Former presidential candidate and Tea Party poster girl Michele Bachmann is back in the news, reminding us why we shouldn’t take anything that happens in the early, early days of two-year campaigns too seriously.
You may recall, though understandably few do, that former congresswoman Bachmann was once considered a serious contender, even a leading contender, for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.
That seems awfully weird now.
She recently went on a radio show called “Understand The Times” and explained that President Obama is almost certainly ushering in the Apocalypse by ditching Israel and snuggling up to Iran.
"If the United States turns its back on Israel, as our president is doing today, in my opinion, we cannot continue to indulge in the fantasy that the United States will be free from receiving the negative blowback, or curses, in biblical parlance, that could come our way and they could be severe," she said.
But there’s good news, too – the Second Coming could be just around the corner.
"We need to be so on fire right now about the things of Christ and the things of God,” the former presidential candidate said. “That needs to occupy our time and our thoughts virtually from morning to night because we have very little time, in my opinion, left before the second return of Christ. That's good news!”
Hard to believe that back in August 2011, Bachmann actually won the Iowa straw poll, making mincemeat of Ron Paul and Tim Pawlenty, and trouncing the Mitt Romney at the back of the pack.
“The straw poll was particularly important for the Minnesota representative, who sought to build on her early buzz and prove to a skeptical Washington establishment that she is not an unelectable candidate with narrow appeal,” according to CBSNews.com.
After a debate in New Hampshire that summer, USA Today said Bachmann “returned to Washington Tuesday morning to accolades from pundits as the new break-out star of a Republican presidential race that is finally taking shape.”
Bachmann didn’t get the nomination and indeed took just 5 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. She ended her race after that.
Keep that in mind as you read this season’s stories about the opportunities of the long shots and the obstacles of the front runners.
[Also by Dick Meyer: Americans are placid despite prosperity gap]
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