Michele Bachmann: Failed 2011 Campaign, Fundraising Skills Make Her A Serious 2016 Contender

Michele Bachmann is scheduled to retire from Congress at the end of her current term but has not ruled out running for president in 2016.

In a Tuesday interview with RealClearPolitics (RCP), Bachmann was asked whether she expected any Republican women to campaign for the presidency in 2016.

“The only thing that the media has speculated on is that it’s going to be various men that are running,” she replied. “They haven’t speculated, for instance, that I’m going to run. What if I decide to run? And there’s a chance I could run.”

As RealClearPolitics reports, “Bachmann entered the last presidential race in June 2011 as a long-shot contender but was able to use her sway with elements of the Tea Party and an effective media campaign to rise temporarily toward the front of the Republican pack in a deeply fluid race,” and her campaign “soon withered amid a string of gaffes and controversial claims, staff defections, and a rise in the fortunes of other candidates in the race,” and she dropped out of the race early on.

Fast-forwarding to the 2016 campaign cycle, Bachmann told RCP that her prior run at the presidency would be of benefit if she chooses to run again.

“Like with anything else, practice makes perfect,” she said. “And I think if a person has gone through the process — for instance, I had gone through 15 presidential debates — it’s easy to see a person’s improvement going through that.”

Bachmann confirmed that she has not made a firm decision yet as to a possible campaign, but that she thinks that her “fundraising prowess” is a reason she should be taken seriously, calling herself, “one of the top — if not the top — fundraisers in the history of the United States Congress.”“And it’s because people saw that I had an authentic voice, and I was fighting for them,” she added. “I wasn’t speaking to them like a politician. I was speaking like a real person who was fighting for what they believed in.”

Asked about Hillary Clinton, Bachmann suggests the has “fatal problems” related to her time as Secretary of State that “disqualify her” from being president.

Bachmann concluded the interview suggesting that she will make a final decision about her candidacy once she concludes her term in the House.

“I think it’s important to have sufficient time to lay the necessary groundwork to have a really solid campaign and a campaign team put together,” she said. “And I think probably I would think about that decision earlier than I did last time.”

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