At this point, anything that doesn't resemble "Obama wins" is an exciting thing for conservatives to see. While the straw poll isn't anything official as far as the race goes, it's probably more interesting to note that Ron Paul, highly organized in this sort of contest didn't win. He in fact ran second. Bachmann won. Does that help her or is it just what was expected?
Where Bachmann takes this is the real interesting side of the story. She's favored in Iowa already, so anything other than a win would have been a bigger story. With Texas Governor Rick Perry having announced today as well, the news of the Bachmann win, while not muted, might be shortened. Attention will no doubt shift to Perry and perhaps as well to speculation of whether Palin will soon join Perry as a 'late' entrant.
Bachmann having won the first debate, having handled herself well in the second debate and having won the straw poll, is already under pressure to find a way to keep her momentum up. That's an odd situation for someone with momentum to have to face. She may not have been able to have performed much better in terms of results and yet she's still facing an uphill battle.
Nevertheless, despite the Newsweek cover picture, she hasn't faced the kind of assault as Sarah Palin has. In that light, I'm sure Bachmann has at least one way she can put some positive self-motivating thoughts around her solid performance that to date has not seen the national fruits that she could reasonably expect.
Romney's still in first? No big deal. She's a winner in Iowa and it's not a game changer? No worries. Newsweek put her on the cover in a very unflattering photo? Oh well. After all, whatever they do to her won't be as bad as how Palin was treated. And it will be obvious and discounted by many voters because of what happened to Palin.
Palin was the trailblazer when it came to unfair treatment and Bachmann can only benefit from that, whether Palin decides to run or not. Although if Palin runs how does that work exactly for Bachmann? While it does take the pressure off Bachmann, it also removes the spotlight and the image of the cagey anti-establishment favorite. And Perry trying to occupy the same space the picture gets even more complicated.
Truth be told, I've always found the whole haiku thing confusing,
As Ron Paul scares the hell out of me as to his defense stands (a shame really because on the economy he is spot on), the fact is there is something about Michelle that really stands out and that is she stays true to her principles and her words. At the moment and from what I cab see so far for her career, she doesn't seem to be just "lip service" as to her actions. Her actions speak as loudly as her words and in unison to boot. something extremely rare in the cesspool known as politics.
ReplyDeleteMy gut feeling is she might have the strongest constitution of any candidate out there. The fact that she and she alone of the declared candidates openly tells the establishment to in effect "bite me" is in itself a sign of a possible true leader.
Ron Paul has a lot of good ideas, but a lot of dangerous ones as well. I think he'd make a good financial adviser to a president but I think even that would require a tough fight to get his approval through the legislative branch.
ReplyDeleteBachmann has a lot of strengths and would make a fine President. But the biggest knock against her is that her shot at winning the general election against Obama is considerably weaker than that of Perry or Romney. That's because she is deemed more fringe than other candidates. That doesn't make her wrong, just a harder sell for centrist voters. My suspicion is that she will do well in some of the early states but will fade over time as the press goes after her more. Sad but likely true.