Bachmann Tells Press that “My Family is Not Running for the White House, I Am”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Michele Bachmann steadfastly refused Thursday to answer questions about her family’s business and finances, saying that she — not her husband — was the one seeking the White House.

The Minnesota Republican faced queries about Marcus Bachmann’s Christian counseling clinic that attempts to convert gay patients as well as her own beliefs on sexuality during a luncheon at the National Press Club. With her husband sitting nearby, Bachmann said she expected scrutiny as a candidate but questions about her family were off-limits.

“I’m running for the presidency of the United States. My husband is not running for the presidency. Neither are my children. Neither is our business,” she said.

“I am more than happy to stand for questions on running for the presidency of the United States,” she continued. “I have no doubt that every jot and tittle of my life will be fully looked at and inspected prior to November of 2012.”

Bachmann, who is campaigning hard ahead of next month’s debate and straw poll in Iowa, has steadfastly refused to discuss the family’s business that has faced criticism from gay rights groups. When asked to describe her beliefs on gay therapy, Michele Bachmann said she loved her husband of 32 years and then said her husband was not a campaign issue.

She also faced questions about her opposition to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Washington Post reported this week that its analysis of her loan documents suggests her family used those federally subsidized programs in 2008.

“Unlike all of you, who I’m sure paid cash for your homes, there are people out there like myself who actually have to go to a bank to get a mortgage. This is a problem: it’s almost impossible to buy a home in this country today without the federal government being involved,” she said.

“We need to get the federal government out of these programs.”

For full article: http://news.yahoo.com/bachmann-says-she-not-husband-running-office-201319758.html

NOTE: For those who have mortgages on their homes, the involvement of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac in the process is usually “out of your hands”, being done by the bank at the time of the mortgage.

Michele Bachmann: The GOP’s Real Lightning Rod

from George Will’s column:

WASHINGTON — When Marcus Bachmann came home that Saturday evening in 2000 he checked the telephone answering machine and was mystified by the many messages congratulating his wife for something. “Michele,” he said, “do you have something to tell me?” She did.

The state senator from her district in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul had been in office for 17 years, had stopped being pro-life and started supporting tax increases, so that morning she had skipped washing her hair, put on jeans and a tattered sweatshirt and went to the local Republican nominating caucus to ask him a few pointed questions. There, on the spur of the moment, some similarly disgruntled conservatives suggested that she unseat the incumbent. After she made a five-minute speech “on freedom,” the caucus emphatically endorsed her and she handily won the subsequent primary.

For the full post: http://townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2009/10/25/gops_new_lightning_rod#