In yet another of her many out-of-state political appearances, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on Friday, Feb. 26, 2010 spoke to Hamilton County Republicans in Cincinnatti, Ohio.

Following is a Gannet news report from the St. Cloud Times — the largest daily newspaper in Rep. Bachmann’s congressional district — along with added sidebars for background context.

Bachmann Tells Republicans in Ohio: Put Brakes on Obama

St. Cloud Times / Gannett ContentOne
February 27, 2010

Cincinnati-area Republican leaders were hoping Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann would give a red-meat speech to fire up the party faithful Friday.

They got what they hoped for.

More than 600 Hamilton County Republicans listening in the East Plaza of Paul Brown Stadium heard Bachmann implore them to go out and work for the election of Republicans “so we can put the brakes on the Obama agenda, put the brakes on the Obama machine.”

“It’s up to us to stop it,” said Bachmann, who has become a favorite of the most conservative wing of the GOP in recent years. “The president has embraced a policy that would have the federal government controlling 48 percent of our economy in just two years’ time. We have to stop him.”

She urged the Republicans to go to her Web site and look at a graph of federal deficits over the past several administrations.

“Yes, George Bush had some big spending years; we all know that,” Bachmann said. “But it is tiny potatoes compared to what it going on now.”

Sidebar: Bachmann’s True Colors

The 53-year-old Minnesota congresswoman has become a lightning rod for controversy for a raft of public statements, mostly on cable news networks, that have made her a favorite of the conservative movement and anathema to Democrats.

Sidebar: Bachmann on the Media Circuit

One of her most controversial statements came last June when speaking about the federal government bailout of General Motors. She called the Obama administration “a gangster government.”

Sidebar: Gangster Government

She has said carbon dioxide isn’t a harmful gas, warned of the coming of a “global currency” and said that voters should ask themselves if their members of Congress are “pro-America or anti-America.”

Sidebar: Bachmann Says ‘I’m Not a Kook’

But it was a statement on MSNBC where she raised the possibility that Obama might have “anti-American views” that made her the enemy of the left, Bachmann said Friday.

Sidebar: Bachmann Bears False Witness

“I had Nancy Pelosi fly into my district on a plane — your plane — and say she was handing my opponent $1 million and that I was the worst human being that ever lived,” Bachmann said.

From reading the news reports in Minnesota, she said, “you would have thought that I had eaten children.”

Sidebar

Fact check: Is Nancy Pelosi targeting Michele Bachmann?
(By Eric Roper, Star Tribune “Hot Dish Politics” blog, Jan. 22, 2010)

The Democrats, Bachmann said, will go after her this fall, and it was clear the Hamilton County Republican Party was happy to help her out. …

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Related links

Where’s Michele?
Missing in Minnesota and in Washington D.C.
(Maureen Reed for Congress)

Where in the World is Michele Bachmann?
(Tarryl Clark for Congress)

The Bachmann Agenda
(Tarryl Clark for Congress)

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5/20/11 Update

Bachmann Going to Ohio

The Associated Press via the St. Cloud Times
May 20, 2011

Excerpts

ARCHBOLD, Ohio — Ohio is playing host to a Minnesota congresswoman considering a 2012 presidential run.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann is lined up to speak at a Republican fundraiser in northwest Ohio on Friday night. …

She’ll speak at an event in Archbold hosted by Ohio congressman Bob Latta.

Bachmann says she’ll decide on whether to run for the White House by sometime in June.

Few knew of her until recently when she became hero of the conservative tea party movement by fighting with the GOP establishment.

[Comment: The closing sentence above is inane and misinformed. Bachmann is often anti-GOP establishment. She tends to be a loose cannon and demagogue who builds grassroots support with a combination of social conservatism, incendiary anti-Obama rhetoric, and fear-mongering conspiracy theories.]

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 1, 2009

More Bachmann Bad Press for GOP

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that Salem-News.com published a commentary on Rep. Michele Bachmann by Dorsett Bennett, a self-described “Independent/Libertarian.” “There’s no point in trying to fact-check such unhinged stupidity,” writes Bennett, “but I should note that none of this is in any way grounded in reality. I should also note that we’re not talking about some strange nut screaming on a street corner; this is all coming from an elected member of Congress.”