Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann Go Head to Head

The Tea Party’s reigning queens — Michele Bachmann vs. Sarah Palin — have more in common than camera-ready looks: they share the same social conservative base and similar fiery rhetoric and policy objectives. Pundits and politicians alike think Bachmann “has the potential to appeal to a lot of people who might have gone for Governor Palin.”

BLTWY squares Palin off against Bachmann to see who has the makings of a U.S. president (or a GOP presidential nominee at the very least).

Current vote tally:

Michele Bachmann 60%

Sarah Palin 40%

A Sarah Palin/Michele Bachmann Inspiration

Related reports on this site

Dueling Divas: Bachmann vs. Palin (June 9, 2011)

Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. (Photo credit: Robyn Beck / AFP — Getty Images)

Michele Bachmann Personality Profile (June 13, 2011)

Click image for larger view

Sarah Palin Personality Profile (July 3, 2009)

Click image for larger view

Michele Bachmann Up-Close (Sept. 6, 2010)

Bachmann: “Don’t Let Them Palinize Me! (Aug. 14, 2009)

Michele Bachmann’s March of Folly (July 10, 2009)

FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — April 6, 2010

Iraq-Afghanistan Casualties

One year ago today, I provided my weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Marine Lance Cpl. Curtis M. Swenson, 20, Rochester, Minn., died April 2, 2010 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, when the Humvee he was riding hit a roadside bomb that flipped the vehicle. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii and had previously served a tour of duty in Iraq, in 2008. Swenson enlisted in 2007, the year he graduated from Rochester Mayo High School.

At Bethel Lutheran Church in Rochester, Minn., Swenson was remembered as a “quiet leader” and a good listener who befriended younger kids in the youth group. He was active in that group and enjoyed the outdoors — hunting, camping, fishing and skiing. He also was one of the Bethel Believers, the church softball team for which he had belted a grand slam in his last performance, along with another homer.

Survivors include his wife, Katie; parents, Dave and Kay Swenson; and his younger sister, Emily.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — April 6, 2009

String of 7 Baghdad Bombs Kills 37

An Iraqi police officer walks by a wrecked car where a bomb struck in Baghdad, April 6, 2009. (Photo credit: Ali al-Saadi / AFP — Getty Images)

Two years ago today, on April 6, 2009, I reported that seven bombs rocked Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing 37 people and wounding more than 100 in a dramatic escalation of violence as U.S. forces prepared for a June 30, 2009 deadline to pull combat troops out of Iraqi cities.