Former Gov. Carlson: Bachmann ‘in decline’

In a blog entry published Friday Sept. 21, former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson concludes fellow Republican Michele Bachmann is an embarrassment and that her "recent assaults against the Muslims and again suggesting that President Obama is sympathetic to Islamic extremism reminds me of the desperation of Senator Joseph McCarthy in his declining months."

In his post titled, Michele Bachmann.... A Lady in Decline, Carlson writes, "What has happened with Bachmann is common with the McCarthy types -- they rise quickly as they step loudly and carelessly on the reputations of innocent people and they fall just as rapidly in accordance with the public's insistence on truth and decency."

Bachmann, who was first elected to Congress in 2006, is running for reelection to a fourth term. Her DFL opponent, hotelier Jim Graves, has publicized his campaign's internal polling which claims shows Bachmann is vulnerable even though she won her last congressional election by more than 12 percentage points. Bachmann spent much of her latest two-year term running for the Republican presidential nomination which she stepped out of in early January after a dismal showing in the Iowa caucuses.

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