At least, that is the take away since it appears that the closer one gets to Rep. Michele Bachmann, the less likely one is to support her presidential dreams.
According to The Minnesota Independent, Ron Carey, Bachmann’s chief of staff in 2010; Gina Countryman, Bachmann’s 2010 congressional campaign manager; and Tim Gould, her Constituent Services Officer in 2010 are all backing former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty for 2012.Countryman going so far as to host fundraisers for Pawlenty.
Carey tries to couch his support of Pawlenty over his former boss somewhat diplomatically by stating that he believes that Pawlenty is more electable than Bachmann would should she receive the nomination, and that he does not want "to have an emotionally filled endeavor only to get 35 percent [of the vote] in November [2012].”
Bachmann is an interesting possible candidate in that she is very much a Tea Party darling, but is perhaps second only to Sarah Palin in her divisiveness. While Bachmann seems to be beloved by a certain portion of the GOP, her actions have left most traditional leaders of the GOP slightly less enamored of her.
Bachmann's decision to go ahead with a second response to the last State of the Union left the leaders of her party in a bit of a quandary. They could not very well order her to not speak, but they were afraid that she would muddy the waters and take away from the official opposition response. In the end, Bachmann's response did not damage the GOP, but it might very well have had a detrimental effect on any national ambitions she might have as her performance was discussed endlessly on the cable news outlets. Bachmann's insistence on looking solely at the Tea Party web cam made her a figure of fun on Saturday Night Live (video to the left).
Bachmann is currently serving her term term in Congress, and has proven to be a reliable socially conservative vote in Congress. Bachmann served on the Minnesota State Senate prior to being elected to Congress. There she pushed for The Taxpayers Bill of Rights, an effort to simplify the Tax Code and to reduce taxes for families and small businesses. All in all, it appears that she was tailor-made for the Tea Party.
Bachmann currently has a seat on the Financial Services Committee, which has oversight of the housing and credit crises. GOP candidates do not stand much chance in New York, which is generally very much a blue state, but with Bachmann's vaunted opposition to the Wall Street bailout in addition to her socially conservative agenda, she is not likely to get much in donations from that sector.
Comments