Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann took a victory lap on the Sunday-morning talk shows after her symbolic win in Iowa's Ames Straw Poll. She beat out Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who later dropped his bid for the GOP presidential nomination.
Bachmann said that she has a broader appeal beyond the Tea Party and social-conservative base, and she can compete on a national stage with other Republican candidates and President Barack Obama, according to ABC News.
"Everywhere I've gone, all across Iowa, there isn't an event that I do that I don't have people come up who say that, 'Michele, I'm a Democrat, and I'm voting for you,' 'I'm an independent, and I'm voting for you,' " Bachmann said on "This Week." "And I think it's because I'm talking about what people really care about, and that's turning the economy around and job creation."
Interesting.
Given her infelicities — or, ahem, "worldview" on black farmers and slavery — she would be a huge gift to President Obama as a GOP presidential challenger in 2012. After all, the Tea Party does owe him for pushing the contentious debt-ceiling negotiations toward a downgrade of America's debt rating, among other things.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that on Monday, the president will begin his bus tour of rural America to discuss jobs. Now he's talking.
Read more at ABC News.
In other news: Curfew Crackdown: 50 Philly Teens Arrested.