Bachmann says Obama policies led to Arab spring

Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. waves after speaking to the media in Charlotte, N.C. Sept. 29, 2011.

/ Chuck Burton

CONCORD, N.C. -- Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says President Obama's Middle East policy is to blame for the popular uprisings against autocratic regimes across the Arab world.

At a fundraiser here, Bachmann said she thinks the president "laid the table for the Arab Spring by demonstrating weakness," and particularly noted his call for Israel to return to its borders prior to the 1967 war with Egypt.

Bachmann, who has a track record of jumbled facts and sometimes false assertions, also drew an analogy between Obama's treatment of Israel and the fall of the shah of Iran during the Democratic administration of President Jimmy Carter, an event she maintained led to the rise of radicalism in the Islamic world.

"Just like Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s didn't have the back of the shah of Iran, we saw the shah fall, and the rise of the ayatollah, and we saw the rise and the beginnings of radical jihad, which have changed this world and changed this nation," Bachmann said. "So, too, under Barack Obama, we saw him put a lot of daylight between our relationship with our ally, Israel. And when he called upon Israel to retreat to its indefensible 1967 borders, don't think that message wasn't lost on Israel's 26 hostile neighbors.

"You want to know why we have an Arab Spring. Barack Obama has laid the table for an Arab Spring by demonstrating weakness from the United States of America."

Bachmann's campaign hit a high point when she won the Iowa straw poll in mid-August, but it's been mostly downhill for Bachmann since. She has trailed in national polls and struggled to keep pace with her rivals in fundraising.

[RangerDan107]

I'm sure half the comments are saying the same thing, but isn't the overthrow of a brutal dictator, and installation of a democratic government "A GOOD THING"?

[noloyalisti]

Next thing you know the airheaded bimbo will be blaming Obama for the America Autumn going on now in NY, DC and all over the United States.

[kc8rjs]

So Bachmann supports dictators now? I guess total control over ones people is ok, but if our government encourages better diet selections, or more energy efficiency then our President is Hitler?

[euge005]

Blame she says? More correctly it is greatly to Obama's credit and it has been needed for 40 years. Support democracy not dictators. he confuses weakness with wisdom, having none of her own wisdom, it is an unfamiliar circumstance for the bimbo. Yes Obama has issues with strenght, but supporting freedom, something the GOP seems to devalue, is not among them. How does this person think she is fit for public service at any level?

[MohatmaJeebus]

Isn't the spontaneous emergence of Democracy born of the people standing up in the face of oppressive dictatorships a good thing?

[_MrMike]

Bachmann gives good head. That's about it.

[booksforall]

I cannot concur with this statement, but I know her husband is quite excellent at it!

[cmart6]

"Barack Obama has laid the table for an Arab Spring by demonstrating weakness from the United States of America."
Naureen Khan does not need to translate for CBS readers what Bachmann said, which was more nuanced than the mindless CBS headline.
Bachmann said that Obama's undercutting of Israel set the stage for radicals to take over in places like Egypt.
And how did CBS pick Ms. Khan as an "unbiased" reported on the Arab world?

[MohatmaJeebus]

Hmmmm - Funny, because it looked a lot like Democracy sprouting up in the place of autocratic dictatorships to me. So remind me, are for or against Democracy because I thought we were for but...

[AttyFAM]

This is the second time Bachmann has criticized the Arab Spring. Rather like rooting for Franco in the Spanish Civil War. I can only infer that Bachmann loves dictatorships and hates democracy.

[notreich]

It was said long ago by a very prescient man that if a fascist dictatorship ever came to America it would come waving our same red, white and blue and pounding a bible. Who'd have thought a couple of the chief wavers and pounders would be a couple of wacky gals like Bachmann and Palin. Also crazy, their idea that the world is soon to end but the true believers are going to be zapped directly to heaven by Jesus.

[AttyFAM]

by tsigili September 30, 2011 4:12 PM EDT
One thing I will agree with......terrorism started in Iran, with the Islamic clerics, in the 1970's. They are still the largest source of terror in the world.
--------------------------------------------

No, No, No. Terrorism has been an asymmetrical tactic for a long, long time. French resistance in World War II, for instance?

But you have it all wrong as to Iran. Iran definitely has regional aspirations. But they are Shiites, the only massively Shiite nation in the world. As far as Islam goes, they are the Reform Muslims. The problem is the Sunni brand of Islam - which is the majority in just about every other Islamic nation. They are the Puritans of Islam, and the purist of the puritans is the Wahhabi sect which controls Saudi Arabia (from which 19 of the 9/11 terrorists came) and Pakistan.

[Hutterite]

She's the Palin this race hasn't had yet.