Michele Bachmann: Media want "mud wrestling fight" with Sarah Palin

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann reportedly told a voter Wednesday that the media want her to get into a "mud wrestling fight" with potential presidential rival Sarah Palin.

"They want to see two girls come together and have a mud wrestling fight," the Minnesota congresswoman said in South Carolina, according to CNN, "and I am not going to give that to them."

Bachmann also said there was room for both her and Palin in the presidential race, arguing that Republicans should remember to keep focused on "the ultimate goal" of defeating President Obama next year.

Bachmann has faced hard questionssince announcing her campaign tied to her frequent past misstatements, and critics have suggested sexism may have something to do with her reception. (Particularly galling to critics was Chris Wallace of Fox News asking Bachmann if she is a "flake.")

In a Tweet Wednesday, a top aide to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Stacy Kerr, wrote, "Bachmann - she'd never get my vote, but she has my ire at how media is treating her. they'd never treat a man like this week of announcement."

Palin, who maintains she has yet to decide whether she is getting into the racedespite her daughter Bristol's suggestion that she has made up her mind, was in Iowa Tuesday for the premiere of a documentary celebrating her career. After watching a montage of liberal critics in the film, she asked The Hollywood Reporter: "What would make someone be so full of hate?"

Polling suggests Palin remains a divisive figure, even among Republicans. A poll from Hays research group released Wednesday found Palin losing to President Obama in a hypothetical presidential matchup in her conservative-leaning home state of Alaska.

In the survey, 40 percent of Alaskans indicated they backed Mr. Obama, while 31 percent said they backed the former governor.