Bachmann Under Attack, She Surges in Polls

Soon after after Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann announced her presidential candidacy, she found herself under attack from virtually every quarter in the media.

And despite this, a new Newsmax online survey shows that Bachmann is surging in GOP and national polls.

Note: You still can vote in the Newsmax online poll and voice your opinion about Michele Bachmann and Barack Obama — Click Here Now.

Bachmann's small stumbles have been amplified across the media landscape, and she is compared with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at every turn.

Bachmann told supporters during a campaign stop: “They want to see two girls come together and have a mud-wrestling fight, and I’m not going to give it to 'em. We’re going to stick together, and we’re going to see this thing through.”

The broadsides have come from the right as well as the left.

Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Bachman whether she should be considered “a flake.” Bachmann said she found the question offensive, and Wallace later apologized.

Among the commentators coming to Bachmann’s defense: former Democratic consultant and CNN contributor Hilary Rosen. CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked Rosen whether Bachmann is being held to a different standard because she is a woman.

“The answer obviously is yes,” Rosen replied. “I don’t think Chris Wallace would have asked a man if he was a flake. And I think that the fact that she’s constantly compared to Sarah Palin, as opposed to the other men in the race, clearly would demonstrate that.”

Conservatives have been warning for months that even the slightest misstep by Bachmann would provoke widespread attacks on her credibility.

“They have done this campaign after campaign, candidate after candidate,” Ohio GOP Senate candidate Ken Blackwell told Newsmax magazine, part of an in-depth cover story on Bachmann in the July edition. “So I think you will see a well-orchestrated campaign from the left to define and destroy Michele Bachmann.”

Mark McKinnon, the consultant who directed former President George W. Bush’s political advertising, tells Newsmax that the challenge for Bachmann is how she will respond to the lambasting: “This a test for her. And it’s not going to get easier.”

Note: You still can vote in the Newsmax online poll and voice your opinion about Michele Bachmann and Barack Obama — Click Here Now.