Anyone who has dealt with kids as a teacher or performer will tell you this: they can be brutally honest. And she recently got a dose of the reality of the impact of her polemics and a bit of truth.
The Daily Beast best explains the set up for this video:
Michele Bachmann’s had plenty of uncomfortable moments on the campaign trail, but wait until you see this: At a South Carolina book signing, an 8-year-old boy named Elijah whispered to Bachmann, “My mom is gay and she doesn’t need fixing.” Bachmann responded with a blank expression, then waved to him as he ran away.
You can watch the video below. At first Bachmann doesn’t hear and asks him to speak louder. He tells her and you can hear him tell her very softly — and see her shock.
After all, this was a kid. It should have been a great photo op! Here’s the video:
Yes, Ms. Bachmann, your words a)do have impact beyond your party base and b)the Mom in this case was reportedly too shy to go up so her son decided to (go to the Daily Beast link to read more). I know of a case a bit like this that goes back some years:
Many years ago I knew a family with a boy whose mother had lifelong cerebral palsy. Some of her benefits were reduced when Ronald Reagan did his budget cuts. This kid liked Reagan until then and he picked up how the cuts impacted his mother. So when Ronald Reagan came to San Diego the boy was in the front row at a big event and when Reagan put his hand out to shake it, the boy angrily glared at him, and turned away without taking his hand. His mother could never have the nerve to be that honest about the impact on her if she had met Reagan. Policies of all Presidents do have real impacts.
As do politicians’ red meat. This was a case of an 8 year old saying the red meat was rancid.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.