WASHINGTON — Michele Bachmann was right at home speaking to a decidedly friendly crowd of a couple hundred at a Faith and Freedom Coalition conference here today.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition’s policy conference featured speeches by other big-name conservatives and a bevy of potential and declared presidential candidates. Tim Pawlenty speaks at the convention tonight, as does Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. This afternoon, Donald Trump takes the podium.
The speech was fairly standard for her – touching on conservative rallying points like repealing the health care law, defunding Planned Parenthood, defending Israel and opposing abortion and gay marriage.
Bachmann said that during her time in the Minnesota Senate, she was “at the tip of the spear” on the gay marriage issue, introducing a bill that would put a constitutional gay marriage ban on the ballot.
“Others took that torch and they carried on,” she said, and when the Minnesota House approved the ballot measure in May, “Minnesota [became] the first state that has decided that this issue will be on the ballot in 2012. I believe this is the time to do it.”
Bachmann spoke about her long relationship with her husband and the couple’s five children, and that segued into her opposition of abortion and the “unalienable rights of life” promised in the Constitution.
“Government is incapable of giving unalienable rights. Only God can give life,” she said. “Government is without power or authority to take that right away.”
While the crowd frequently clapped, Bachmann’s only standing ovation came when she blasted the health care reform law. “I will not rest until we repeal ObamaCare,” she said, prompting peals of applause. “America will not rest until we repeal ObamaCare.”
She ended with a prayer: “We do pray for our president. We pray for the Supreme Court, we pray for members of Congress, we pray for those who are in authority because this is not a political scorecard,” she said. “This about the very life and future of our nation … we want our people to be blessed and prosper.”
Devin Henry is an intern in MinnPost’s Washington Bureau.
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Hope she’s got lots of eye makeup.