The activists of the left won’t have Michele Bachmann to push around anymore. From Politico’s requiem:
She was a bomb thrower, a master performer, a flashy politician with an appetite for combat and perhaps the strongest TV presence of any Republican in Washington.
Maybe they were watching a different Congresswoman. A “flashy politician” usually doesn’t confuse John Wayne with a serial killer. Google “strong TV presence” and you won’t find media training classes based around looking off into space when receiving the gift of national media coverage.
Bachmann was not a model of the modern politician. She lost. Her messaging was incendiary enough for mainstream media attention but devoid of ideas – so while some folks on the right went along for a short ride based on the mainstream media’s shock and vitriol, Bachmann couldn’t carry a movement. Her staff churned throughout the years. The allegations that still hang around her campaigns reek more of absolute disorganization than intentional malfeasance; Team Bachmann doesn’t seem smart and organized enough to be corrupt.
She was a mess, but never a serious force. She fed media coverage for a short time, but had no substance. The heirs to her attention-craving throne (from the left or the right) will flame out quickly, too.
Michele Bachmann was, succinctly, the political equivalent of the girl you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with at a party:
Jim Eltringham 