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New AirTalk series! Get to know a Republican candidate, first up: Michele Bachmann

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann speaks during the first 2012 Republican presidential candidates' debate in Manchester, New Hampshire June 13, 2011.
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann speaks during the first 2012 Republican presidential candidates' debate in Manchester, New Hampshire June 13, 2011.
(
Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
)
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New AirTalk series! Get to know a Republican candidate, first up: Michele Bachmann
A lot has been made about the weakness of the Republican field, but one of the more recent entrants into the race may change that. Minnesota Republican, Michele Bachmann announced during the FOX news Republican debates a couple months ago that she would be throwing her hat in the ring. She’s been a polarizing figure in American politics for several years now as one of the more conservative members of House of Representatives and one of the most vocal leaders of the Tea Party movement. She’s been lauded and denigrated for many of her policies and for the intense role her Christian faith plays in her politics. She’s also a biological mother of five and a foster mother to almost two dozen teenage girls, all of whom she homeschooled. How did Bachmann get her start in politics? What are her major policy positions? Just how far out on the fringe is she? And…is she electable?

A lot has been made about the weakness of the Republican field, but one of the more recent entrants into the race may change that. Minnesota Republican, Michele Bachmann announced during the FOX news Republican debates a couple months ago that she would be throwing her hat in the ring. She’s been a polarizing figure in American politics for several years now as one of the more conservative members of House of Representatives and one of the most vocal leaders of the Tea Party movement. She’s been lauded and denigrated for many of her policies and for the intense role her Christian faith plays in her politics. She’s also a biological mother of five and a foster mother to almost two dozen teenage girls, all of whom she homeschooled. How did Bachmann get her start in politics? What are her major policy positions? Just how far out on the fringe is she? And…is she electable?

Guests:

Shushannah Walshe, Independent Journalist, co-author of Sarah From Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar

Tom Scheck, Reporter, Minnesota Public Radio