were waiting for an American response to be removed from Libya.  I think--recently in Germany we saw two military soldiers who were killed by alleged terrorists this week, and I think that the president's response at minimum was lacking.  We need to send very strong signals.  I'm concerned about the signals that the president has sent.  They seem to be signals of weakness, not strong signals in the Middle East.

MR. GREGORY:  But, Congresswoman, my, my question, my question, is it in America's vital interest to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power?

REP. BACHMANN:  Well, that, that question, I think, is one that, as, as Defense Secretary Gates has said, we need to be very careful about putting an army on the ground in the Middle East.  We are extended now in Afghanistan and Iraq, and I think for us to consider further penetration at this time, we need to listen to General Petraeus and what he has to say.

The fact is that rough waters delayed a ship carrying U.S. citizens from leaving Libya last week, but they ultimately did so.