Ladies Battle to Revive GOP

Eve versus Eve, the heated Republican duel between Sarah Palin and Michele (with just one l) Bachmann is very interesting, and not just for the American media. Once upon a time they spoke of the two from the Tea Party only as a pair, Sarah and Michele, always together not to divide, but to multiply the impact of the GOP base. A base that is angry and politically incorrect.

Only now can their faceoff on the road to the White House reinvigorate the hopes of the Republican Seven Dwarves, the 2012 candidates for the presidency, who encompass everything from Mormons (Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman) to unknown governors (Tim Pawlenty) and pizza moguls (Herman Cain). Not necessarily because the feminine faceoff between Palin and Bachmann would increase the small chances of the Right Nation against Barack Obama, who has already thrown himself into his election campaign, but because this duel will shine the spotlight on the American right that seemed to have been reabsorbed into the ‘Republican establishment’ after bittersweet results in the midterm elections.

However, of the two, the only official candidate is Bachmann, who launched into the race from her hometown of Waterloo, committing gaffes and blunders that don’t hold a candle to those of her bitter friend Palin. Blunders like confusing the legendary John Wayne with an infamous one from the town where Bachmann grew up; famous, not as a cowboy actor, but as a criminal and public threat. But this doesn’t faze Bachmann because she knows that the ruthless American media would love nothing more than a mud-slinging match between her and Sarah. Both buzzing around Iowa, one of the decisive primary states, not to mention that, candidate or not, the ex-governor of Alaska was recently present at the premiere of a laudatory documentary about her called The Undefeated.

Undefeated or not, Palin continues touring the nation in her tour bus, hounded by the press who are drawn in by her pop star aura. A following that could help her capitalize on her fame with a candidacy for the White House, but that, on the other hand, might cause her to call it quits and hold on to the money and lifestyle of a television celebrity.

Similar, yet so different: tribal Sarah, always surrounded by family and friends, while Michele confides in Ed Rollins, a veteran of Republican spin. Bachmann is ready for the showdown; she has already sparred with her opponents in a televised debate, while Palin prefers to play the solitary star, performing one-on-one interviews. Bachmann remains the relatively unknown congresswoman who still cannot match the notoriety — both positive and negative — of John McCain’s ex-right-hand gal.

At one point, the two ladies seamlessly entered the canon of the mama grizzlies who warm the hearts of tea partiers everywhere. Bachmann is perhaps more attuned to the political fabric that Palin completely lacks with her outright outsider persona, leather jacket and Harley, reality shows and gossip mags.

What could be more interesting than a lady challenger to the first African- American president of the United States? It’s up to these “American girls” like the lyrics of Bachmann’s campaign song explain, taken from the ultra-Democrat Tom Petty. Will it end with hanging chads? — last call for Republicans in 2012.