Well–according to Bachmann’s Dem opponent Tarryl Clark–this is a real possibility. From Ben Smith at Politico, the text of a fund raising email:
Bachmann said she would run for president if she felt called to it, and said in another interview that it’s not what she’s doing “right now” – leaving the door wide open. She remarked recently to FOX News that her supporters want her to run for president. And Bachmann’s multiple trips to Iowa prompted Politico to report:”Bachmann has been receiving a little attention in conservative circles as a potential presidential candidate in 2012. And like so many other Republicans seeking a national profile, an early trip to Iowa, with its first-in-the-nation caucus, provides an opportunity to test-drive her presidential appeal.”
There’s no doubt that Bachmann has been working diligently to raise her national profile, recently appointing herself the head of the Tea Party in Congress and forming a national fundraising PAC to help right-wing candidates around the country. And in the past few weeks alone, Bachmann has popped up in Michigan, Missouri, New York, and Nevada.
According to Politico, that’s from Bachmann opponent Tarryl Clark’s fund raising email.
According to me, Clark’s right. There’s no reason to doubt that Bachmann’s aiming for the White House–at the top or the bottom of a future GOP ticket. That’s what all the “out of state campaigning” represents. I’ve been writing about this for years now. Her base is national; not limited to Minnesota or the Sixth Congressional District of Minnesota.
It makes perfect sense if you understand that Bachmann’s been groomed for this career path by the leadership of the national evangelical right. She is in their stable of candidates and politicians; a particularly successful protege. She’s certainly not theonly evangelical machine protege aimed at the White House–but she’s one of ‘em.
As a member of a White House ticket she will keep the right on board: the media conservatives, their vast audiences, and millions of conservative evangelical voters. And so far she’s been quite successful in co-opting the support of the new “tea party” brand. (Though she’s run into trouble this year by endorsing establishment GOP over tea party candidates, at this writing she and Sarah Palin are still the teabagger favorites.)
Her presence on a White House ticket would assure the candidates of endless hours of enthusiastic free promotion over the airwaves on evangelical Christian broadcast stations around the country–coupled with endless hours of attacks on the godlessness of any opponents. That translates into a big election advantage, a big GOTV advantage.
The stumbling block (for me, anyway) was always this: to get to a White House ticket, tradition tells us that a candidate has to have some kind of real leadership experience. Not just election victories or status within a party, but some real experience demonstrating successful leadership in government. In the past, holding a senate seat or governorship or an important command in the armed forces have been the stepping stones to the White House ticket.
Bachmann doesn’t have anything like that in her resume so far. Despite the fact that she’s been in elected office for ten years, she has no noteworthy legislative achievements to her name.
But is she is nationally popular with conservatives and the conservative media. There’s no doubt that (despite her lack of achievement) she’s a hero to the American right. Earlier this year, I went out on a limb and speculated that this might be her moment–that the next move in her career would be to go for the governor’s mansion or a Senate seat here in Minnesota.
But she didn’t enter the governor’s race here in Minnesota (instead a Bachmann fan named Tom Emmer clubbed aside his GOP opposition to get the nomination; too bad for the Bachmann right in this state because polls show any of the leading Dem candidates beating him in November.)
The next time she could mount a Senate challenge would be against Minnesota’s Senator Amy Klobuchar; that’s years away.
So what’s the deal with all the “out of state, out of district” campaigning: the non-stop appearances on conservative broadcasting, in evangelical media, the national tours to speak before conservative interest groups and audiences around the country? Why the focus on the creation of a national profile for this particular right winger, if the goal isn’t the White House?
Bachmann has broken the “rules” of conventional political wisdom before; she’s famous for breaking them. (For example, the rule about how “macaca media moments” can ruin the career of a conservative politician–Bachmann’s had many, many moments like that; they simply roll off her back.)
It may be that Bachmann and her mentors have decided that rule about demonstrating the capacity for leadership prior to a White House run simply doesn’t apply to her particular career. They may believe that she can go straight on to a White House ticket–without having demonstrated the capacity to lead and govern–simply because she can bring the right, the extreme right, and millions of conservative evangelical voters with her.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/…
Next:
As of July 21st: fifty-one members of Congress had joined Bachmann’s Tea Party Caucus. (That’s that national leadership thing; a way you get to be recognized as a leader without ever having run anything.)
http://bachmann.house.gov/News…
Next:
Andrew Breitbart presents…Michele Bachmann!
http://biggovernment.com/mbach…
Next:
There’s this guy in a t-shirt out in a shed in Michigan, he’s doing a You Tube broadcast, and he is mad at EVERYBODY (except Ron Paul.) There’s video below. But he posted an email he got from Focus on the Family, I’m reprinting it here…
Got an email from Family Research Council …
READS: “Please forward this to a friend”…so I’ll post it to my friends here …Dear John,On September 17-19 in Washington, DC, FRC Action will join with The Heritage Foundation, AFA Action, American Values, Liberty University/Liberty Counsel and Family Research Council, to bring you the 2010 Values Voter Summit. Registration is just $99 for this three-day event which Dr. Bill Bennett has called “the most exciting meeting there is in Washington.”
Confirmed speakers include Representatives Michele Bachmann and Mike Pence; Governors Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney; Dr. Bill Bennett; Senator Rick Santorum; The Duggar Family; a Hollywood panel with Dr. Ted Baehr, Nancy Stafford (“Matlock”, “Quantum Leap”) and Robert Davi (“Die Hard”); a Tea Party panel featuring Amy Kremer, Chairman of Tea Party Express, Katy Abram, who started a firestorm when she confronted Senator Arlen Specter at a Town Hall meeting and Billie Tucker, Organizer of the First Coast Tea Party; Star Parker; Phyllis Schlafly; Lila Rose; Herman Cain and many more.
If we will join together, pray for our nation and take an unyielding stand for faith, family and freedom, we will succeed in stopping an out of control president and Congress and redirect America’s future.
Standing (Ephesians 6:13),
Tony Perkins
Now here is the guy’s video. It’s him in his shed, doing his show. Is that “Foreigner” in the opening montage, or “Styx?” His use of jump cuts is extraordinary, but he says he’s in need of job. The YouTube video is eleven minutes long; I suggest you skip through his reading of the excerpt from Proverbs and hear what he has to say about “what it all means.” I cannot understand why this man has been marginalized by the American right.
There’s no doubt that Bachmann has been working diligently to raise her national profile, recently appointing herself the head of the Tea Party in Congress and forming a national fundraising PAC to help right-wing candidates around the country. And in the past few weeks alone, Bachmann has popped up in Michigan, Missouri, New York, and Nevada.
