“Before we get started, let’s all say “Happy Birthday” to Elvis Presley today.”

1. “Before we get started, let’s all say “Happy Birthday” to Elvis Presley today.” -Michele Bachmann, while campaigning for President in South Carolina on what was actually the anniversary of Elvis’ death (Aug, 16, 2011).

2. MICHELE BACHMANN2012 Republican Presidential Candidate Michael Hall and Kathryn McDaniel

3. BIOGRAPHY • Born in Waterloo, Iowa on April 6, 1956 • Raised in a family of Democrats, but later became a Republican in her senior year of college • Graduated from Winona State University with a Bachelors Degree in 1978 • Received a Judicial Degree from Oral Roberts University in 1986 • Received a Masters Degree in tax law from William & Mary School of Law in 1988 • Married to Marcus Bachmann, a clinical therapist • Mother to five children • The Bachmann family has provided foster care to over 23 children • The Bachmann family has very strong Christian beliefs and they run a Christian counseling center • They are currently living in Stillwater, Minnesota

4. POLITICAL EXPERIENCE • Founder of the House Tea Party Caucus • Worked for Ronald Reagan’s campaign in 1980 • She entered into the world of politics in 1993 when she founded the K-12 New Heights Charter in Stillwell, Minnesota. It was a public school with a strong Christian orientation and she was warned that it was in violation of state law. She later resigned and Christian orientation was removed from the curriculum. Bachmann then began speaking against educational standards for the state. • In 2000, she defeated Gary Laidig for the Republican nomination of Minnesota State Senate and eventually won the position. • In 2005, she was removed from her position because of her disagreements with Dick Day regarding her anti-tax stance. • Bachmann is a Republican member of the House of Representatives, representing Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District since 2007. • First Republican woman to represent Minnesota in Congress • First woman to win the Ames Straw Poll hosted by the Iowa GOP • She announced her candidacy for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination on June 27, 2011. Republican

5. PLATFORM • Supports the teaching of creationism, alongside evolution in public school science classes • Opposes minimum wage increases • Supports eliminating the federal minimum wage because she believes that would “virtually wipe out unemployment” • Supports increased domestic drilling of oil and natural gas and the pursuit of renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar energy • Supporter of nuclear power • Opposes Social Security and Medicare • Opposes the United States being a part of the international global economy • Opposes same-sex marriage • Opposes immigration • Opposes abortion because of a personal experience involving the miscarriage of her second child • Opposes federal-backed home loans • Supports the Tea Party movement, which supports reduced government spending, opposes intense taxation, and supports the reduction of the national debt and federal budget deficit

6. POLLING NUMBERS • In mid July, Bachmann stood at 13% on ABC and 16% on NBC, but in September their polls showed a drop to 6% and 8% respectively. REASONS FOR DECLINE: • Rick Perry’s entrance into the Republican Presidential Campaign • There is national lack of faith for Bachmann’s ability to repair the United States’ economic situation • The Republican Party is looking for a candidate who can beat President Obama in the 2012 election and they don’t believe she has the strongest chance. CURRENTLY: • Michele Bachmann’s polling numbers are still in heavy decline and her campaign raised less than 5 million dollars in the third quarter of 2011, well below the amounts raised by Romney and Perry’s campaigns.

7. DEBATE PERFORMANCE • Bachmann’s debate performances were very strong during the summer • In June, she had a debate with fellow candidates: Palin, Romney, Paul, and Pawlenty. • The feeling after the debate was that Bachmann was the winner and Pawlenty looked like the clear loser of the debate. • Most people believed she was a legitimate candidate to win after this debate. • However, the general consensus has been that Bachmann’s debates have not gone very well since receiving top honors in the Iowa straw poll in August. • Most people believe she has not stood out during the debates as much as her fellow candidates, Romney and Perry, have. • In September she made some high-level staff changes for her campaign to jumpstart it again. However, most people feel this is a losing effort and one of Time Magazine’s writers, Joe Klein asserted that it was now a two-way race between Romney and Perry.

8. NEWSPAPER/MAGAZINE COVERAGE • In August, Time Magazine said, “Bachmann vowed to repeal the "abomination" of Obamacare and to slash federal spending and regulations, which she likened to "tying cement blocks onto the job creators in this country." As usual, the petite Minnesota Congresswoman delivered a fireworks display of colorful metaphors. "They're now experiencing morbid obesity in Washington," she said. "They're gonna go on a diet!” • In October, Fox News said, “Her "American Jobs, Right Now" framework calls for tax accommodations that would give companies incentive to re-invest at home money that presently is earned abroad. She also would decrease government worker salaries, eliminate an inheritance tax and roll back a slate of federal regulations. That includes repeal of President Barack Obama's signature health law.” • The Daily Beast said, “Belief is the key to understanding Michele Bachmann. Her impressive performance, which catapulted her close to the front of the presidential pack, surprised some, who perhaps expected her to be as inarticulate as Sarah Palin, to whom she’s often compared. But in Minnesota, even those who don’t like her politics say she shouldn’t be underestimated.”

9. PERTINENT INFORMATION • Controversy: • Bachmann signed a Christian conservative pledge that stated that African American children were more likely to grow up in stable families during the era of slavery than under President Barack Obama. • Obviously this offended many African Americans, but Bachmann claimed she had no malicious intent behind the statement. • Bachmann also offered her now infamous take on American colonial history in which she declared that the Founding Fathers “worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States.” Bachmann then framed her speech as an argument against the “slavery” of the national debt. “It is a slavery, it is a slavery that is a bondage to debt and a bondage to decline,” Bachmann said. • Most people feel that comparing something as terrible as slavery to anything that is occurring today is completely absurd.

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