GOP Madness 2012, Round 1, Match 7

You can see the bracket thus far, with the first six matches, here. Today's contestants:

1. MICHELE BACHMANN'S 7-FOOT DOCTOR

Boo! It's hard to believe today, but in the summer of 2011, Michele Bachmann actually led in the GOP nomination battle. Her moment in the spotlight was finished by Rick Perry's entry into the race. She lingered with the hope she could recapture some of that summer glory, but instead suffered'among the press and conservative voters'by making one stupid claim after another. It seemed that whatever craziness she heard on the campaign trail would end up repeated in front of a microphone. Stuff like this, on Fox News:

There's a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that [HPV] vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result. There are very dangerous consequences.

Bachmann took a great deal of flack from the medical community and the press over this claim, to which she responded with a shrug and an aww shucks, she's not a doctor, she's just repeating what people told her! While the HPV claims may have been more damaging to her campaign, I still think this, at a campaign event, was a more perfect encapsulation of her bizarre way of thinking:

One man stood up, he was over 7-feet tall. He was a physician in the community. And he said, 'I had a little lady in my office and because of Obamacare, I had to call the IRS and I had to get a number to put on a form before I could see her.'

The claim was false'there's no Obamacare provision that would require anything like this currently in effect. But hey, in the Bachmann campaign, it was fact-checked enough'it came from a SEVEN FOOT DOCTOR! Had he been 6'-6", or god forbid, in his fives, then his claims would've merited more skepticism.

Only communists would disagree.

2. RICK PERRY'S RANCH WAS NAMED WHAT?

I'm still shaking my head over this:

In the early years of his political career, Rick Perry began hosting fellow lawmakers, friends and supporters at his family's secluded West Texas hunting camp, a place known by the name painted in block letters across a large, flat rock standing upright at its gated entrance.

'Niggerhead,' it read.

Perry claimed he had the rock painted over at first chance, though the locals all disputed that claim. What's clear is that the ambitious politician never really thought it would be that big of a deal, or else he would've chiseled that rock out of existence.

But Perry wasn't the only Republican candidate caught up in this story. This one is a twofer.

Herman Cain, in a rare moment of being right, responded to the story thusly:

[S]ince Gov. Perry has been going there for years to hunt, I think it shows a lack of sensitivity for a long time of not taking that word off of that rock and renaming the place. It's just basically a case of insensitivity.

Pretty obvious, right? Well, this was the Republican primary, so Cain got a full-brunt conservative backlash.

At RedState, Erick Erickson concluded, "It also seems to be a slander Herman Cain is picking up and running with as a way to get into second place." Glenn Reynolds remarked that until now, Cain's "big appeal is that he's not just another black race-card-playing politician." Over at the Daily Caller, Matt Lewis called Cain's remarks "a cheap shot, and, perhaps a signal that Cain is willing to play the race card against a fellow Republican when it benefits him."

It wasn't long before Cain apologized for being offended by Niggerhead, while Perry could play the martyr at the gross injustices committed against him by the PC police.

Update: Ack, sorry about forgetting the poll!