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Washington Watch: Is Michelle Bachman Ready For Prime Time?

By Arlen Specter

Congresswomen Michele Bachman's candidacy for the Republican nomination was given a boost by her performance at the recent New Hampshire Debate. She has become the darling of the Tea Party as a result of her ultra-conservatism and her red meat rhetoric like her July 4th speech from a Waterloo, Iowa pulpit. A July 7, 2011 poll had her trailing frontrunner Mitt Romney by only 7 points, 25 to 18 with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at 11.

But Ms. Bachman has stumbled on some embarrassing factual mistakes, like saying movie actor John Wayne was from Waterloo, her birthplace, when it was really John Wayne Gacy, a notorious serial killer. She was also 50 years out of date when she said the Founding Fathers of the Constitution worked tirelessly to eliminate slavery.

Such factual errors and extreme positions, like saying Democratic members of Congress should be investigated for un-American thinking, have led commentators like Hardball's Chris Matthews to call her a "balloon head" and even Fox's Chris Wallace to question whether she's a "flake."

Last year, I found her a surprisingly articulate opponent in an impromptu radio debate. I had been invited by Philadelphia talk show host Dom Giordano for an interview when he was in Washington talking to House and Senate members. Shortly after the program began, Ms. Bachman came in, surprising me, joined the conversation, and repeatedly interrupted. When she persisted, I asked her to stop interrupting and "act like a lady." My comment brought me an avalanche of media criticism. I thought, and still think, asking somebody to "act like a lady" was proper, even polite, but perhaps generational. In any event, she generated the media attention she sought and did very well in the debate for someone with less than three years of Congressional experience confronting someone who had been around substantially longer.

Notwithstanding her foibles, she is photogenic, charismatic and energetic. With more care and coaching, she could become a real contender in the crowded field with no dominant potential nominee.

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