Michele Bachmann returning to Iowa

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who was born in Iowa, is due in Iowa later this month and, according to ABC News, will headline an event for the Iowans for Tax Relief PAC.  ABC’s story includes speculation that Bachmann is pondering a bid for president in 2012.

I drove up to northwest Iowa in April of last year to hear Bachmann speak at a fundraiser for Congressman Steve King.  You can listen to her 43 minute speech by clicking on that link.  She sounded like a potential presidential candidate.

…About 500 people paid $50 per ticket to hear Bachmann and King speak at a meeting hall in Sergeant Bluff, a Sioux City suburb.  Bachmann told the crowd she is a native Iowan who pleaded with her parents not to move north.

“I will never forget the day in sixth grade when my parents came to tell us that my dad had taken a job at Honeywell up in Minneapolis and they were asking us — not asking –  telling us that we were going to move up to Minneapolis and I remember crying. The tears came down my cheeks and I said, ‘I just don’t want to leave Iowa.  I love Iowa,’ and I said, ‘Des Moines is our capital.  How can I move to another state where Des Moines is not our capital?’ My tears had no effect on my parents.  We moved anyway,” Bachmann said.  “But I’m back here today to be here with all of you.”

Bachmann’s mother was from Mason City and both her parents were graduates of Waterloo East High School.  Bachmann, who was born in Waterloo, lauded the State of Iowa and the Iowa Caucuses which are the first contest in the presidential selection process.

“Just a great state (with) the best people, the most down-home people, family people and I think that’s why the Caucuses — the political Caucuses — need to always start here in Iowa because it’s kind of the center of the nation, but it’s also the heartbeat of the nation where the real people in this country are really at, what the real people think about Washington, D.C. is thinking.  Don’t you think that’s true?” Bachmann asked the crowd and she got a wave of applause.  “I think Iowa gets it.  I think Iowa people get it.”

 I asked Bachmann about running and blogged her response.

UPDATE:  Steve Brown of FOX News blogged about Bachmann’s upcoming visit and her presidential prospects.