The Minnesota congresswoman may not be Tom Petty's favorite "American Girl" but she is certainly surging in opinion polls among likely 2012 GOP voters.
The former tax attorney and Republican presidential candidate is stealing the spotlight from her other GOP presidential colleagues as the Waterloo, Iowa native shows strong support in the first in the nation caucus state.
Of course, the odds are extremely long that the three-term congresswoman who calls herself a "self-proclaimed constitutional conservative" will be our next president or even be the GOP nominee for president.
However, the odds are looking much better that the Tea Party favorite will be on the national ticket next year as the vice-presidential candidate.
Bachmann, who served in the Minnesota State Senate from 2000-2006 before being elected to Congress from the sixth congressional district of Minnesota, is a telegenic, lively and forceful speaker.
Being a member of the U.S. House of Representatives has not in the past been the best path to the White House with only House Minority Leader James Garfield having that honor in 1881 (and the Ohio legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate, but he never served).
Having worked for Congressman Mo Udall's presidential campaign, I know how difficult it is for a member of the House of Representatives to get well-known with the voters across America.
However, times have changed since Garfield and Udall and it seems as if cable television can make a politician an overnight sensation, and Rep. Bachmann appears to be on Fox news on a regular basis these days.
Bachmann is an articulate and outspoken advocate for her conservative views on domestic and foreign policy issues that seem to have struck a responsive chord with some of the Republican activists who will come out and say who they want for president on a cold winter night in Iowa next year.
You have to give her credit even if you don't agree with her views. Bachmann, the mother of five children who has also raised many foster children in her home in Minnesota, has proudly declared she is a candidate for president and is in the fight for the GOP nomination.
While Sarah Palin is playing games by showing movies of her time as governor (she quit that job) and taking bus trips and acting coy and vague, the Minnesota Congresswoman, who has not quit any of her elected positions, is in the race and mixing things up quite well at the moment.
Let Sarah Palin sit on the sidelines and the serious candidates will get the GOP message across quite well.
There have been other female candidates for higher office other than former Senator Hillary Clinton in 2008. Senator Elizabeth Dole tried a brief run for the GOP nomination for president. A former Democratic congresswoman Pat Schroeder tried for the Democratic nomination and the late Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1984.
Bachmann who states, "I'm not part of the good ole' boys club, and I have no intention of joining" is a credible candidate with a very definite point of view. Some analysts have said she cannot point to any legislation she is associated with in her three terms in Congress, but people said that about former Senator and Congressman John F. Kennedy in the 1960 campaign and our current president Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign.
Obviously, if Bachmann were to win the GOP nomination, she would have to quickly move to the center in the general campaign on her views to attract the very needed Independent vote to win the White House.
The odds are extremely long against the Minnesota congresswoman to win the GOP nomination for the presidency, but the odds are more in her favor to be the vice-presidential nominee to pep up the GOP ticket.
Remember back to the pre-caucus and primary days of 2007 and the odds were also against Senator Barack Obama winning the Democratic nomination for president.
Stranger things have happened in American politics and will certainly happen again in 2012, and as the non-candidate who should stay a non-candidate might say "You betcha."
President Bachmann -- it probably won't happen, but it cannot be ruled out and a spot on the GOP national ticket is quite likely for the Winona State University graduate with a LLM in tax law from William and Mary.