The fact that’s she appears to be crazy may not be enough to sink her campaign, but the fact that Michele Bachmann is a really bad liar is probably a serious problem.
Michele Bachmann, on the campaign trail today, offered what seems to be a new explanation for her previous work as a lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service, something that has drawn some ire from the right.
Her explanation: She worked for the IRS as a kind of secret anti-tax mole whose mission was to get to know the place in order to better undermine it later. As she put it: “The first rule of war is `know your enemy.’”
This explanation seems a bit at odds with descriptions of the episode she’s given on previous occasions, when she’s said her anti-tax fervor was the result of her work for the IRS. This version on the trail explains her work for the IRS — which spanned four years, from 1988-1992 — in a way that will be more acceptable to hard-core anti-tax conservatives.
Candidates forget that almost everything they say is captured on video tape. If you have a tendency to exaggerate, it’s going to cost you. If you want to contradict yourself and tell outright lies, it’s going to sink you.