Less than one week before the Iowa primary, the state director of Rep. Michelle Bachman’s campaign jumped ship and endorsed another candidate.

State Sen. Kent Sorenson (R-Indianola) announced this evening he was changing his support to Rep. Ron Paul while attending a “Salute to Veterans” rally organized for the Texas congressman.

“Today, I am switching my support from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul for the 2012 Iowa Caucuses and the presidency of the United States,” Sorenson said, calling the decision “one of the most difficult I have made in my life.”

“Ron Paul is the only candidate to predict the current mess we find ourselves in economically, and he’s the only candidate to offer a true plan to cut spending and balance our budget.”

Jesse Benton, chairman of Paul’s national campaign, welcomed the endorsement in a formal statement. “Congressman Paul is delighted to accept the endorsement of Sen. Kent Sorenson, whose blessing and assistance carry a great deal weight in Iowa. The fact that he doesn’t take this decision lightly tells a great deal about the Senator and Ron Paul. This endorsement is a rare find and we hope it pushes us nearer to our goal of a strong top-three finish at the January caucus.”

In the most recent poll of Iowan Republicans, Paul lead all candidates with 24 percent. Mitt Romney was a close second, taking 20 percent; Bachmann was a distant fourth with 11 percent.

The Iowa caucus is scheduled next week for Jan. 3.

Sorenson had been employed by Bachmann for about seven months. Rumors first begin circulating that Bachmann would hire Sorenson in late March after he spoke warmly of the Minnesota congresswoman in a CNN interview.

“I hope she decides to run,” he said on March 10. “She is somebody that (sic) has the credentials to fire up the grassroots. She would be someone who could unite different factions of the party. She is a strong fiscal and social conservative.”

Sorenson was hired as her Iowa state campaign director shortly after in late June, and helped Bachmann win the Ames Straw Poll in August. Paul placed a close second.

Sorenson attended a Bachmann campaign event earlier today without any indication of his last-minute switch. When asked to speak on Bachmann’s behalf, Sorenson told other campaign staff he couldn’t because he just had dental work done.

Late this afternoon before Sorenson’s surprise announcement, Bachmann focused her attention on Paul while campaigning across the state, saying he “would be a dangerous president.”

Sorenson won a very close race to represent Iowa’s State House Dist. 74 in 2008, and was elected to State Senate Dist. 37 in 2010. 

Speaking to the Family Research Council this morning, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann gave her take on how to address the high rate of unemployment in the country.

“(I)f anyone will not work, neither should he eat,” Bachmann said. 

(posted on youtube by ivolsky)

What this Republican presidential candidate is apparently overlooking, however, is that the number of job openings in the country is far, far less than the number of unemployed.

According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 3.1 million job openings in the country.

The number of unemployed, though, is 13.9 million, says BLS. That’s more than four times greater than the number of jobs available.

Add in the fact that a majority of those 13.9 million Americans (52 percent) are not receiving any unemployment benefits whatsoever, and it stands apparent that Bachmann’s goal is already underway: they have no money to buy food to begin with.

So instead of addressing this malady affecting so many in the country, Rep. Bachmann, we should make it worse and toss in other obstacles, too? Eliminate their eligibility for food stamps, perhaps?

That seems to be a typical Republican response. Cure the unemployment problem by starving the unemployed.

h/t to p_d!

Gracing our state yet again, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Outer Space) made her latest stop in Spartanburg.

That's where she made the latest in her series of verbal faux pas, too. 

"Before we get started," Bachmann began her address, "let's all say 'Happy Birthday' to Elvis Presley today."

But today's August 16 date isn't the anniversary of the King of Rock 'n Roll's entrance to the world. It's the day Presley died. 

(from Politico)

But we're used to those errors, which Bachmann's quite well-known to make. 

Sometimes she rewrites history, like in her speech to Iowa residents earlier this year. According to Bachmann, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, including John Quincy Adams, "worked tirelessly until slavery was no more," she said. Of course, those signers (many of whom were slave owners) were all dead by the time emancipation came around, and Adams didn't sign the Declaration (he was only nine years old at the time).

Some of her rewritten history directly insults the people to whom she's speaking. New Hampshire is "where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord,’’ she told residents of that state. But Lexington and Concord, where the Revolutionary War began, are in the state of Massachusetts (whose residents were also insulted, of course). 

And national press had a field day on her mix-up of Hollywood hero John Wayne with infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy. 

But while those particular gaffes could well be simple accidents by Bachmann, she's well-known to knowingly issue blatant lies, too. (Global warming is a hoax, the US is plotting to secretly change its currency format, swine flu is directly related to Democratic presidencies, healthcare reform includes abortion field-trips for teenaged girls, Dept. of Transportation workers make $170,000 a year, Obama stole $500 million from Medicare, Obama wants to turn Medicare into Obamacare, Glenn Beck should be appointed to independently solve our country's economic crisis, the president wants to ban light bulbs, and breast-feeding leads to government dependency. And those are just a handful of examples. You'll find many more at WaPo's Fact Checker and some older ones in a Mother Jones article.) 

And we South Carolinians in the Lowcountry will get our own chance to hear Bachmann bumbles next week!  She'll be at Tim Scott's "Town Hall" meeting next Thursday, Aug. 25. Starting at 7 p.m., the event will be held at Trident Technical College, 7000 Rivers Ave. in North Charleston.

Try to come early, though. There's likely to be limited space, so if you want to ask her any questions, you'll have to provide them in writing ahead of time. (And if you'd like suggestions on questions you can offer, let me know - I've got a long list you can choose from!)

'Til then, though, let's close this subject by advising Bachmann to end her bumbles, and with quote directly from the King himself (whose deathday she chose to celebrate today): "Don't be cruel."

South Carolina Republicans hit the capitol April 18 to meet Michelle Bachmann, the GOTea Party representative from Minnesota. Those brave voters didn't hold back when expressing their opinions, especially on the subject of the invasion of Libernay ... I mean, Libernaire ... um ... you know what I mean.

Where would those folks be without FOX News, which they proudly declare to be their primary news source? Just like one of its fans says in this video, everything else is super flurrious.