Rep. Michele Bachman, the Tea Party favorite who is quickly filling the space Sarah Palin once filled in media interest, Tea Party interest, and as the symbol of a powerful wing of the Republican party — and who has upped her political game in terms of her own professional political performance — is now officially “in.” She has announced her bid for the 2012 Republican nomination.

Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann made it official Monday and became the latest Republican to launch a bid for the White House.

Calling herself a “bold choice,” the Minnesota congresswoman launched her campaign Waterloo, Iowa, where she was born 55 years ago.

In typical fashion, Bachmann began by blasting President Obama for what she called “four years of failed leadership.”

“We can’t afford four more years of Barack Obama,” she said. “We cannot continue to kick the can of our problems down the road, because they are problems of today and not tomorrow. We cannot continue to rack up debt on the backs of future generations.”

Bachmann also took aim at Obama’s historic health care reform, which she called an “unconstitutional health plan that costs too much and is worth too little.”

Bachmann did not say how she would solve the economic problems or wind down the wars that Obama inherited from the Bush Administration.

CBS News notes:

Bachmann has assumed the mantle of the top Tea Partier in Congress, as head of House Tea Party Caucus. She embraced that affiliation today, defending the Tea Party as a diverse movement.

“The liberals… want you to think the Tea Party is the Right Wing of the Republican Party. But it’s not,” she said. “It’s made up of disaffected Democrats, independents, people who’ve never been political a day in their life, libertarians, Republicans. We’re people who simply want America back on the right track again.”

Her contention is almost always dismissed by some but polling does (or rather did) show some Dems in Tea Party ranks. The poll most sited is not from 2011 which could make a big difference given the national decline in Tea Party popularity. The Hill April 2010:

Four in 10 Tea Party members are either Democrats or Independents, according to a new national survey.

The findings provide one of the most detailed portraits to date of the grassroots movement that started last year.

The national breakdown of the Tea Party composition is 57 percent Republican, 28 percent Independent and 13 percent Democratic, according to three national polls by the Winston Group, a Republican-leaning firm that conducted the surveys on behalf of an education advocacy group. Two-thirds of the group call themselves conservative, 26 are moderate and 8 percent say they are liberal.

This underscores her potential strength as a candidate and weakness: to make inroads as a serious versus niche contender for a national campaign she will have to be able to smooth over rough edges once-sympathetic Democrats and independents now perceive about Tea Party members.

It’s all about maintaining an existing constituency and then making the efforts — via homework and hard, professional political work — to expand that constituency…a task at which Sarah Palin has seemed notably, glaringly uninterested.

Bachmann launches her bid on a strong note: she did well in a recent televised debate, is virtually tied with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in an Iowa poll, and signalled how serious she is about running by hiring the controversial longtime Republican pro and cable talking head pro Ed Rollins — whose influence some suggest has already become evident in the way she has improved her rhetorical political game and image on television. Even MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, once her loudest media critic, has professed himself fascinated with and impressed with her determination to go for it via the professional political route.

Bachmann remains in stark contrast to Palin who increasingly seems to be someone who feels she can maintain a following and make big bucks the easy way — by TV appearances, Facebook, Twitter, imagery shaped by a virtual propaganda film and a stream of one liners and snark. Palin avoids appearing before reporters who ask tough questions (sorry, Sean Hannity does not count) or in debates with other candidates where she can’t rely on scripted replies of 140 character typed responses.

Palin’s strategy to solidify a power base by becoming a Republican political celebrity (versus a politician who talks in more than controlled circumstances) seemed like it could actually work until Bachmann made it clear she was going to aggressively seek the nomination, assembled some pros around her, and showed that she intends to work to expand her existing constituency.

Even if Palin announces now, it won’t be a breeze for her. She’d have to go head to head with Bachmann.

Reuters offers this fact box to place her candidacy into perspective in terms of the other candidates in the race.

The New York Times report underscores the political smarts of Bachmann and, most likely, the influence of Rollins:

As a new Iowa poll this past weekend signaled she’ll be a force in the state that opens the Republican nomination contest, Bachmann hopes to reshape the GOP field and how she’s viewed by voters. After the formal Iowa kickoff, she planned to shift her focus to New Hampshire and South Carolina, other early voting states with traditions of separating the viable contenders from the political also-rans.

Bachmann, 55, has many wondering if the edgy side that turned her into a conservative star will be the one she shows on the presidential campaign trail. Her say-anything approach has earned her a loyal following but also plenty of guff from detractors who see her as a fringe politician prone to missteps.

In March, she famously flubbed Revolutionary War geography. She told a group of students and conservative activists in Manchester, N.H. “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord.” Those first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in Massachusetts, not New Hampshire. She later admitted she made a mistake.

For this campaign, she has surrounded herself with no-nonsense veterans of national politics, some of whom have deep ties to the political establishment Bachmann typically eschews.

Striking a less contentious tone, Bachmann told the Iowa crowd.

“Our problems don’t have an identity of party, they are problems that were created by both parties,” she said, adding, “Americans aren’t interested in affiliation, they’re interested in solutions.”

And there you have it: an appeal to independents, to Americans sick of partisanship (even though Bachmann is a fierce partisan).

Palin has been preaching totally to her choir; Bachmann is trying to recruit new choir members.

Bachmann’s unswerving style provides a sharp contrast with the more measured way of 2012 rivals, such as former Govs. Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Others vying for the nomination are ex-Sen. Rick Santorum, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and businessman Herman Cain.

Here’s a video of her announcement:

The Atlantic Wire puts her contrast with Palin into context in this post noting a controversy over the weekend involving Bachmann and Fox News’ Chris Wallace — a news anchor who now seems to be losing credibility with liberals and independents (by arguing how well informed Fox News viewers are and continuing his argument with Jon Stewart and not giving it a rest) and conservatives (by this exchange):

Fox News’ Chris Wallace got himself into a bit of trouble Sunday when he asked Michele Bachmann, “Are you a flake?” The angry response from viewers pushed Wallace to apologize in a special web video. Monday morning, she’ll formally enter the presidential race, as she’s indicated she would do for months now. In fact, she’ll open her campaign by challenging President Obama on his flakiness–declaring, “In February, 2009, President Obama was very confident that his economic policies would turn the country around within a year. He said: ‘A year from now, I think people are going to see that we’re starting to make some progress. If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.’ Well, Mr. President, your policies haven’t worked. … And so, Mr. President, We Take You at Your Word!”

Michele Bachmann is incessantly compared to Sarah Palin, who, until recently, has been a higher-profile potential 2012 candidate. One of the ways in which Bachmann comes out looking the strongest against Palin is the question of flakiness. As Palin routinely cancels appearances at the last minute, Bachmann’s detractors have been hoping against hope for months that the Minnesota congresswoman was not serious about a presidential campaign. But clearly, she was.

Forbes’ Meghan Casserly writes about Bachmann’s announcement:

The whole thing just seems so… Palin.

While it’s true that Bachmann has been incessantly compared to PowerWoman Sarah Palin in recent months, even years, at risk of sounding like a broken record, let’s look at the similarities.

“We need more Waterloo,” Bachmann told reporters at Monday’s press conference. “We need more closeness, more families, more love for each other, more concern about each other. … It’s not too late. I want you to be encouraged.”

Sarah Palin also put her emphasis on Main Street over Wall Street (but really, what candidate doesn’t?) while repping her hometown…..Like Palin, Bachmann’s role of mother has taken—and will continue to take—center stage in her presidential narrative, something Mama Grizzly knew all too well was a compelling tactic of hooking both men and women Republican voters.

Bachmann wants to look good. The Republican presidential wannabe took flak for spending $225 on makeup on Election Day 2010. Nowhere near Palin’s $150,000 campaign wardrobe, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

Like Palin Bachmann is already being talked down to by the mainstream (lamestream?) media—and her fans aren’t taking it lying down. On Sunday night FOX News’ Chris Wallace apologized to his audience after receiving emails that chastised his treatment of the candidate in an interview. His question: “Are you a flake?”

Two glaring differences between the two leading ladies of the Republican Party: One, while Mrs. Palin ran for second-fiddle in 2008, Mrs. Bahmann’s raised her hand for the No. 1 job in the nation. And two: Mrs. Bachmann’s in the game, whereas Mrs. Palin has only danced around the idea in recent months.

Competitive tension has been reported between the two women, who have been portrayed as sisters, rivals and enemies, leading me to wonder if Bachmann’s candidacy will be the breaking point of Palin’s presidential vow of silence. Still no word from her Alaskan camp on Michele Bachmann’s announcement.

Stay tuned…

CNN’s Peter Hamby:

Forget political pedigree, executive experience or ties to deep-pocketed donors.

No Republican presidential candidate is better positioned to capitalize on the recent tide of conservative anger toward President Barack Obama than Michele Bachmann.

Her charisma and crossover appeal to both social and fiscal conservatives have the three-term Minnesota congresswoman rising in the polls and primed to make a serious impact on the GOP nomination fight.

Bachmann, unlike several of her rivals making appeals to the Tea Party movement, has the resources and fundraising potential to steer her campaign beyond the crucial early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Though firmly on the insurgent side of the Republican field, she is also taking steps to position herself as a credible alternative to the crop of establishment-friendly White House contenders with deep pockets and long political resumes.

She has hired Sarah Palin’s debate coach. She nabbed Haley Barbour’s pollster.

And Bachmann’s campaign organization will be based not in Minnesota, but in Washington, where the coming battle on Capitol Hill over raising the debt ceiling will place her squarely in the middle of the national political debate this summer.

Most her rivals, now out of office, will be watching from the sidelines.

The question of whether Bachmann can ride these advantages all the way to the Republican nomination will begin to be answered on Monday in Iowa, where she formally launches her presidential bid in Waterloo.

He notes some real political work being done behind the scenes to line up political activists and adds this:

She hired Ed Rollins, who directed Ronald Reagan’s landslide re-election bid in 1984 and managed Huckabee’s 2008 effort, to run her operation.

Along with loyal advisers like Brookover and fundraising consultant Guy Short, Bachmann has brought on top flight Republican talent like pollster Ed Goeas, who was working with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour before he declined to seek the nomination, and former George W. Bush and McCain message maven Brett O’Donnell, who coached Palin before her high-stakes vice presidential debate in 2008.

Also aiding Bachmann: veteran consultant Bob Heckman, who has deep ties to the conservative movement, former McCain campaign web guru Becki Donatelli, and Tom McGill, a fundraiser for President George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 bid.

When asked “Why Michele Bachmann?,” a common theme emerges in discussions with her advisers, some of whom might have been comfortable working for a more traditional candidate like Pawlenty or Romney.

Their argument, as simple as it sounds, is that Bachmann is the only candidate in the field who truly understands the issues and impulses of the Republican voter at a very unconventional moment in American politics.

Watch the media coverage. All this comes at as time when Barack Obama seems drifting and a bit hapless — at least in media and talking head perceptions, perceptions unlikely to fade as the debt ceiling crisis continues to drift.