WASHINGTON – There is an opening that’s made for Michele Bachmann and she knows it. So do her supporters, including those homeschoolers in her home state of Iowa.

Back in March, Bachmann said she’d make a decision in June. But that was before Mike Huckabee bowed out, leaving Iowa evangelical conservatives without a candidate.

During the budget battle, Michele Bachmann’s appearances on the “Today” show and “Daily Rundown” and beyond showed her answering questions like a grown up, a nice change from butchering history, while Sarah Palin was reduced to tweet bursts on the budget.

Post Huckabee, Bachmann’s being rewarded:

“Our Facebook has been lit up. Our donations are pouring in, and people are saying ‘Michele, jump in. We want you to run’. We had announced earlier that we would be looking at a June entry date for a decision, one way or another, about this race. Possibly, we may move that up.” – Bachmann might announce sooner than June (h/t Chris Cilizza)

In fact, the last few months Rep. Michele Bachmann has shown a level of sanity we hadn’t seen before, first by navigating the budget fight without throwing Speaker Boehner under her campaign bus, saying this wasn’t the fight to push to the wall. She also took Obama “at his word” on where he was born, which considering the class of crazy around her actually makes her look.. um.. er.. softer right-wing, if you can swallow that oxymoron.

Bachmann’s politics are obviously not mine. So, trying to pick a word that sounds fair and balanced I’m left with extreme versus wacko. She’s definitely a dedicated conservative with the ability to actually translate her beliefs into a message that gets Tea Party activists excited.

If ever there was a year for a female conservative to throw caution to the wind and chase a presidential dream just like the men this is it.

Depending on what Republican rises, not so much Tim Pawlenty, but if it’s Mitt Romney, a Michele Bachmann vice presidential nomination wouldn’t be out of the question. She’d make a great surrogate taking apart Barack Obama, while being seasoned enough to handle the role, unlike the first female the Republicans picked.

Or could she go from Iowa through South Carolina then… who knows? While Republicans like Texas Gov. Rick Perry put out feelers, with the GOP’s best hope, Gov. Chris Christie, a no go. Jon Hunstman’s looking to Florida, with the help of a Jeb Bush aide, as his headquarters, while Rockefeller Newt’s contagion implosion requires popping more popcorn.

Whoever thought Rep. Michele Bachmann would end up in the on-deck circle for 2012? Certainly not Sarah Palin.

Taylor Marsh is a Washington based political analyst, writer and commentator on national politics, foreign policy, and women in power. A veteran national politics writer, Taylor’s been writing on the web since 1996. She has reported from the White House, been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her blog.