As a candidate who doesn’t want to get confined to a social conservative ghetto in an election year that is revolving around fiscal and economic issues—and as someone with a well-earned reputation for extremism—her strong “constitutional conservative” stance indicates, but only to those who are trained to listen, a decidedly radical agenda that is at least as congenial to rabid social conservatives as it is to property-rights absolutists or anti-tax zealots.
Bachmann is the celebrity candidate of the moment, enjoying both polling success in Iowa and spurious attacks on her husband. What I’ve concluded reading some of the journalism on Bachmann[1] is that she runs an effective campaign with little of the disorganization that has marked Sarah Palin’s inner circle. More importantly, she has message discipline and a competent staff. Of course, all of this is in service to a truly radical agenda.
By David Weigel and Matt Taibbi, among some others I can’t recall. Update: Jonathan Chait.
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