michele bachmann But in a development that just weeks ago seemed improbable, the three-term Minnesota congresswoman inserted herself firmly in the Republican presidential sweepstakes with a polished and confident debate performance largely wrung of the overblown, and frequently false, rhetoric that has made her a cable news favorite. She also used her moment on the national stage, which she shared with six other candidates, to announce that she had formally filed her papers to run for president. The announcement comes less than eight months before the first GOP presidential nomination contest will be held in Iowa, the state of her birth.
The savvy political move, which came just 11 minutes into Monday night's nationally televised event, guaranteed that her name would dominate early stories flooding the Internet about the debate. The event also featured former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who, according to polls is an early frontruner, and Bachmann's fellow Minnesotan, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty. The disciplined 55-year-old congresswoman managed to use the scattershot nature of the CNN-sponsored event to personalize her conservative stance on cultural issues, while repeatedly placing herself in a position of action: introducing bills, participating in "closed-door meetings" about pressing issues of the day, and fighting "against my own party" on stimulus spending. With Romney and Pawlenty treating each other with kid gloves - "T-Paw" disappointed debate-watchers who expected him to double down on criticism of health care legislation signed into Massachusetts state law by the then-Gov. Romney - Bachmann emerged as a significant story line.
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