Michele Bachmann's new book, "Core of Conviction," is part memoir, part bill of indictment against the Obama administration, and almost always "right."
Railing against "economic declinists, foreign-policy defeatists and anti-family relativists," the GOP presidential candidate goes well beyond the usual party-line pablum.
In fact, she's particularly hard on Republican backsliders, aka RINOs.
Recalling how Democrats retook the House in 2006, the Minnesota congresswoman concludes that voters rejected "a bad brew of GOP incompetence, carelessness and a dash of corruption."
That same election, Bachmann bucked the Democratic tide to become the first female Republican to represent the Gopher State in Congress.
Serving in the Minnesota state Senate from 2000-2006, Bachmann fought Democratic majorities and Republican accommodators on a range of fiscal, social and educational issues.
From abortion and gay marriage to federally directed school programs and high state taxes, Bachmann stirred the legislative pot in St. Paul with a robust mixture of Christian conservatism and free-market capitalism.
It's the rare book that blends copious biblical quotations with citations from libertarian Ludwig von Mises, whom Bachmann describes as "excellent beach reading." Yet there's one clunker in this tome's political name-dropping.
Her frequent fetishistic references to Abraham Lincoln undermine her "Gangster Government" critique (a term coined by Michael Barone). Many strict constitutionalists and Southern conservatives see Barack Obama as the inevitable heir to Mr. Lincoln's heavy-handed dictates and centralizing legacy in Washington, D.C.
Wife of a Christian counselor and mother of five biological children, Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, have taken in 23 foster children over the years. That focus on family, forged by a born-again experience in high school, keeps faith as a guiding light to Bachmann's politics.
It leads her to brand Obamacare "immoral" as well as "unconstitutional."
"The one certainty is that Obamacare will move us toward a darkening twilight of rationed delivery and fewer medical breakthroughs. And so the free market that gave us the finest health care in the world will be just a dwindling memory," she predicts.
Bachmann's righteous indignation grows red hot when she writes about other "progressive" initiatives, such as the Dodd-Frank "Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act."
"Whatever the stated name of a bill is -- especially if it's authored by a liberal -- the real purpose is almost always the exact opposite of the stated purpose," says Bachmann, who calls Dodd-Frank "a mosh pit for lobbyists."
The first in Congress to introduce bills to repeal both laws, Bachmann declares that the federal government's "morbid obesity" is even a threat to itself. She goes on to suggest that John McCain would have fared better in the 2008 election if he and other Republicans had joined her in strenuously opposing the Wall Street bailouts that began under the George W. Bush administration.
But Bachmann's own skirts aren't entirely clean. Though her book touts personal thriftiness (in one incident, she recalls stalking out of a Goodwill store after pronouncing the prices "too high"), this avatar of small government never mentions that the family counseling business has collected more than $140,000 in federal Medicaid funds, along with other public-sector grants.
Heartened by the rise of the tea party, the diminutive presidential hopeful says patriotic Americans have added an important fourth leg to the GOP's traditional three-legged stool.
The Minnesotan's memoir presses her case as a strong fiscal, social and national security conservative (with heavy props to Israel). To that, she adds her credentials as founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, committed to constitutional conservatism.
Ultimately, this 55-year-old prairie populist is angling for what Democratic pollster Pat Caddell calls the "radical middle" of the American electorate -- a group healthily skeptical of both major political parties.
Without naming names, Bachmann offers a warning to Republican voters and her rivals:
"I believe that a conventional, play-it-safe campaign will ensure that America has to endure another four years of Barack Obama and his wrecking-crew policies. If the Republican presidential nominee fails to energize key constituencies, or worse, if the nominee is seen as insincere, then we will lose."
There's no doubting Bachmann's sincerity in "Core of Conviction." Unfortunately for her, such straight talk has sparked repeated run-ins with the GOP establishment and snarky jibes from the mainstream media -- none of which has helped her cause.
At this point, Bachmann's presidential aspirations hinge on her birth state of Iowa, which she writes about so lovingly. The adoration was mutual when she won the Ames Straw Poll last summer.
Whether Iowans still embrace Bachmann as their Favorite Daughter at the Jan. 3 caucuses will say volumes about her future political prospects.
("Core of Conviction," 224 pages, is published by Sentinel, $26.95 hardcover, $12.99 e-book.)
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or (772) 801-5341.
