Bachmann Talks Up Tea Party Roots in Lowcountry Event

CHARLESTON — Fresh off her official entry into the 2012 Presidential race, Michele Bachmann reminded Lowcountry voters of her Tea Party roots while speaking Wednesday on Daniel Island to a crowd of about 300.

Pimlico residents Rod and Meg Merritt arrived nearly two hours before the candidate Wednesday morning. "There aren't a lot of exciting candidates," said Meg Merritt. "She is an exciting candidate."

With a throng of tea party supporters cheering her on, Bachmann ticked off stances on almost every prominent national issue while promising to make Barack Obama a one-term president.

“The liberals … want you to believe the Tea Party movement is this right-wing, fringe, toothless, coming-down-from-the-mountain … odd group out there,” Bachmann said. “They fear the Tea Party … and they should, because it’s an idea as old as the Boston Tea Party.”

Bachmann is charging hard in South Carolina. She just announced her official entry into the Presidential race on Monday and on Tuesday the Minnesota congresswoman started her Palmetto State tour in Myrtle Beach.  She also plans stops today in Lexington and Greenville and finishes Wednesday in Rock Hill.

With its first-in-the-South primary, South Carolina is where Sen. John McCain in 2000 and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008 saw their presidential hopes die.

“We are bringing together a coalition of national security conservatives, and I am one of those,” Bachmann said to applause. “We’re bringing together a movement of fiscal conservatives, and I am one of those. We’re bringing together a movement of social conservatives, and I am one of those. We’re bringing together the Tea Party movement, and I am one of those.”

In a Republican field with more than a dozen declared candidates, Bachmann said unity was important.

“We have an unbeatable coalition if we stick together,” Bachmann said. “We can win, we will win. So are you ready to pull out the change address form for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?”

She even praised former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, when asked by an audience member if there is friction between the two women.

“I have a very good relationship with Gov. Palin right now. This seems to be the (the media’s) sideline right now,” Bachmann said. “They want to see two girls come together and have a mud wrestling fight. I’m not going to give it to them, because I have great respect for the governor.”

Beneath shaded oaks with ritzy, columned homes in the background, the response to Bachmann’s speech was welcoming, but not rousing. It garnered pockets of applause and requests for autographs, but no standing ovations or huge applause-generators as the audience absorbed their first introduction to this Minnesota congresswoman.

Some audience members said they like Bachmann, but they haven’t made up their minds yet.

Goose Creek 9/12 organizer Barbara Bates said she wants a candidate who is skeptical of the Federal Reserve and honest about entitlement reforms. "I never thought that, at 65, politics would take over my life, but it has taken over my life," Bates said.

Bachmann might have hit all the high points – Libya, Israel, energy policy, healthcare, taxes, gay marriage, abortion – but she went light on specifics, aside from saying she didn’t agree with Obama’s handling of those matters.

That’s understandable since she just got into the race officially, but voters would like to hear more about how she’ll govern, said Marie Porter of Charleston.

“I think she could have talked more about how she’ll handle Social Security and Medicare,” Porter said. “The candidate that presents a real plan there will win my vote. She kind of skirted the issue.”

Bachmann, when asked by an audience member how she’ll handle entitlements, said only that she would work to repeal Obama’s healthcare plan.

Still, Bachmann’s plain-talk style and conservative views were appealing to Jeff Reuer of Summerville, who said campaign organizers originally asked to host Bachmann’s talk in his backyard, but it wasn’t large enough.

Wensday’s event was held in Smythe Park in the upscale Daniel Island community. She made use of bright lights and pulled right up the venue in her campaign bus, but she didn’t appear to use notes and there was no teleprompter.

“I just wanted you to know, in the Bachmann presidency, there won’t be any teleprompters in the White House,” Bachmann said. “I believe the people of South Carolina, just like the people all across the country, can take the unvarnished truth.”

Still, Ruer is waiting to decide on who will get his vote.

“We’ve got an outstanding field of Republican candidates, so right now I’m eliminating the ones I don’t like,” Reuer said. “She’s a great conservative Republican … but I won’t decide until the first of the year.”