Bachmann Kicks Off 2012 Campaign

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) officially kicked off her Presidential campaign Monday, telling a crowd of supporters in Waterloo, Iowa that the country “can’t afford four more years of Barack Obama.”

Touting an overall dissatisfaction with “big government,” Bachmann gave several nods to the conservative movement during her announcement and at one point defended it as more than a fringe phenomenon.

“It’s made up of disaffected Democrats, independents, people who’ve never been political a day in their life, libertarians, Republicans,” Bachmann, the chair of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus” said. “We’re people who simply want America back on the right track again.”

Although Bachmann enters a packed GOP field, a recent poll from Iowa’s Des Moines Register shows that she could unsettle frontrunner Mitt Romney’s lead by winning Iowa, the first primary state. According to the poll, Bachmann trails Romney by only one percent, coming in with 22 percent support from likely caucus-voters compared to his 23.