Michele Bachmann might run in 2012

Michele Bachmann is suddenly a sought-after Presidential candidate. She knows it and will soon say whether she will run for President.

Michele Bachmann as Tea Party Congresswoman

Representative Bachmann (R-MN-6) has earned the affection of Tea Party activists around the country. She has been a member of the Tea Party Caucus in the House since July of 2010. On October 31, 2009, she sent out a call, with a week’s notice, for people to drive or ride buses to Washington, DC to protest the healthcare reform bill. Despite the short notice, thousands of people swarmed on the West Lawn of the Capitol on November 5. “You came!” she exulted. “More importantly, you came to the People’s House!” And those who watch Michele Bachmann remember that event with affection, even eighteen months later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cXq0WlwDiE

Her official Facebook page has 145,748 “likes” at last check. She updates the page often, with graphs like this showing the country’s $3.5 trillion budget. She also has her own blog at Townhall.com, and her own “leadership PAC” that raised $175,000 in April alone.

Recent preparations

Michele Bachmann has sent e-mail messages on several conservative mailing lists throughout the weekend, to sound people out on whether she should run. This afternoon (May 17) she showed up on Fox News Channel’s America Live program. There she said that, though most people expected her to announce in June whether she would run for President, she might announce sooner than that, now that former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR) and real-estate developer Donald Trump have both quit the race.

Our phones have been ringing off the hook; our Facebook has been lit up; our donations are pouring in and people are saying, “Michele, jump in; we want you to run.”

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One activist who might want her to run is Roy Beck, head of NumbersUSA, a group that wants the government to admit fewer immigrants and especially to stop and deport illegal immigrants. Of nine prospective Republican candidates for President, Beck (no relation to Glenn) gives Michele Bachmann the highest grade in the class, a B minus. Beck gives her high marks for opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants and “birthright citizenship” (granting automatic citizenship to anyone born in-country, whether the parents are in the country legally or illegally). She also has called for securing the country’s borders, ordering businesses to use the “E-Verify” system (an instant immigration-status check), and supporting local police in their efforts to enforce immigration laws.

Patrick J. Buchanan predicts that she will enter the race. He doubts that she would win the nomination for President, because other likely candidates have much more money to spend. Today on the Laura Ingraham show he suggested that Michele Bachmann would end up running for Vice President on a ticket with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

Michele Bachmann a longtime friend of Israel

In fact, some activists have wanted her to run for President for two years. American Jewish World said on March 4, 2009, that Michele Bachmann should run, and would have the mettle to fight what will likely be a vicious campaign. Seraphic Secret editor Robert J. Avrech noted that Bachmann has consistently said that America must support the State of Israel. In February of 2010 she spoke to the Republican Jewish Coalition and even cited Genesis 12:3 to make her point:

[I]f the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . [A]s a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel.

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(See also this post from Israpundit shortly after her speech to the RJC.)

In March of 2010 she gave an interview to a Jewish site based in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She described her experiences on a kibbutz near Beersheba in the Negev, less than a year after the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and her three visits to Israel since her election to Congress in 2006.