Michele Bachmann leaves a "quote" legacy

So Michele Bachmann is the first casualty of the Iowa GOP presidential caucus - if you don't count Rick Perry, who now says that just because he proclaimed Tuesday night he would return home to Texas "to determine whether there is a path forward" for his presidential bid doesn't mean he's bowing out. Bachmann, who canceled her trip to nearby Fort Mill today, said she was suspending her campaign. She had said Tuesday night she was staying in the race as the only true conservative despite her nearly last place finish. Only Jon Huntsman, who did not really campaign in Iowa, instead focusing on New Hampshire's primary next week, finished lower.

There have been and will be many assessments of Bachmann's campaign. But Foreign Policy magazine's blog, Flagship, has an interesting look back through what they call her "outlandish" foreign policy quotes.

Example?

“With all the money we owe China, I think we might rightly say, ‘Hu’s your daddy!’”

"We saw President (Hosni) Mubarak fall while President Obama sat on his hands."

Other quotes were captured by BuzzFeed in its "The 10 Craziest Michele Bachmann Quotes." Among them:
"If we took away the minimum wage... we could potentially wipe out unemployment because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level."

The Christian Science Monitor took note of her other gaffes in assessing her campaign's implosion. Notes staff writer Peter Grier: "OK, Bachmann did not scramble the events of Paul Revere's ride, as Palin famously did last summer. But she did place the opening battles of the Revolutionary War in New Hampshire. She mistakenly claimed John Wayne had been born in her Iowa hometown of Waterloo. (It was John Wayne Gacy, the notorious serial killer)."

He also noted that Bachmann, the only female candidate in the GOP race, couldn't even best her competitors in getting the female vote. "According to an Iowa State University poll taken in late December, her vote share was about 7.2 percent with both genders. In contrast, third-place finisher Ron Paul (in the Iowa caucus) had a huge gender gap in that same poll, with 32 percent of women saying they would support him, and 22 percent of men. (He finished with 21.4 percent of the actual vote.)"

The Week harnessed opinions from various sources and came up with six factors in Bachmann's campaign's demise: 1. She was overtaken by other non-Romneys.
2. Bachmann failed to find a winning message.
3. She told too many whoppers.
4. And made too many gaffes. (This quotes Grier from the Christian Science Monitor. Will no one forget a few mistakes?)
5. She failed to win over women.
6. Her campaign was dysfunctional.

On the overall Republican Iowa caucus results, where Mitt Romney bested Rick Santorum by just eight votes to take the win, Guy Benson of Townhall.com has interesting insights, including this about fourth place finisher Newt Gingrich: "If his speech tonight was any indication, Newt is an embittered candidate who's ready to unleash some pent-up frustration on Mitt Romney in the coming weeks." And he already started with this ad comparing himself and Romney in Saturday's New Hampshire Union-Leader, which has endorsed Gingrich.

On the other side of the political aisle, President Barack Obama stirred up some dust with his recess appointment today of Richard Cordray as new head of the controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Republicans had blocked the appointment last month saying it had too much power. Townhall.com's Kate Hicks called the move "another presidential power grab." Other conservatives agree. What do you think?

Posted by associate editor Fannie Flono