{"id":17093,"date":"2011-01-06T23:01:08","date_gmt":"2011-01-07T05:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=17093"},"modified":"2011-01-06T23:01:08","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T05:01:08","slug":"bachmann-turner-overdrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=17093","title":{"rendered":"Bachmann Turner Overdrive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Think you’ve seen the Best of BTO (So Far)<\/a> when\u00a0it comes to the media’s obsession with Michele Bachmann (and vice versa)?\u00a0 You ain’t seen nothing yet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let’s not bury the lede – she isn’t going to run<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In politics, the rumored presidential campaign for many office holders is a cry for attention about one step removed from binging on aspirin.\u00a0 For near total unknowns like former Godfather’s CEO Herman Cain or heyday politicos like Rick Santorum, the seeking of the White House is game of trival pursuit.\u00a0 Lacking resources and with few political options, candidates like these have nothing to lose and everything to gain with a quixotic bid that likely ends\u00a0in the hometown\u00a0of Iowa State sometime in early August<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bachmann doesn’t lack for attention nor resources, as her $13.4 million campaign haul <\/a>demonstrated.\u00a0 But she may lack options.\u00a0 Hemmed in by Minnesota’ s statewide left tilt, likely ruling out any statewide bid, immediate or otherwise,\u00a0and having lost out as Chair of the House Republican Conference<\/a> to Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Bachmann’s present trajectory would be to become the best known backbencher in the history of Congress.<\/p>\n

A bid for the presidency likely wouldn’t change that – but a possible<\/em> bid for president might.<\/p>\n

Actually running for president involves far too many “make or break” moments for any candidate, let alone\u00a0a three-term congresswoman who, despite her numerous media forays over the years, isn’t exactly\u00a0a household name\u00a0to the average Iowan or New Hampshirite.\u00a0 An exploratory committee or even merely a rumored campaign allows Bachmann the best of both worlds.\u00a0 She can raise copious sums for her Michele PAC, get mentioned in every discussion of the 2012 Republican Primary, dismiss any poll that shows her doing poorly (she isn’t even a candidate, of course) and conversely celebrate any poll that shows her non-campaign campaign gaining momentum.\u00a0 It’s the Fred Thompson strategy – which worked as long as he wasn’t formally running.<\/p>\n

6 or 7 months of presidential media footsie\u00a0and\u00a0Bachmann can raise her national name ID even further, stockpile cash, and thus potentially leverage her pull within the House GOP Caucus.\u00a0 Bachmann hasn’t exactly been embraced by the new House leadership<\/a>, and the feelings are probably mutual.\u00a0 It’s hard to ignore the comments and demands of a media saavy politico.\u00a0 It’s even harder to do so when that politico is seen as gunning for the nomination.<\/p>\n

It’s a somewhat deft political move\u00a0by Bachmann as the end result harms few politicians not named Tim Pawlenty – who suddenly runs the risk of spending the summer of 2011 being known as that other Minnesotan running for president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Think you’ve seen the Best of BTO (So Far) when\u00a0it comes to the media’s obsession with Michele Bachmann (and vice versa)?\u00a0 You ain’t seen nothing yet. Let’s not bury the lede – she isn’t going to run.\u00a0 In politics, the rumored presidential campaign for many office holders is a cry for attention about one step […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,16,105,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-12","category-conservatism","category-first-ringer","category-minnesota-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17094,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17093\/revisions\/17094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}