rerejected by the house republican caucus to be in leadership. it makes me think, did she always want to run for president or did she get rejected because all those folks thought she would use it as a platform and is this a problem at some point in the pain? ff look, that all took place in the wake of the 2010 campaign, after the tea party had taken out many established republicans. they still have their eyes set on them. there is a divide there. michele bachmann is self-identified with the tea party. they won t invite someone like that into the tent willy-nilly. i think what s been fascinating about michele bachmann is how she s handled a lot of this, whether it was chris wallace asking her if she s a flake, some of the gaffes she had to respond to. i think if you make the sarah palin connection, sarah palin would be on twitter or facebook talking about the very defensive. michele bachmann has done a very good job of handling it like a real politician would. i think she s proved
we are. you ve become quite the entity. anyway, we checked four statements, two on michele bachmann, one on chris christy, one on harry reid. that s who we re checking today. let s start with the michele bachmann, her first thought from her june intershrew view in new hampshire. if you threw a barbecue yesterday for the memorial weekend, it was 29% more expensive than last year because barack obama s policies have led to groceries going up 29%. how did she do? false on the truth-o-meter. that s just not the right number. that number comes from a new york post story that looked at statistics for the new york area. when you look at national numbers, it s about 10%. but the other part of this is false, too. you really can t realistically blame president obama for the increase in food prices.
call the number on your screen now. and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan. you ll get this free information kit. and guide to understanding medicare, to help you choose the plan that s right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn t. and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. you know, in all the fan fare over michele bachmann s announcing, she has elite republican problems, too. remember she was shut out of the house leadership earlier this year. she was asked about it yesterday by david brody. there are going to be people in the gop establishment who don t want to see michele bachmann as the nominee. i think that people in the gop establishment will be very happy with me as the nominee
fist candidate feeling comfortable going on the attack. pawlenty wasn t comfortable going on romney. listen to this, michele bachmann on mitt romney and the life issue. governor romney has stated that he s pro-life, i take him at his word, but he s had some issues with that in his past where he s taken various positions. this this was a wonderful opportunity to sign the pledge and none straight that he s pro-life. he chose not to. i think that s troubling and i think that he should have signed the pledge. you can get a lot of things wrong. one thing that you cannot get wrong is the issue of life. matthew, when i hear the phrase i take him at his word, i think of ricky bobby, with all respect. that s her way of sending a message. bachmann has always been underestima underestimated. this is a woman who upset a established republican state senator, she came into the state convention, walked out with the nomination. then they ran a primary, she
the tea party movement and in the republican sort of popular culture move the to be here. and so people seem to be excited about that. we made the drive from waterloo where we spent a couple of days with michele bachmann. of course, she has kicked off her campaign. she s now in new hampshire today but coming back to iowa for a bus tour. and as you referenced, the president will be here as well. he will be talking about jobs at that alcoa plant and of course his competitors, people like mitt romney, already taking shots at that, saying the president will be more about union bosses than workers. so there s a lot going on in iowa. the place to be. kelly o donnell in pella, iowa. thanks very much. quickly, surprisingly good economic news turning things around on wall street this morning? we ll see. cnbc s becky quick joins me. is that true? real good news? it is true. believe it or not, i can t tell you how long it s been since we had good economic numbers. this is a big surprise to