Michele Bachmann feels "calling" to run for president
Michele Bachmann on Friday said she felt a "calling" to run for president - a statement that seems to suggest she will follow through on her suggestion that she will announce a presidential bid in June.
The Associated Press reports that Bachmann, during the taping of a program for Iowa Public Television, said she "had this calling and tugging on [her] heart that this is the right thing to do.''
Bachmann's statement comes on the heels of announcement Thursday night that she will be holding a June event to make her presidential intentions clear. The Minnesota Republican has been openly weighing a bid for the GOP nomination for months and been traveling to and staffing up in early-primary states.
"We already have hired staff in South Carolina, in New Hampshire, in Iowa," Bachmann told reporters on a telephone news conference Thursday night. "We have people on the ground. We're doing every aspect that we need to be doing in this effort because our main goal is make sure we can turn the country around."
She said the June event would take place in Waterloo, Iowa, the city where she was born and lived through early childhood.
"The announcement will be made in Iowa, and it will be made in Waterloo," Bachmann said, adding that "being born in Iowa gives every advantage -- every advantage a girl would want to have."
Bachmann also said that her decision would be independent of whether or not former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin decided to jump into the race - a possibility that looks increasingly likely.
"My decision won't be dependent on the governor's decision or on anyone else's decision" Bachmann told CBS News' Jill Jacksonthis week.
"I have a lot of respect for the governor and for all of the candidates and so we don't know how long it will be -- people will continue to jump in the race - it could still be this fall," she added. "We don't know."
