At CPAC, Bachmann bashes ‘Obamacare’ and Pelosi, offers everyone a free drink

If there one way to win the coveted presidential straw poll at CPAC, it’s to offer everyone in attendance a free drink. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who’s rumored to be running in 2012, kicked off the conservative gathering on Thursday with a rousing speech bashing “Obamacare” and Rep. Nancy Pelosi that included an announcement that she was hosting a party Thursday evening — and the bar tab was on her.

To Saturday Night Live fans, Bachmann joked, “Someone told me I need to find the right camera,” alluding to criticism of her tea party response to President Obama’s State of the Union address by the sketch comedy show.

“It’s a new day in Washington, D.C. We have so much to be grateful for,” Bachmann said. She talked about the three-legged stool of the movement which includes fiscal conservatives, social conservatives and security hawks.

“You have been part of the down payment on bringing back liberty to America,” she said. “You helped pry that gavel out of Speaker Pelosi’s hands. She wasn’t really willing to let John Boehner have it, but he got it.”

Bachmann praised the election of Republican governors and state legislatures across the country in 2010 because they will control the redistricting process.

“The political lines will be drawn with these new governors and representatives controlling the chambers across the country. If there was ever a time to make a change, this was it,” she said. “This was a historic change election and this was the change we were hoping for.”

Then she offered a free drink to those in attendance as thanks for their work.

“I think after all that work, I think it’s proper and fitting that we throw ourselves a big party,” she said. “At 5:30 pm, I’m throwing a party, the bar tab is mine, so let’s party hardy tonight. And the bar tab is on me!”

She threw the activists plenty of red meat as well. “If President Obama wins another term… we will be in debt to the tune of $21 trillion. That’s six years from now.”

She continued, “The president of China is named Hu [Jintao]. With all the money we owe China, I think we might rightly say Hu’s your daddy!”