U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared on Fox’s O’Reilly Factor as her presidential campaign continued to sink in the polls Monday.

Bachmann insisted that people are taking a “second look” at the candidates’ stances.

“People are saying now that they don’t want to settle,” Bachmann said. “Because every four years, people are told that they need to go with the moderate in the race because that’s the only one who will win, now we’re seeing that’s not true that we can really have a true constitutional conservative for our nominee.”

Bachmann said her campaign is focusing on Iowa as the “number one” caucus. Recent polls have shown her support slipping.

Bachmann insisted that she was the Republican candidate who would go through with a “full-scale repeal” of the health plan passed by Pres. Barack Obama, which she called “Obamacare.”

“We have to go through this vetting process so the voters can take a good look at us and who they want to be their voice in the White House in 2012,” Bachmann said. “This is the key election, people need to know who will repeal Obamacare, who will repeal Dodd-Frank.”

The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart appeared as a guest on Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor last night and ran down his take on GOP presidential candidates. While Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann got mention, more as a punchline — “If Sarah Palin doesn’t run, Michele Bachmann could definitely put on that blazer” — Tim Pawlenty got props for seeming “like a reasonable guy.” But, Stewart added, Pawlenty has left Minnesota in worse shape than did, say, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Stewart acknowledged some frustration with President Barack Obama’s performance and said he’d be open to voting for a Republican should the right one come along. But none seemed to make the cut.

Still, when asked by O’Reilly if there are any Republican candidates he likes or respects, Pawlenty was the first mention.

“I would imagine that Tim Pawlenty seems like a reasonably logical individual. I think he seems like a reasonable guy.”

A minute later, however, he added, “I thought that he [Romney] didn’t do terribly for Massachusetts. I think Pawlenty actually was a little worse for Minnesota than maybe Romney was for Massachusetts. I look at their executive experience, I tend to think executives tend to make good presidents.”

Still it’s more love than Pawlenty has gotten from Stewart’s Comedy Central cohort Stephen Colbert, who riffed on Pawlenty’s premature announcement of his candidacy to CNN in April and the Minnesota Republican’s attempt to “attract the kidses” in Iowa with pop culture references to Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga.

Watch part one:

Watch part two:

Conservative Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly noted on Thursday that Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin have snubbed the media over the last week — in particular his show. Bachmann, who in recent months has made multiple national cable appearances, has done none this week, according to her YouTube channel and a search of cable news websites. Bachmann went from six major media appearances to zero in the course of a week — the week following shootings in Tucson that some have said may have had something to do with violent rhetoric by the pair.

O’Reilly said Bachmann and Palin should’ve come on his show because he defended them in the wake of last Saturday’s assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

“Monday night, I launched a devastating attack on the people who did this to Congresswoman Bachmann and Governor Palin,” O’Reilly said. “It wasn’t a personal attack. There were no personal deals at all. It was just the facts: bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. I would assume that both ladies would say, ‘O’Reilly has it nailed. I’m going to say how it affected me personally, thereby not only engendering sympathy… but a lot of hearts and minds have been changed this week. A lot of liberal people are saying, ‘You know what, it’s gone too far.’ And that’s why I think they should’ve come on.”

Here’s O’Reilly commenting on Bachmann and Palin’s lack of media presence this week:

In the week before the Tucson shooting, Bachmann did at least six major media appearances: Sean Hannity, the Today Show, Fox News’ On the Record, ABC’s Top Line, CNSNews, and WCCO’s Sunday Morning.

Rep. Keith Ellison weighed in late last week on the controversy surrounding the firing of National Public Radio’s Juan Williams after he told Fox’s Bill O’Reilly that he gets “worried” and “nervous” when he sees people in Muslim garb get on an airplane. Williams dishonored his own legacy, especially his work on the “Eyes on the Prize” documentary on the civil rights era, Ellison said, calling Williams’ remarks “ugly” and “bigoted.”

On The O’Reilly Factor last Monday, Williams said, “Look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

NPR terminated Williams contract, stating that his remarks on O’Reilly’s show were “inconsistent with [NPR's] editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

“Sadly, Juan Williams has taken a bat to all the work he did around civil rights,” Ellison said, discussing the topic on MSNBC’s The Ed Show. “I feel like taking all that stuff off my shelf and putting it in the garbage, because I just really feel he has dishonored his legacy to that extent.”

“The people who got on that airline on 9/11, they made sure they didn’t have any so-called ‘Muslim garb’  — whatever that is,” he said. “They made sure they were as mainstream-looking as they possibly could, because they were trying to harm our country.”

Ellison added, “The people who are just practicing their faith or their culture, more likely, these people aren’t any danger to our country. These folks are just minding their own business.”

“I think it’s un-American what Juan Williams said.”

Ellison said Williams should apologize “profusely” to Americans. Williams was given a $2 million, three-year contract to host The O’Reilly Factor within 24 hours of his firing from NPR.

Here’s the video of the exchange:

O’Reilly began his interview with Bachmann with apparent chagrin.

“Whoa. Extortion? Shakedown? Look, if the executive branch, the presidency, isn’t going to force BP to pony up the money, who would?

Bachmann instead changed the subject. “The question is who will run the fund… will this fund be politicized?”

“That’s not how it came across,” O’Reilly countered, to a seemingly flustered Bachmann. He later said:

“You and Congressman Barton in Texas, using words like ‘shakedown’ and ‘extortion’ and all of that, I’m not agreeing with that. I think Obama did absolutely the right thing by putting the maximum amount of pressure on these weasels. You saw [BP CEO Tony] Hayward yesterday. Is this the biggest weasel in the world, this guy? Is there a bigger weasel on the planet than him? And you’re trusting him to do anything? … I’d go in there with a machine gun if I were president and say, ‘Hey, you put that money in here or you’re not getting out of the room…’ I think this is the best thing Obama did in the entire mess, getting the $20 billion.”

“You’re dodging my question about extortion and a shakedown,” O’Reilly said in the uncharacteristically heated exchange.

“I think they’re putting pressure on them,” she replied.

Rivera began his panel of three congressional Republicans by addressing Bachmann.

“We are fans of yours on this program,” he said. “You are scrappy, you are independent. But clearly, by comparing the White House negotiation for a $20 billion escrow account to ‘extortion’ you have overstepped the bounds of even rhetoric, don’t you agree?”

She didn’t.

In fact, she didn’t answer the question, prompting Rivera to break in, “Congresswoman, you are changing the subject. Do you withdraw the word ‘extortion’ or do you not withdraw ‘extortion’… You have characterized the White House as an extortionist and withheld, it seems to me, the strongest criticism for the oil company.”

Watch Bachmann on The O’Reilly Factor:

Watch Bachmann on Rivera’s show (fast-forward to 03:37):

Reader Kate writes in to ask whether Bachmann — who told O’Reilly on Wednesday, “I don’t need government to be successful” — has ever received any kind of public assistance. One bit of government help we know her family has received is farm subsidies. As Karl Bremer reported at Eric Black Ink two years ago:

A 949-acre Wisconsin farming operation — in which Bachmann owns up to a quarter-million-dollars interest — collected $47,128 in federal farm subsidies between 2004-2005. That same operation—the Bachmann Farm Family Limited Partnership — has collected as much as $127,868 in federal farm subsidies since the partnership was established in 2001…

…On her 2007 Congressional financial disclosure form, Bachmann lists “Bachmann Farm Family LP, Independence, WI,” as an asset with a value up to $250,000, that produced 2006 income of between $2,501-$5,000…

…Paul Bachmann has collected $127,868 in federal farm subsidies since he formed the Bachmann Farm Family Limited Partnership with Michele and possibly others in 2001, according to the Environmental Working Group.

But even if Bachmann didn’t show up on Olbermann’s show, she did get a characteristically feisty reply from the liberal MSNBC host. To Bachmann’s opinion that interest in her by news outlets like MSNBC is “almost like I have personal stalkers,” Olbermann replied:

“Having had an actual stalker myself, I think the Congresswoman needs to apologize to women (and men) whose lives are blighted and ruined by such terror and threat. Not even in the mildest of senses – of journalists whose aggressiveness might verge colloquially into ‘stalking’ – is she anywhere close to being such a victim.”

Watch Bachmann on The O’Reilly Factor:

Photo: WDCpix

Bowing to pressure from some parents in the area, the superintendent of the Fergus Falls school district in west-central Minnesota is directing teachers not to show President Obama’s live “Back to School” speech to students next week.

The decision comes as a sudden national debate about the speech emerges. While some say the speech is unprecedented, in 1991 the roles were reversed: A Republican president gave a speech to school children that Democrats blasted.

Instead of airing the speech live, the Fergus Falls school district will tape the address and preview it first.

“It is always appropriate to preview curriculum, movies, videos, etcetera, before using them for instruction,” Supt. Jerry Ness wrote in a letter to parents on Thursday. “If the message stays in the spirit of its intent, faculty will have the option to use it at a future time and date when they feel it is appropriate as part of a lesson or to encourage their students.”

Ness continued, “Staff will be required to inform parents that this will be shown in their classroom and parents will be invited to attend or to allow your child to opt out of this lesson with no negative consequences.”

The decision not to show the speech live comes as a number of schools are dealing with irate parents who do not want their children exposed to Obama. “This kind of political access to the minds of our young people smacks of propaganda and Big Brotherism,” wrote one parent, according to the Washington Post.

Rep. John Kline, representing the southern suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul, was named ranking Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee in June. He sent a letter to the White House on Wednesday asking that text of the speech be released for review before next week.

“While I commend the President’s focus on academic achievement and educational excellence, I believe this unusual approach to reaching out to our students would be improved if he provided parents and educators the opportunity to review the information in advance of the event,” said Kline. “This would allow teachers and families to make fully informed decisions and engage with students on this topic as they see fit.”

Conservative commentators have had a field day with the controversy. Sean Hannity said that “it seems very close to indoctrination.” Fox News commentator Monica Crowley said, “Just when you think this administration can’t get any more surreal and Orwellian, here they come to indoctrinate our kids.” High-profile blogger Michelle Malkin said that “the left has always used kids in public schools as guinea pigs and as junior lobbyists for their social liberal agenda.”

And while many are calling Obama’s speech (and the resulting outrage from the right) unprecedented, it really isn’t. President George H. W. Bush held similar appearances with students, appearances that the Democrats blasted as “paid political advertising for the President.”

Fergus Falls’ Ness said in his letter that Obama’s “message will focus on studying hard, to have high aspirations and to be good students.”

But he added, “Our office has received a few calls about it from concerned parents.”

Update: Under pressure, Becker schools decide not to air Obama speech live

Minneapolis schools on Obama speech: ‘Motivating students is not controversial’

The winner of the straw poll was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, garnering 20 percent of the vote. He was followed by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (14 percent), Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (13 percent), Texas Rep. Ron Paul (13 percent) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (10 percent).

Of the 10 contenders on the ballot, Pawlenty outpaced only Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who’s become a heretical figure in the GOP for supporting the $787 billion stimulus package.

In another shocking CPAC polling development, Rush Limbaugh was voted the most popular media personality by participants, taking 26 percent of the vote. He easily outpaced Glenn Beck (17 percent), Sean Hannity (11 percent) and Bill O’Reilly (10 percent).

But isn’t Sarlin missing something here?

These books are intended to be satire. Whether you think they succeed or not, they hardly evidence how Franken might act upon becoming a senator. And most of the Franken critics that Sarlin cites — Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Bill O’Reilly — are hardly mainstream conservatives that swing voters are likely to take their cues from. Rather, they’re political pugilists whose sole purpose is to rile up the conservative base (and make boatloads of money).

If anything, the Senate campaign in Minnesota proved that merely attacking Al Franken as an ideolog and an interloper is not enough to convince voters to back the Republican candidate. Norm Coleman’s campaign attacked Franken incessantly throughout the contest — and it doesn’t look to have been a very successful strategy.