Esme's Blog: Bachmann Rising, Pawlenty Crashing?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- There was a time not so long ago were you could see the following bumper sticker on the random vehicle in the Twin Cities: Squirrels for Bachmann, Because She is Nuts. Now Rep. Michele Bachmann stands as a front runner in the Republican Presidential sweepstakes.
The latest Des Moines Register poll is a stunner. Bachmann got 22 percent of the support from likely caucus goers, Mitt Romney got 23 percent. With a margin of error of plus or minus five percent, that is a statistical dead heat.
As for former governor Tim Pawlenty, this poll is, as a columnist for the Des Moines Register points out, a devastating disappointment.
No other candidate has invested as much as Pawlenty has in Iowa. Bachmann, who will formally announce her candidacy in her hometown of Waterloo Monday, has taken the race by storm. With the economy reeling, Republicans have a backdrop that could well position them to sweeping wins in 2012.
President Bachmann? The squirrel bumper stickers are a little tattered now. Bachmann is no longer a punch line, she is a front runner.
