From Bloomberg:
It was supposed to have been a big moment for Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota — headlining a Republican dinner in Des Moines, Iowa’s largest city, ahead of a potential presidential campaign announcement next month.
Then a late vote in Congress kept her in Washington last night and a political shadow appeared, as Sarah Palin announced a multiday East Coast campaign-style bus tour that will kick off with a May 29 appearance at a motorcycle rally for veterans in Washington.
Original movie posterPalin’s “One Nation Tour” is stirring speculation that she will enter the race for the Republican presidential nomination, in which she and Bachmann would compete for much the same constituency.
…snip…
“I think she is trying to make a preemptive strike to maybe convince Bachmann not to run,” said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University in Ames.
The Iowa caucuses, scheduled for Feb. 6, kick off the 2012 presidential nominating contests. Bachmann, whom Palin helped to boost onto the national stage, stands to be especially hurt if the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee enters the race.
…snip…
Bystrom said that if both women were to run in Iowa, neither would win the caucuses because they would split the vote of Tea Party activists and social conservatives.
…snip…
The Republican field appears to be solidifying [wouldn’t congealing be a better word?]. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, real estate developer Donald Trump and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour have all announced in recent weeks that they wouldn’t enter the contest.
Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty formally entered the race May 23 with an announcement in Des Moines. Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, visited Iowa today for the first time this year; his campaign said yesterday that he would announce his candidacy on June 2.
Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, so his decision not to run provides an opening for those who can appeal to the social conservatives who were his most loyal supporters.
…snip…
In the 2008 Republican caucuses, 60 percent of participants described themselves in entrance polls as born-again or evangelical Christians.
Charlie Black, a lobbyist and Republican strategist who is neutral in the party’s race, said Bachmann “has gotten a real head of steam up and is generating a lot of support among the social conservative and evangelicals that Palin would need” to mount a successful presidential bid.
That may have played a role in persuading Palin to reassert herself on the public stage, with an eye toward preserving the option of launching a presidential bid, he said.
Bachmann, 55, belatedly made it to Iowa today and during an interview on “Iowa Press,” a statewide public television show that is a frequent stop for presidential candidates, she said she has been praying about the decision over her presidential announcement.
…snip…
After her television interview, Bachmann told reporters that she doesn’t believe Palin timed her announcement to overshadow her.
“I didn’t take it that way at all,” she said. “I consider Governor Palin a friend and colleague. Whatever her plans are, I wish her well in her plans. The decision I’m making is completely independent and unique of any other candidate.”
…snip…
Republican activists said they were eager to see Bachmann join the field, and think that she could be a strong contender.
“She does well with social conservatives and fiscal conservatives and she does well with the Tea Party people,” said Kevin McLaughlin, chairman of the Republican Party in Polk County, Iowa’s largest. “She certainly will be a player.”
Nationally, in a Gallup poll released yesterday, Bachmann trails Romney, Palin and other official and prospective Republican candidates. Romney had 17 percent and Palin was second with 15 percent in the survey of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. Bachmann received 5 percent.
Also ahead of her were Representative Ron Paul of Texas (10 percent) former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (9 percent), businessman and one-time talk radio host Herman Cain (8 percent) and Pawlenty (6 percent).
…snip…
Bachmann said in an April 29 interview that her strategy would be to marry support from socially conservative voters in Iowa and South Carolina with that of Tea Party backers in New Hampshire.
She has become an uncompromising spokeswoman for conservative positions on social and fiscal issues, prodding Republican leaders not to cooperate with President Barack Obama’s administration. Inflammatory comments she has made — she suggested during the 2008 presidential campaign that Obama may have “anti-American views” and recently compared the national debt to the Holocaust — have raised questions about her prospects as a presidential candidate.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
Dream ticket with popcorn: Palin for prez with Bachmann as Veep. 😆
as entertaining as that would be, i think i would be heartbroken that the country had fallen so far.
Less the country, more the Republican party. I thought they would be healthy opposition, but they’ve devolved. Their “leadership” is vacuous. They’re untethered and dealing with a monster deficit of ideas. The void has filled with nuts. It’s a good history lesson for me. 😉
they have no leadership. that’s why they sit by the radio and the tv to see what rushbo and faux news have to say. they’re all wusses who don’t have the balls to say what they really think and stick by it.
Maybe they can share… the racists with Palin and the nuts with Bachmann…
maybe they can do it by the type of tea their parties are. earl grey goes to princess sarah, and oolong goes to batshit bachmann. of course, orange pekoe goes to bronzo the clown, and there is no green tea in the rethuglican pantry.
Ahem, my pantry is full of green tea.
So don’t get your pantries in a wad.
it’s okay, kaylaspop. elizabeth is cool. she’s a republican, but she’s open-minded. 🙂
Your pantry may be full of green tea, but you’re the kind of Republican Coffee Party USA wants to reach out to.
Here’s a post from the leading member of our small but hopefully growing contingent of moderate Republicans.
http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/climate-change-convert
Full disclosure, I’m on Coffee Party USA’s Impact Team.
Nice article. I think that best describes my political orientation (moderate Rethug). I accepted National Geographic’s word on global warming decades ago. I would never, ever vote for an evangelical Christian (Palin, et al), but I have to admit that Palin and Huckabee are charismatic characters. And Paul Ryan? I would shtup him in a Minnesota minute (you would too nonnie…admit it already).
Witness the party crasher who won’t go home.
like i said above, kaylaspop, elizabeth isn’t a teabagger. be gentle, and maybe we can make her see the light when it comes to the present rethuglican party. 🙂
what melissa said in the other post, elizabeth–not even with lindseypoo’s vag-jay-jay! 😆
i meant rethuglican politicians, elizabeth, not the few republicans who are still in their right minds. 😉
Think I have died and gone to hell. No other way to ‘Splain how either of these crazy should be considered for dog catcher assistant, much less anything else.
the real shame is that neither one would even have a shot in hell if not for the unending attention that the media gives them. what a shame that kids today will look at them and think that they don’t have to study and work hard to be successful. they think that all they have to do is be loud and obnoxious and mean in order to get attention.
Palin vs Bachmann? This should be good. often the most vicious conflicts occur between opponents whose real ideological differences are tiny.
Looking at that “Battle of the Brainless” picture I keep getting an image of the two opposing factions of teabaggers waving Neiman-Marcus tags on one side and the Sign of the Shitting Bat on the other, like the Gourd and Sandal factions in Life of Brian.
(Well, I’ll be honest, it also makes me think of the porno parody that someone will inevitably make of this battle.)
But I hope they do take each other down by splitting the wingnut vote. I realize they’d give you much better material to work with over the next year and a half than, say, Romney would, but the country couldn’t afford it.
i don’t think that princess is going to get into the race. she just wants her name in the news so she can get attention for her next reality show. it’s too bad, because i would love to see all the other candidates constantly mentioning that she’s a quitter who left her job as governor in order to cash in.
Even with 400% magnification I couldn’t read the tag hanging off Palin’s dress, but I am going to make an educated guess that it says Neiman Marcus (I know a nice dress when I see one). Of course, I have been paying attention now that you have introduced me to Michele Bachmann. The woman has raised 28 (?) children, five of them foster children. Hard to harbor any ill feelings toward her knowing she has a nurturing soul. I realize that does not translate to necessarily having the skills to nurture our nation, but I have to admire her on a personal level. One thing I like about your blog is how your posters and caricatures carry over to TV as that is what I ‘see’ when they are interviewed or profiled (truly life imitating art).
you’re correct, elizabeth. it’s a neiman marcus price tag (well, sorta. it’s a price tag that i stuck the name of the store on). it’s a running gag here. if you look at the old posters with princess, many of them have the price tag.
batshit bachmann did have 23 foster kids over the span of 6 years (according to her son). on the surface, one would ooh and aah over her selflessness, but knowing batshit bachmann, i wonder if it was part of her religious zealotry. was she saving her own soul, or did she want to make sure that the spirit was injected into the kids? then again, maybe it was the 30 bucks a day per kid. i bet she didn’t turn that down. by the way, all the kids were teenage girls. i wonder why there were no boys in need of michele’s nurturing nature. hmmmm….
the reason i’m skeptical is that her husband marcus runs a christian therapy center that claims to ungay gays, and every time i see him, my gaydar sounds like a car alarm. i think it’s another case of christian overcompensation. just watch and listen to him:
OMG nonnie…howling!! Here are some of the comments left by viewers:
“Oh my god. He’s totally gay. No wonder why Michelle is so homophobic. When he talks a Prada purse falls out of his mouth.”
“Gayer than an Easter bonnet.”
“Damn, he is gayer than me and I am currently wearing a red damask caftan and smoking Virginia Slims from a long cigarette holder.”
I had no idea…
😆 i hadn’t read the comments. those are hilarious!!!
here’s a nicer video. (kids, the girl in the very beginning of the video is bebe, elizabeth’s lovely daughter)
News story of the week: BB anounced that there would soon be an anouncement about making an anouncement! And the Bearwoman said “fire in the belly” four times in less than 2 minutes in an interview (preggers again?). Sarah should really team up with Tim for a Paws and Claws ticket. And now the Iowa caucus is being marginalized as a gathering of kooks by party mainsteamers. And word has it that 5 or 6 states are back to the Dec/Jan thing to get the jump on NH primary. When the Moefest gets to debates, I will be disapointed to see less than 30 candidates on the stage, and thats just the “serious candidates. The cops will have handcuffs if Alan Keyes shows up, just like last time when he got tossed.
Just saw at oliverwillis.com- she writing on her hand AGAIN!
i saw a pic of her hand with the scribble all over her palm. i guess she had to remind herself that she was supposed to say nice things about motorcycles and veterans. she’s such a phony piece of shit. she really is.
i can’t wait for the 2 bimbos to turn on each other publicly. will they just be catty, or will the claws come out? i want to see blood. the funny thing is that princess isn’t really going to run. she just can’t stand that there’s another female stealing her thunder (no pun intended). she’s the narcissist of narcissists.
If they both run, will there be a knock-down drag-out over who gets to claim the title of “Most Mavericky”?
maybe they can duke it out in a giant tub of jello. if nothing else, rich lowry will become catatonic, and we’ll never have to hear from him again.
nonnie,
i smell a troll nearby…….
everything’s copasetic, sara sweetie. see what i said above. elizabeth is welcome here. 😀
i bow to your superior expertise!
😀
How about Palin and Todd in a “Easy Rider” scene from the movie of the same name?
i’m going to charge you extra for the next-day service, fred. thanks for the idea. there’s a hat tip waiting for you. 😀
writechic stole my comment, although, would it really matter which one was on top?? 🙄
It would make for highly entertaining debates (especially for Barack and Joe).
heard a rumor from a decent source, that Barack might make Hillary his VP choice and Joe gets Secy of State……..
That rumor has been going around for a year now. I read it in New York Magazine’s Daily Intel blog.
i was just going to say the same thing, though i have to admit, i would love it if it happened. i’d love to see a female veep. i really think hillary would win obama a lot of votes. i don’t see it happening though. it would be interesting if biden took over the state department. with all the gaffes he makes, he can charm you right out of your socks.
well, I guess we are a little slow here in Florida!
a debate with either one of them can’t be entertaining, what with the bleeding of eardrums that results whenever one of them screeches. the transcripts would be pretty damned funny though! 😉
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neither of these two complete ****s (there are some words left unwritten) would be anywhere without the media
they are charlie sheen and lindsay lohan – only with potential hands on the buttons.
who wants to be a movie star when you can be a political star
seriously. this is so much easier. you don’t have to really do anything or know anything. you just put on makeup for the cameras and talk smack.
In America, it’s what’s for dinner.
😆