The Huffington Post reports that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann will officially launch her campaign for president on Monday, June 27, in her birthplace of Waterloo, Iowa.

Bachmann is set to announce the details of the event on Wednesday morning, Alice Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Republican, told HuffPost. News about the Monday event did not come from Stewart or from Bachmann headquarters, but from sources with knowledge of the event.

Coming off her strong performance in last week’s Republican primary debate in New Hampshire, Bachmann and her staff have kept a low profile, allowing the candidate to ride the wave of positive buzz into this week.

Bachmann is in position to perform well in the Hawkeye State given her strong conservative credentials, her dynamism on the stump and the fact that she was born in Iowa and lived there until her family moved to Minnesota when she was 12 years old. …

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Related report

Bachmann to Launch Presidential Election Campaign Monday

Michele Bachmann (Photo credit: The Associated Press via Huffington Post)

June 21, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS — Conservative Republican Michele Bachmann will officially launch her presidential bid in Iowa on Monday, a source close to her campaign said on Tuesday.

The representative from Minnesota, who announced her intention to run [link added] at a Republican debate in New Hampshire last week, will hold a kick-off event Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, where she was born, the source told Reuters.

Bachmann, 55, is founder and head of the House Tea Party Caucus [link added]. She was one of the first elected officials to court the movement [link added] that helped fuel Republican gains in the 2010 midterm elections with calls for spending cuts and reduced government. …

Bachmann saw a jump in political donations [link added] in May, aided in large part by small contributions as she revs up her fundraising machine for the 2012 Republican nomination.

She was hailed for her performance at the first major television debate between the Republican candidates last week, although she has a reputation for gaffes [link added]. …

Full story

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 Related video

Breaking News: Bachmann is in it to win it (MSNBC “The Ed Show,” June 20, 2011) — Ed Schultz says Bachmann is perfectly positioned to win the Republican nomination. (01:32)

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Background report

Ready or Not, GOP (and America) — Here Comes Michele Bachmann

Rep. Michele Bachmann

By Eric Kleefeld
Talking Points Memo
June 8, 2011

Excerpts

Like it or not — and believe it or not — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is poised to jump into the GOP presidential primary. While she could end up being a serious contender in her own right, her entry into the race will perhaps be even more significant for the scrambling of strategies it could set off among her fellow candidates.

When Bachmann first started making noises about a possible presidential run, it seemed more like a gambit to keep attention on her pet issues. She said this past January that she could have up to 12 months to decide, seemingly putting a decision as late as just slightly before the Iowa caucuses. …

Another significant sign that Bachmann could be a real player came with the recent news that she was signing longtime Republican operative Ed Rollins to run her campaign. Rollins, who managed President Ronald Reagan’s landslide re-election in 1984, and was national director for the insurgent GOP primary candidacy of Mike Huckabee in 2008, confirmed to ABC news that he would join the campaign (if Bachmann chooses to run, of course). And while there is no formal title yet, he added, “as the oldest person in the room, it’s safe to say, I’d be in charge.”

Of course, Rollins is now making some headlines of his own, by slamming Sarah Palin — a Bachmann ally who once campaigned with the congresswoman in a high-profile rally — and extolling how much better Bachmann would be as a candidate. Rollins has badmouthed Palin in the past. So if Palin were to run or is thinking of getting in, this would be an early warning shot across her bow.

One GOP hopeful who Bachmann could definitely cause problems for: Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of her home state. …

As Bachmann keeps pointing out on the trail, she was born in Iowa, which could help endear her to caucus-goers. Beyond that, she has an advantage many other Republicans don’t: She doesn’t just speak Tea Party fluently, but as a first language. After all, it was all the way back in March 2009, when the Tea Parties were just barely being formed, that she called for revolution in America against President Obama [link on this site added]. As such, she has serious potential to push the level of rhetoric in the primaries even further to the right than they were already heading.

All of this helps Bachmann in a very particular way. It’s clear from observing her events, whether a Capitol Hill Tea Party or a small GOP event in North Dakota, that she quite simply likes campaigning. She likes meeting voters, delivering a speech to a large crowd or a small one, and getting either one of them fired up. As the primaries really commence in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and elsewhere, do not count that out.

Of course, this has often led to some amusing off-the-cuff fumbles. She once told a conservative rally at the Capitol: “It’s the charge of the light brigade!” (The Light Brigade lost) [added link on this site]. She also misplaced the historic Revolutionary War towns of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, into New Hampshire [added link on this site]. And in an infamous House speech, she blamed Franklin Roosevelt for something called the “Hoot-Smalley” tariffs [added link on this site].

But at the end of the day, the same qualities that often lead Bachmann to the edge of rhetorical cliffs, are the same that ignite fervor among her base in the far right wing of the GOP. …

Full story

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Related reports on this site

Click image for larger view

Michele Bachmann ‘In’ for President (June 13, 2011)

Take Michele Bachmann Seriously (June 11, 2011)

Michele Bachmann for President 2012 (June 1, 2011)

Michele Bachmann’s Political Résumé (May 17, 2011)

Michele Bachmann: Eyes on the Prez (May 16, 2011)

Michele Bachmann Running for President (March 24, 2011)

Michele Bachmann Eyes ‘Madam President’ (Sept. 9, 2009)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — June 21, 2010

Oil Spill Fundamentalist Threat

One year ago today, I featured a prophetic view of BP’s Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil drilling catastrophe from a Christian fundamentalist, conspiracy-theorist perspective.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — June 21, 2009

Bagram Air Base Attacked

Medics treat three children who were wounded by a truck bomb attack close to a Shiite mosque near Kirkuk, Iraq, on Saturday, June 20, 2009. (Photo credit: Emad Matti / AP)

Two years ago today, on June 21, 2009, I reported that a rocket attack on the main U.S. base in Afghanistan killed two U.S. troops and wounded six other Americans, while a truck bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in Taza, near Kirkuk in northern Iraq, killing more than 70 people in the deadliest attack in the first six months of 2009.