Canada: "Palin is a joke. So is Bachmann. The Field of potential GOP candidates is so pitiful that even the king of the comb-over: Donald Trump is doing well in the pre-election polls."

The National Post

Tea Party eyes a strong woman to run for President. No, not THAT woman
By Araminta Wordsworth

No, it’s not Sarah Palin, though the former Alaska governor still has lots of time to throw her hat into the ring.

Rather the woman taking aim at the White House is Michele Bachmann. The two-term representative from Minnesota is reportedly testing the waters in Iowa, where the 2012 campaign officially kicks off in January.

With Republicans in disorder and suffering from a lack of charismatic candidates — who can be enthused by the prospect of having to weigh the relative merits of Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney again — it’s possible she even has a chance.

In addition, the prospect of two women vying for the GOP’s presidential nomination comes like a bolt from the blue. Palin and Bachman going mano a mano could inject some real excitement into the proceedings.

Or as Terry Branstad, the Iowa governor, puts it, “If Congresswoman Bachmann gets in, she has the potential to appeal to a lot of people who might have gone for Governor Palin. Imagine if they both got in. That could make it really interesting.”

News organizations such as The New York Times and Time magazine are taking Bachmann’s candidacy seriously for now. As the magazine’s Michael Scherer observes,

“Bachmann has barreled into the dead calm, keeping a rigorous schedule in Iowa and New Hampshire, adding what Iowa Representative Steve King calls an “electric” jolt …
Bachmann knows how to seize the moment. In six short years, she has risen from anonymous newcomer to become a national GOP leader who rivals Palin in star power. The skills and views that make her a hero to many conservatives have turned her into a favorite target of liberals who flinch at her inflammatory rhetoric and factual flubs. Gallup found that 24% of Republicans have a ‘strongly favorable’ view of Bachmann, third behind Huckabee and Palin. In the 2010 election cycle, she raised $13.5-million, more in a two-year period than any other U.S. representative in history, tapping a network of 160,000 donors.”

Blogging for The Hill, Shane D’Aprile and Jordan Fabian note,

“The vacuum created by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s absence from the 2012 campaign trail presents a major opportunity for the woman she once hinted might share a presidential ticket with her: Representative Michele Bachmann.
With strategists and conservative activists increasingly convinced that Palin won’t make a run for the White House next year, she is losing some clout among her contingent of grassroots devotees who are eager to hit the 2012 campaign trail and rally behind an alternative to President Obama.
Bachmann, who is mulling a 2012 run, is the most obvious choice to supplant Palin in next year’s presidential contest. The Minnesota Republican is positioning herself to take up the anti-establishment mantle that vaulted Palin to Tea Party stardom …
‘She basically is Sarah Palin,” said [a] top Republican strategist in Iowa, who’s already signed on as an advisor to another 2012 hopeful. ‘In terms of her appeal to a specific part of the electorate, the two are about as similar as any two candidates get.’ ”

At Death & Taxes, Andrew Belonsky homes in on the Palin/Bachmann rivalry.

“There are pragmatic and political reasons for comparing Bachmann and Palin. They are both socially conservative Tea Party favorites who would be in direct competition for not only their base, but the rest of their party, if they run: Since they’re such polarizing figures, Bachmann and Palin will have to convince the establishment they are viable candidates — no small feat for either.
And both need to overcome equally embarrassing geographical gaffes: Bachmann recently placed the Revolutionary War’s first shots in New Hampshire, rather than Massachusetts, and Palin will forever be remembered for seeing Russia from her backyard.
The most glaring comparison, though, is also the most simple: Palin and Bachmann are both women, and a race between them fits perfectly into our nation’s catfight-loving culture.
Hopefully, though, Bachmann and Palin can avoid the traditional “girl fight” paradigm, because not only does such a narrative diminish their potential qualifications, it could divide the Republican party’s female base, turning the GOP’s primary into a battle as bitter as the one that played out between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s Democratic supporters in 2008.”

Doug Thompson at Capitol Hill Blues believes Tea Party candidates face an uphill struggle at any level, thanks to their scorched earth performance in Congress.

“The Tea Party-backed field of candidates who swept to victory in 2010 are pushing too many extremes on Capitol Hill and support for them is dropping in poll after poll.
Palin is a joke. So is Bachmann. The field of potential GOP candidates is so pitiful that even the king of the comb-over — Donald Trump — is doing well in pre-election polls.
There’s little doubt that Democrats deserved to lose control of the House in 2010 and that fact alone gave the Tea Party-backed candidates an edge they would not have had in saner times. And like the Republicans who swept into power in 1994, those who won failed to realize that it was voter backlash against the other side — not an endorsement of extremism — that gave them victories on election day.
So they came to Washington with fire in their eyes and started pushing their extremist issues. Now voters have buyer’s remorse.”

compiled by Araminta Wordsworth
awordsworth@nationalpost.com


http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/04/05/tea-party-eyes-a-strong-woman-to-run-for-president-no-not-that-woman/