Tea Party poster girl Michele Bachmann has thrown her tricorn hat into the ring with her announcement that she’s running for president in 2012. An outspoken “constitutional conservative,” as she has dubbed herself, the three-term Minnesota congresswoman has in the past called for more abortion restriction and a national ban on gay marriage, and has accused President Obama of pushing the U.S. toward socialism.
Other Republicans vying for conservative votes include former Govs. Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Jon Huntsman, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. And, not unlike fellow Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin, Bachmann needs to bone up on American Revolutionary War history. In March, she told a gathering in Manchester, N.H., “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord.” Those famous first shots were actually fired in Massachusetts.
