before, but apparently she’s the gift that keeps on giving. Lord knows how long she’ll be with us, so let me begin by saying this.
There’s no way in hell that Michelle Bachmann will ever win the presidency. Several people have already asked me if I think it could happen, and I am resolute in my response.
No. Absolutely not.
And yesterday offered another example why.
Bachmann joined western Iowa Congressman Steve King in a flyover of farms and homes devastated by recent Missouri River floods. During the press conference that followed, Bachmann engaged in the usual rhetoric of aspiring politicans. For example, she criticized President Obama for not visiting the region. Fair enough.
But then Bachmann descended into the depths of race baiting.
It concerned the 1999 federal court case of Pigford v. Glickman and its legislative aftermath. The short version is this. In 1997, a black farmer named Timothy Pigford sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture, accusing the USDA of racial discrimination. He and 400 other African American plaintiffs claimed that the USDA restricted their access to various government agricultural assistance programs because they were blac
k. Enough additional plaintiffs stepped forward that it eventually became a class action suit.
Pigford and his fellow plaintiffs won their case in federal district court. The judge issued a Consent Decree making each claimant eligible to receive $50,000 plus some tax breaks and loan forgiveness. But a large number of claimants did not file in time. Contending that they had received late notice on procedures, they asked for an extension. Nearly a decade later in 2008, Congress finally passed a bill allowing eligible late claimants who had missed the first deadline to file and be considered. The bill also allocated $2.1 Billion to cover claims and costs.
At that point, the Pigford case became a cause célèbre among right wing conspiratorialists, attracting the attention of racists and paranoids. No matter that the Office of the Monitor established for the settlement had already published the Consent Decree and other relevant materials at its own website; propaganda, which misinterprets census data and blames then-Senator Barack Obama and USDA staffer Shirley Sherrod for orchestrating massive financial fraud on behalf of black farmers, became so widespread over the internet that urban myth-busting website Snopes.com felt compelled to devote a page to debunking the bullshit.
In fact, if we rattle our memories a little bit, it was race-baiting propaganda about the Pigford case that led blogger and agent provocateur Andrew Breitbart to the post infamous, misleadingly edited video of Shirley Sherrod last year. You know, the one where Sherrod spoke at an NAACP banquet and told the poignant story of how, despite the 1965 murder of her black, farmer father by a white man who was never tried for the crime, she overcame all of that hurt and pain and resentment and eventually vowed to help white farmers as much as black farmers after she joined the USDA.
Except Brietbart’s 
video edited the speech to make it appear as if she were saying that she wouldn’t help white farmers as much as black farmers. Real classy. And then everyone, including the national branch of the NAACP, condemned her without checking things out, because you know, Andrew Brietbart’s such a reliable source. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack even forced her to resign from the USDA. And when the true story was revealed, everyone had egg on their faces and apologized. Well, most everyone. Breitbart didn’t.
Yeah, that Shirley Sherrod. That Pigford case.
So here’s Bachmann yesterday, doing a little old-style race baiting, pitting white farmers against black farmers:
“When money is diverted to inefficient projects, like the Pigford project, where there seems to be proof-positive of fraud, we can’t afford $2 billion in potentially fraudulent claims when that money can be used to benefit the people along the Mississippi River and the Missouri River.”
And this is a perfect example of why Bachmann will never be president. That particular brand of race baiting simply doesn’t cut it with the clear majority of Americans anymore, even in these trying economic times. And I don’t think you have to be overly optimistic to say that; you just have to have your finger somewhere near the pulse of 21st century America.
Coded language about “reparations” and trying to paint black farmers as welfare queens? Seriously? If they made a horror movie about Bachmann, it might be called It Came From The `80s. Talk about a dated version of nasty politics. This is Willie Horton level stuff in content and form, and most people just don’t fall for it anymore. Bachmann comes across as a Baby Boom politician who’s still blowing the dented war horns leftover from a Cold War era that even today’s 30 year olds barely have any memory of.
Oh, and there’s one more reason why yesterday’s press conference illustrates why Bachmann won’t ever be president. If you read between the lines of the press 
coverage, it’s clear that it was actually Rep. Steve King leading the way on this stuff, and Bachmann seems to have just blindly followed along. But that kind of second fiddle act also doesn’t cut it when you’re running for the White House. Why? Because people start to suspect that there really is something to that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look after all.
So I can declare with confidence that Michelle Bachmann will not be your next president.
P.S. On February 11, 2011, Shirley Sherrod filed a defamation lawsuit against Andrew Breitbart.
Shit yeah.