ChemistryEquipment: Rise to stardom

A mother-of-five from Iowa has emerged as one of the front-runners in the Republican race to take on Barack Obama in next year's US presidential election. So could Michele Bachmann end up in the White House?

All the momentum among Republicans dreaming of the Oval Office is currently with one woman.

Michele Bachmann, a Tea Party favourite and Minnesota congresswoman, is gathering a head of steam in her attempt to win her party's nomination next year.

One day after dominating the Sunday political shows, the former tax lawyer formally launched her campaign in her home state of Iowa, which hosts the first stage in the Republican contest in February next year.

An Iowa poll published in the Des Moines Register on Saturday places her alongside Mitt Romney at the head of the Republican field, well ahead of the rest. That's encouraging for her supporters -but the same poll in 2007 proved to be wildly inaccurate.

Palin v Bachmann

"The parallels are obvious, but they're unfair. Bachmann's managed to shake the comparisons and defined herself. Not long ago I was referring to her as Palin 2.0 but not any more. She's got her own identity, which is critical for her survival."

Jennifer Duffy, Cook Political Report

More compelling evidence of her chances was provided by her impressive performance at a televised debate two weeks ago.

Selling her own attributes on Fox News at the weekend, Ms Bachmann said: "I'm 55 years old. I've been married 33 years. I'm not only a lawyer, I have a post-doctorate degree in federal tax law from William and Mary."

She added: "My husband and I have raised five kids, we've raised 23 foster children. We've applied ourselves to education reform.

"We started a charter school for at-risk kids. I've also been a state senator and member of the United States Congress for five years."

To match her experience, Ms Bachmann has a rags-to-riches story.

Michele Amble was born in Waterloo, Iowa, to Democrat parents of Norwegian descent, but she was brought up by her mother in Anoka, Minnesota, with three brothers, after her mother's divorce.

Aged 16, Michele Bachmann discovered God when, in her own words, "people were coming to the Lord left and right." After graduating from law school in Oklahoma, she studied for a degree in tax law in Virginia.

She worked for the Inland Revenue Service for five years and then left her job to become a full-time mother when she had her fourth child, before pursuing a political career.

“In her Iowa declaration, she pressed all the right buttons for this very conservative state”

Mark Mardell North America editorBachmann's promised land

"I think Michele Bachmann is the total package ," says Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

"She's articulate, telegenic and has a depth of policy in every level of government - local, school board, state legislature, Congress.

"And she offers that unique combination that really captures the zeitgeist, which is a marriage of the social conservative and Tea Party activist."

This broad constituency of self-identified Christian evangelists and their social conservative allies makes up about 41% of Republican primary voters, says Mr Reed, but it's too early and too simplistic to say any one candidate has their bloc vote.

Ms Bachmann has got herself into trouble with past remarks, to the extent that on Sunday, Fox News presenter Chris Wallace bluntly asked her: "Are you a flake?" He later apologised.

There have been several gaffes, like declaring while in New Hampshire that it was the birthplace of the American Revolution, and that the founding fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery.

And there have been some strong views, such as the time she accused liberals like Barack Obama, then a senator for Illinois, of having anti-American views.

But her consummate performance in a prime-time televised debate two weeks ago marked the emergence of a more disciplined operator, says Larry Jacobs, a professor in political science at the University of Minnesota.

Mr Jacobs, who has met Ms Bachmann about a dozen times, describes her as very engaging in person and smarter than the media portrayals depict her.

Bachmann's politics

For:

Spending cutsPro-lifeFamily values

Against:

Tax increasesBailoutsGay marriageObama's healthcare plansEnvironmental Protection AgencyTeaching of evolution

"Her brand of conservative populism speaks to the resentments, frustrations and anxieties of voters. She also has a clear identity. Some of the other candidates, like Mitt Romney, it's hard to say what he believes in."

Being the only woman in the race will be an advantage, Mr Jacobs believes, because she can present a different face of the Republican party, one that does not belong to a white male southerner.

However, being a conservative mother with strong opinions and a native of a northern, snowy state has a familiar ring to it.

Comparisons with Sarah Palin are obvious, and the choreography of their schedules brings this into sharper focus this week.

The former Alaska governor, yet to say whether she is running for president, is due in Iowa on Tuesday for the screening of a new documentary about her life called The Undefeated.

Yet these kinds of commercial ventures have lost Mrs Palin credibility and support among conservative populists, says Mr Jacobs, while Ms Bachmann has earned both.

Fundraising is always a crucial factor but Michele Bachmann - with a very experienced campaign team - has proved adept at mining a wide network of donors at grassroots level, each giving small sums.

She also has a more intangible gift - to electrify a crowd - says Arne Carlson, who served as Republican governor in Minnesota when Ms Bachmann was in the state legislature.

Bachmann launched her campaign in the town where she was born, Waterloo, Iowa

"She has the ability to instantly feel an audience and to relate to that audience. And she represents a strain in American thought that Washington and New York don't understand.

"In the Mid West, there's a very deep suspicion of Wall Street and she plays to that."

But the best candidates don't make the most suitable people for governance, Arne Carlson says. Michele Bachmann sees America in very nostalgic terms, he notes - everyone goes to church, everybody has a job and everybody shares the same civic and religious values.

This plays to a narrow base, while the urban, racial or religious diversity of America is not acknowledged, Mr Carlson says. He contends that beneath the surface of her politics, there are some clear flaws.

"The utilisation of the Bible to tell you what's constitutional and what isn't. That's very disturbing," he says, describing her ideology as a no-compromise approach to the debt ceiling, taxes and social issues.

So how far could Michele Bachmann go? There is concern, says Larry Jacobs, that the Minnesotan lawyer could do well in the primaries among conservative voters but then struggle in a general election.

"It's increasingly plausible that she could win against Mitt Romney," he says.

"But whether she could win against Barack Obama is one of the big debates going on in the party behind the scenes."

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