By Patricia Murphy of the Washington Post
- AP photo – Charlie Riedel
It seems like only yesterday that Sarah Palin stepped into a pair of red, Naughty Monkey peep-toe pumps and blew up every assumption about the Republican Party and women. With a briefing book in her hands, a baby on her hip, and a party enamored with her, Palin created the impression in 2008 that the GOP was not only willing, but eager, to elect a women to the highest, or at least second-highest, office in the land.
On the high heels of Palin-mania came a slew of fresh Republican faces like governors Nikki Haley in South Carolina and Susanna Martinez in New Mexico, women winning statewide office for the first time and stopping, or at least slowing, the narrative that only Democratic women will rally around another woman to lift her into office.
Enter Rep. Michele Bachmann onto the 2012 presidential stage. Like Palin, she was a prolific mother, successful fundraiser, unquestioned conservative and telegenic communicator ready to take on Barack Obama and the Republican establishment in a way few of her Republican presidential candidateestablishment in a way few of her male competitors would.
Palin had stumped for Bachmann in her Minnesota district in 2010, rallying their fellow “mama grizzlies” to Bachmann’s side and declaring it the Year of the Conservative Woman. “2010 is shaping up to be the year that conservative women get together to take back this country and Michele is leading the stampede!” But by 2012, the stampede of conservative women supporting Bachmann for the White House was more like a weekend stroll.
Once near the top of the field after a historic win in the Ames Straw poll, Bachmann was eventually relegated to polls in the single digits, with little hope of regaining the momentum she had earlier in the race. Although she committed a string of embarrassing gaffes, stumbles and staff shake-ups, some Republican women in the Hawkeye state say they think they know what happened to Bachmann’s once vaunted chances of becoming president– reality.