Candidate uses scare tactics, misinformation

“All I was doing is relaying what a woman had said,” Michele Bachmann told the media after touring a manufacturer in Waterloo last month. “There's a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result. There are very dangerous consequences.”

This is a prime example of a candidate using scare tactics and misinformation to win an election, preying on the ignorance of the American people, and hoping to put the Republican front-runner, Rick Perry, in a bad light.

What she wants you to think: Perry used an executive order to require the HPV vaccine to be taken. It causes mental retardation. Perry puts young women at great risk. Would you vote for someone like that?

I am not backing Perry. I am just sick and tired of candidates who deceive us to win an election.

Maybe Bachmann thinks cervical cancer can be “prayed” away or eliminated through psychotherapy sessions with her husband, Marcus.

Bachmann runs a clinic in Minnesota that practices “reparative” therapy for gays and lesbians, a therapy which is condemned by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association (The Nation and Truth Wins Out). The clinic received $137,000 in Medicaid funds, according to the Daily Beast (July 10). Getting federal dollars is OK in this situation, right Bachmann?

William A. Lester

Manchester