Considering the pointed exchange between Michele Bachmann and her since-vanquished GOP presidential rival Tim Pawlenty, we already know that the Minnesota congressman knows how to go for the political jugular.
But on the day after the biggest day of the 2012 Republican presidential campaign — her convincing yet narrow straw poll win in Ames, Rick Perry‘s dramatic entry into the race in South Carolina — Bachmann decided to draw subtle distinctions with her newest rival.
“I think it’ll be good competition for everyone,” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Appearing on Sunday talk show appearances on every news network, Bachmann portrayed herself as a leader in the midst of the most important political battles of our age. (The unstated contrast: Perry has been enjoying the sun and fun in Austin rather than risking the wrath of the national Democratic attack machine.)
“”I’ve been on the front lines and I’ve been fighting,” Bachmann told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “Issue after issue, I’ve been at the tip of the spear.”
In interview after interview, Bachmann touted her “demonstrated leadership” on hot-button issues. And she sought to portray herself as a proven commodity — again, an unstated contrast to the lesser-known Texas governor.
Republicans voters “want to know that the can trust the person that they are sending” to the White House, she told Fox News host Chris Wallace. “I’m a proven fighter in Washington.
The chairman of the Republican Governors Association, he's an establishment candidate who could be an attractive candidate for economic conservatives in this lead-off caucus state who are looking for a candidate to rally around. Enthusiasm for the GOP national front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and his strong economic message has been muted.
Bachmann, who has risen in Iowa polls since entering the race this summer, was reveling in her first-place finish in the test vote Saturday that proved her campaign has the organizational skills and volunteer network needed to compete strongly in the state's caucuses next winter.
"We see this as just the very first step in a very long race," Bachmann said on NBC's "Meet the Press. "There's a lot of work to be done."
A candidate backed largely by the grass-roots, she appeared on all the Sunday morning news programs as she worked to broaden her appeal and challenge rivals more linked to the establishment.
In the straw poll, Bachmann edged past Texas Rep. Ron Paul to win the vote – getting 4,823 votes, or 29 percent, to 4,671, or 28 percent, for Paul out of nearly 17,000 cast. But she trounced home-state rival Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor who had cast himself as an electable establishment choice but ended up drawing 2,293 votes, or 14 percent.
His exit means there's now an available contingent of top GOP staff and consultants, including former state party chairman, former advisers to President George W. Bush and senior advisers to Mike Huckabee's winning 2008 caucus campaign, including Sarah Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor's daughter. Top legislators who had signed on to Pawlenty's camp also now are free to rally behind other candidates.
It's not yet clear the size of the electorate Pawlenty frees up. But it's certain both Bachmann and Perry will try to go after his voters.
"I wish him well," Bachmann said, quick to praise Pawlenty, perhaps mindful of the need to broaden her appeal and reach his backers. "He brought a really important voice into the race and I am grateful that he was in. He was really a very good competitor."
Both Bachmann and Perry were scheduled to speak in a late-afternoon GOP fundraiser, the Black Hawk County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner in Waterloo.
It's Bachmann's birthplace, a point she has stressed everywhere while campaigning for the leadoff caucuses, and she wasn't willing to cede the spotlight to Perry. She changed her plans and decided to attend after Perry announced that he would make his Iowa debut at the event.
"I welcome anyone who's coming into the race, and I think it will be good competition for everyone," Bachmann said. "He'll run his campaign, we'll run ours, but we really look forward to that."
She said she was confident that voters would choose her over him "because I have a demonstrated, proven record that I will fight for what people care about."
Her straw poll victory is expected to give her a boost nationally, especially with fundraising. But it also makes her a target and comes with warnings. Only twice in the five straw polls since they were first held in 1980 has the winner gone on to capture the caucuses.
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