Retiring Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) hasn’t ruled out running for president in 2016, she said today in an interview with Real Clear Politics. In her view, there’s lots of chatter about “various men” running, she explained, but virtually nothing about women.
Perhaps, then, she and other conservative women shouldn’t be so easily discounted:
Bachmann made the revelation during an interview, in which she was asked for her view on whether any Republican women might seek the Oval Office in 2016.
“The only thing that the media has speculated on is that it’s going to be various men that are running,” she replied. “They haven’t speculated, for instance, that I’m going to run. What if I decide to run? And there’s a chance I could run.”
Bachmann entered the last presidential race in June 2011 as a long-shot contender but was able to use her sway with elements of the Tea Party and an effective media campaign to rise temporarily toward the front of the Republican pack in a deeply fluid race.
Some Republicans might understandably balk at this suggestion. Yes, she defeated her rivals in the Ames Straw Poll in 2011, but despite this largely feel-good victory, her campaign never really got off the ground after that. What chance realistically, then, does she have? The field in 2016 will presumably be stocked full -- and overflowing with -- solid GOP candidates: former and current governors, youthful senators, and perhaps even a certain world-renowned surgeon. Is there room, in other words, for another tea party candidate in the mix, especially one who flamed out so early during the 2012 cycle?
Then again, Bachmann, by her own estimation, is a prolific fundraiser who has something almost none of the other presumed GOP candidates have: experience.
“Like with anything else, practice makes perfect,” she said. “And I think if a person has gone through the process -- for instance, I had gone through 15 presidential debates -- it’s easy to see a person’s improvement going through that.” …
“I haven’t made a decision one way or another if I’m going to run again, but I think the organization is probably the key,” she said. “To have an organization and people who surround you who are loyal, who are highly competent, who know how to be able to run the ball down the field in state after state -- because now I think the primary process will be very different this time. It will tighten up; it will be a much shorter run than it was before.”
To her point, Christie et al. have never debated 15 times in front of a national television audience before...
Parting thought: Since we now know, as of today, that former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) is pretty much all-in in 2016, is a Bachmann/Santorum ticket currently or possibly in the works? Hmmmm.