"I am a real person"
Michelle Bachmann, August 14, 2011
On one hand I want to give Michelle Bachmann credit for being where she is this morning. Six months ago, if you had told most political observers that Bachmann would have worked her way into a short list of three GOP hopefuls, I think you would've found some non believers. I would've been one of them. With her performance in the debates, and a certain determination to stay on message, she's at worst, in the mix for the Republican nomination for 2012. She also survived the gauntlet of the Sunday morning talks shows rather well, I thought.
Much has been made of her one on one battle with fellow Minnesotan Tim Pawlenty. TPaw is history now and maybe part of Bachmann's appeal this morning comes from his inability to swat her aside when he had the chance. Maybe the Bachmann team knew something about Pawlenty's personality, perhaps knowing he wouldn't play too rough with her. Its hard to say but here we are with Bachmann sitting in the seat most of us had saved for Tim Pawlenty.
With the addition of Rick Perry to the campaign, Bachmann would be smart to take a good look around her and make some quick changes to how she engages her crowds. The above story is one of a few I've seen this weekend about how disengaged she has been with people trying to see her. The amount of new info pouring into her head has to be pretty high right now, but Mr. Perry has been in more elections than she and seems to be a little more seasoned.
There's several more debates in the next few weeks, and I think Bachmann will have to up her game. She can avoid a lot of the crowds at her events, but there's no good hiding placed on the national debate stage. She will have to engage.
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