Bachmann Criticizes Occupy Movement In Latest Bay Area Visit
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann brought her struggling campaign back to the Bay Area Thursday for fundraising and an address at San Francisco's Commowealth club.
Rep. Bachmann spoke at a noon forum titled "The Revival of American Competitiveness." Meanwhile, protesters gathered outside the Market Street building - some from the Occupy SF movement, others from anti-war groups - to criticize Bachmann's conservative policies.
KCBS' Doug Sovern Reports:
Bachmann said she believes too much government involvement in the private sector has hampered U.S. competitiveness and hindered entrepreneurship.
Bachmann said Occupy protesters want more government involvement in the economy while tea party members want less. She joked that tea partyers picked up their trash after their demonstrations.
Bachmann also commented that the world is better off without Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. But she stands by her position that the U.S. military shouldn't have gotten involved.
Bachmann's campaign peaked in mid-summer but has stumbled in the fall. Polls have shown voters abandoning her challenge to current GOP front-runner Mitt Romney and losing ground, first to Rick Perry, now to Herman Cain.
The former tax attorney has been using her expertise to denounce Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan, as she did in this week's debate in Las Vegas.
"If we give Congress a 9 percent sales tax, how long will it take a liberal president and a liberal Congress to run that up to maybe 90 percent?" said Bachmann.
Bachmann also planned to attend a fundraiser in Napa Thursday.
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