US presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s scathing attacks on Texas Governor Rick Perry may be hurting the front-runner for the Republican nomination for next year’s presidential election and raising questions about her own judgment, but they are also helping another of her rivals — former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Once among the leaders, the Minnesota lawmaker has lately stumbled badly in the race for her party’s presidential nomination to run against Democratic US President Barack Obama.
Top advisers have resigned, her poll numbers have dropped and Bachmann has not attracted the big donors she would need to mount a credible campaign against Obama, whom some say could amass a US$1 billion campaign warchest.
However, she has no immediate plans to drop out, making her campaign an asset for Romney, who has slipped from front-runner to second place since Perry launched his presidential bid last month.
Bachmann scored political points against Perry — boosting Romney — in a debate on Monday night by -questioning his conservative credentials over an order requiring adolescent girls be vaccinated for viruses that can cause cancer, with a vaccine sold by Merck & Co, a Perry donor.
She also blasted Perry for allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at state colleges.
Republican strategist Ford O’Connell said Bachmann had “peeled off” some support for Perry on the sensitive vaccine and immigration issues and that he expected those attacks would continue.
The focus quickly shifted to Bachmann’s own penchant for verbal gaffes after the debate, when she linked the vaccine to “mental retardation,” a claim scientists called irresponsible and baseless.
Bachmann was hit by a firestorm of criticism after her remarks. The influential conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said she may have “jumped the shark” with the vaccinations comment.
“Her really only path to the nomination now is to take out Rick Perry,” O’Connell said.
Perry is supported by an average of 31 percent in the Republican nomination race, to 20 percent for Romney and just 7 percent for Bachmann, according to polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.com.
However, while Bachmann is in the race, she is keeping supporters who likely would otherwise support Perry, not the relatively moderate Romney.
Bachmann was in California, home to many wealthy political donors on Friday, but her campaign said she would be focusing primarily on Iowa, whose caucuses in February are the first binding votes of the nomination season.
Strategists said focusing on the small but important state made sense for the Bachmann team, which is burning through money quickly because her campaign favors highly orchestrated and expensive events.
Although known as a prolific fundraiser in the US Congress — she topped all US House of Representative lawmakers last year — Bachmann has never attracted big-dollar donors.
More than two-thirds of her donations in the second quarter came in increments of US$200 or less. The third quarter is expected to be challenging for Bachmann.
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