Good news! Michele Bachmann may run for president in 2016

The outgoing congresswoman may not be ready to leave the public stage quite yet

Published July 23, 2014 4:38PM (EDT)

  (Reuters/Jason Reed)
(Reuters/Jason Reed)

Minnesota congresswoman and Tea Party hero Michele Bachmann, who is planning to leave the House after its current session ends, may have run her last race for Congress — but that doesn't mean she's necessarily ready to stop being a politician altogether.

That's right: Bachmann 2012 may indeed get a much-anticipated sequel!

Speaking with RealClearPolitics on Tuesday, the woman who redefined the word chutzpah for all time said that the media was dropping the ball by focusing on so many potential 2016 presidential candidates who are male when there's a female candidate who may be just waiting in the wings. (Spoiler: It's her!)

"The only thing that the media has speculated on is that it’s going to be various men that are running," Bachmann complained. "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."

Bachmann continued, claiming that her failed run at the White House in 2012 would, if anything, make her better suited than before to seek her party's most important nomination.

"Like with anything else, practice makes perfect,” Bachmann 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 is indeed correct in saying she participated in a high number of presidential debates during the 2012 campaign. On a totally unrelated note, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus has made it known for years that a chief goal of his for the party in 2016 is to conduct fewer debates.


By Elias Isquith

Elias Isquith is a former Salon staff writer.

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