Dr. Jason Johnson

Professor of Political Science. Politics Editor for The Root. Latest Book: Political Consultants and Campaigns: One Day to Sell

Main navigation

Michelle Bachmann

Minneapolis City Pages: Jason Johnson on the Fall of Michelle Bachmann

by

Jason Johnson was interviewed by the Minneapolis City Pages for the article “Michelle Bachmann’s Fall From Grace” in advance of the Iowa Caucus.

Johnson noted that Bachmann’s failure to broaden her message after winning the Ames Straw Poll was a strategic mistake:

The problem was that Bachmann didn’t readjust after the straw poll to move beyond the Tea Party and target more moderate Republicans, says Jason Johnson, political science professor at Hiram College in Ohio.

“You’re supposed to go out and say, ‘The people have spoken, I am electable. I am electable,’ and she didn’t do that,” says Johnson. “She didn’t use that to take chunks out of Mitt Romney.”

Johnson also criticized Bachmann’s poor debate performance. 

“Bachmann’s biggest mistake has been her fairly poor debate performances,” says Hiram College’s Jason Johnson. “Her inability to capitalize on her success with strong debate performances really hurt her. Really, really hurt her overall. And then we’ve seen this typhoon of frontrunners appear after her over and over and over again.”

 

Jason Johnson to Cover Iowa Caucuses

by

Hiram College professor Jason Johnson is heading to Iowa to cover the Republican Presidential Caucuses in his capacity as Chief Political Correspondent for Politic365.com, Politics Editor for The Source Magazine, and guest contributor for Al Jazeera English.

Johnson will tour Council Bluffs and western Iowa beginning Sunday, January 1, and will broadcast live from Des Moines the night of the Iowa Caucuses on Tuesday, January 3rd. Professor Johnson will analyze the results of the Iowa Caucuses and provide analysis on the state of the 2012 election campaign.

The Roots Classless Michelle Bachmann Cover: Jimmy Fallon Apologizes

by

There are lots of ways that I, or for that matter, anyone might criticize GOP Presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann.  The list is endless, we know.  She’s a poor campaigner; she can’t raise money; she’s failed to capitalize on being the only elected official in a presidential race of Ken dolls; her husband runs some sort of weird anti-gay deprogramming camp – and that’s all just off the top of my head.

I mean, she’s mean spirited and bad. But, in case you missed it this week, is Bachmann a “Lyin Ass B***h”?

Yo, that’s a little harsh even for my “not-in-front-of-the-kids” language. However, that seemed like a perfectly acceptable way for Philadelphia-born hip hop act The Roots to introduce her when she walked out on stage as a guest on Jimmy Fallon’s show. The Roots intro music for the Republican primary candidate was a cover song of Lyin’ Ass B***h, a song by Fishbone.

I for one was shocked and slightly offended by this. You mean to tell me Jimmy Fallon still has a show? And he’s down enough to get The Roots as his cover band? How did that happen?

Okay, okay – well beyond that, a now equally irrelevant television host Glenn Beck has gone apoplectic about it calling Fallon all kinds of wrong and referring to him as a “a girl….playing little girl games.”

Ultimately, I don’t see what the big deal is. Bachmann seemed unfazed by it when she walked out; but, would a middle-age Congresswoman from Minnesota with an inflated ego really know what the song was, anyway? Granted, it was classless by The Roots to introduce her that way – and NBC along with Fallon have already apologized to her.

Like it or not, the fact that she’s nowhere in the polls, Fallon’s show is an afterthought and half the audience may not have even known the song all contributes to this not going much further than politico conversation.

Plus, as insulting songs about women candidates go, can anything ever truly top the (totally false) rumor that the Obama campaign played Jay-Z’s 99 Problems at a victory party after the Iowa Caucuses in 2008? I mean, come on, everyone knew that was a reference to Hillary. At the end of the day, most people don’t think Bachmann’s a liar – they just believe she’s totally unqualified for the job in the White House.

This article originally appeared online at Politic365.com.

Michigan CNBC Republican Debate: What to Watch For Tonight

by

Tonight’s Republican Debate at Oakland University in Michigan is going to be an absolute snooze-fest – unless someone in the GOP field thinks they can make a quick dash at a lead.

Herman Cain’s speedy implosion from the conservative’s Alterna-Mitt to pervy old man status has left perhaps the last gap in the Republican campaign field before the eventual coronation of Mitt Romney.

Analytically, there is still time for someone else to effectively challenge Mitt Romney with almost 60 days before the start of the primaries but the field is running out of alternatives. Every candidate, including Newt Gingrich, has had an electoral surge in the polls except for Rick Santorum (and I guess Huntsman, but he never really counted anyway). If the former Senator from Pennsylvania is going to make a move it has to be tonight.

Everyone else in the campaign field seems resigned to their fate. That’s one of the reasons why no one has stepped in to really pile on to Herman during his sexual harassment scandal. Once his 9-9-9 plan was effectively debunked in the last economic debate everyone saw he didn’t have another trick up his sleeve and the Black Steve Forbes became a side show again, albeit one who was polling better.

So Cain is out; Bachnmann peaked in the summer and has faltered ever since; Rick Perry is doing his best Jerry Jones impression, thinking he can win a championship  if he spends enough money hiring people; and Newt Gingrich has always been more interested in selling books and giving speeches than actually running. Rick Santorum is a true conservative, with federal experience. If he can’t make a push tonight it’s time for him to head home.

This article originally appeared at Politic365.com.

Michelle Bachmann’s New Hampshire Breakdown

by

Yesterday I reported that the Bachmann Campaign in New Hampshire had quit en masse, but the fallout from the implosion of her campaign keeps getting better and better. The resignation letter from her entire staff has made its way onto Scribd.com and now the entire world can see the chaos that has engulfed the once promising campaign of America’s second Tea Party sweetheart. The anger and disorganization described in the letter reminds me a lot of the “Front-Runner’s Fall” article from the Atlantic a couple of months after Hillary Clinton lost to Obama in 2008.  When things start going bad in a campaign, people start saving emails, memos and documenting everything to cover their own butts when the inevitable crash occurs. Makes you wonder what staff is filling up their jump drives right now?

This article originally appeared at Politic365.com.