One staple of a Michele Bachmann campaign event is blaring Elvis Presley music. Another is a reference to her intent to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Increasingly, there is a third feature of a Bachmann appearance on the presidential trail: a staffer’s physical confrontation with a reporter. 
 
 In less than two months since entering the 2012 race, Bachmann’s campaign staff has become embroiled in at least five unusually hostile encounters with the traveling media marked by pushing, shoving and, in one instance, the allegation of a threat of violence to a reporter. 
 
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 reset Allen on Bachmann security POLITICO 44 
 
 Some of it has unfolded in full public view: Bachmann aides’ tussles with the press have twice turned into news stories, once when veteran ABC News reporter Brian Ross was shoved and pushed by Bachmann staffers in South Carolina and on a second occasion when Bachmann’s husband and two staffers pushed CNN’s Don Lemon into a cart, producing a furious on-air complaint. 
 
 In another incident that did not make the air, a camera captured Fox News correspondent Steve Brown telling a bodyguard in Iowa, “Do not put your hands on me. Don’t ever do it again.” 
 
 A foreign reporter also alleged to POLITICO this week that an aide threatened to break his arm — an allegation the Bachmann campaign denied. 
 
 Friction between the press and high-profile politicians and celebrities is nothing new. But the number and intensity of incidents is unusual, particularly in Iowa, where reporters and the public are accustomed to almost unlimited access as an early state presidential ritual. 
 
 The campaign makes no apologies for its physically aggressive approach to media management, asserting that it is simply doing what it has to do to protect a popular, controversial candidate. The most aggressive aide — a tall, silver-haired man according to reporters — a spokeswoman said, is a former Secret Service agent who has guarded presidents. He and an advance woman frequently make physical contact with reporters. 
 
 “The No. 1 priority for us every single day we step out on the campaign trail is the safety and security of Michele Bachmann,” said her spokeswoman, Alice Stewart. 
 
 The retired Secret Service agent, whom she declined to name, is “extremely professional.” 
 
 “He’s guarded presidents and vice presidents and knows exactly what needs to be done,” she said. “When he gives a warning to whoever it may be, the person needs to heed the warning.” 
 
 The conduct seems authentically motivated by security concerns for the popular grass-roots candidate, who tends to draw enthusiastic crowds. But the Minnesota congresswoman isn’t the first celebrity-like figure to run for president, or the biggest. And the contentious encounters with the press has far oustripped that of other high-profile campaigns. Security guards for high-profile candidates like Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin were better able to distinguish between reporters and threats. 
 
 The difference was sharply visible over the past week at the Iowa State Fair. Palin wandered the fairgrounds freely with her husband, an advance man, and, at a remove, a handful of Iowa State Police. Rick Perry was guarded by watchful Texas Rangers who gave the press and fair-goers broad latitude to talk and walk next to the governor. Bachmann, in contrast, raced through the fair in a golf cart; in a similar cart in Ames on Saturday, her bodyguard could be seen pushing away the hands of autograph-seeking supporters. 
 
 The reporter alleging that a warning crossed over into a threat is a Norwegian correspondent, Are Tagvold Flaten, who is in Iowa on a grant from the Oslo-based Freedom of Expression Foundation. He is covering the race for a Norwegian website about American politics and also wrote about the Ames Straw Poll for the conservative Norwegian Web journal Minerva (recently in the news for its editor’s pained consideration of the fact that the mass murderer Anders Breivik was among the site’s commenters). ||||| Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., acknowledges the crowd before a political rally, Tuesday, July 19, 2011, in downtown Aiken, S.C. (AP Photo/The Augusta Chronicle, Rainier Ehrhardt) 
 
 The first issue is obvious. Fitness for office — essentially “Can this person do the job for which they are running?” — is a basic building block of any campaign, particularly with a candidate like Bachmann who remains very much an unknown commodity for voters. 
 
 If voters have doubts about whether a candidate is up to the job, everything else — positions on issues, likability, electability — take a back seat. 
 
 Knowing that, Bachmann’s campaign sought to quickly stomp out the idea that the headaches were either not under control or had the potential to incapacitate her for extended periods of time. 
 
 “Let me be abundantly clear — my ability to function effectively has never been impeded by migraines and will not affect my ability to serve as commander in chief,” she said in a statement. 
 
 Bachmann is clearly hoping to put the story behind her although a handful of reports today — one from the New York Times and another from Politico — suggest that her struggles with headaches are both debilitating and well known among those who work for her. 
 
 The Politico report in particular details a series of incidents that caused Bachmann to either miss votes or planned political events due to the headaches. 
 
 Until the extent of Bachmann’s headaches — and the impact they have had on her congressional career — come fully to light, it’s hard to see the fitness for office questions disappearing completely. 
 
 A look back at the history of health questions in the context of presidential campaigns suggests that while the headache questions may linger for Bachmann’s entire candidacy, they aren’t likely to derail it unless something more damaging comes out. 
 
 The best known incident of health questions impacting a presidential campaign was in 1972 when reports surfaced that Missouri Sen. Tom Eagleton, South Dakota Sen. George McGovern’s vice presidential running mate, had suffered from depression and had been treated with electric shock therapy. 
 
 While McGovern initially stood by Eagleton, the focus on whether the Missouri Democrat would be able to assume the office of the presidency dogged the campaign and eventually led Eagleton to step aside from the ticket. 
 
 The Eagleton episode was the exception to the rule when it comes to the impact of health concerns in presidential politics, however. 
 
 In 1984, there were questions about whether President Ronald Reagan was too old to stand for a second term — he was 73 — and his occasional forgetfulness in public kept the story going. But, Reagan masterfully turned his age into an asset during a debate with Sen. Walter Mondale and swept to a second term. 
 
 In the 1992 presidential race, Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas (D) had to deal with a series of questions about whether he was fit for office after battling cancer five years before. 
 
 Tsongas came up short in that race though it’s hard to say that concerns about his health were at the root of his defeat. He died in 1997 after a re-occurrence of cancer. 
 
 There are myriad other examples of politicians who faced health questions — John Kennedy in 1960 (overall ill health), John Kerry in 2004 (prostate cancer), John McCain in 2008 (age) to name a few. Some of those candidates won, others lost. But it’s hard to directly ascribe any of those outcomes to health questions. 
 
 That leads us to the second less-covered-but-no-less-important problem that the Bachmann headache story shines a light on: the huge amount of turnover in her congressional staff. 
 
 Both the original Daily Caller story as well as Politico’s follow up quote former Bachmann aides anonymously making the case that her migraine problems are real and problematic. 
 
 And, this isn’t the first time that a former Bachmann staffer has raised doubts about her. Ron Carey, a former Bachmann chief of staff and former Minnesota Republican party chairman, has said publicly that the Congresswoman is neither electable nor ready for the job of president. 
 
 Bachmann’s staff turnover is the stuff of legend on Capitol Hill. In the space of her first term in office, she had three different chiefs of staff and experienced any number of other staff departures as well. 
 
 A cavalcade of disgruntled former aides (are there ever “gruntled” former aides?) willing to go public with questions and criticisms of Bachmann is decidedly problematic for her presidential candidacy. 
 
 After all, if those who know (or knew) her best lack faith in her ability to do the job effectively, it will almost certainly force voters to re-examine their first, generally positive impressions of her. 
 
 And, if you think that voters won’t hear about the criticisms launched against Bachmann by her former aides, you don’t follow campaigns very closely. It’s a lead pipe lock that her rivals are collecting those quotes in their opposition research files and will use them liberally on television ads if/when the time comes. 
 
 The question for Bachmann is whether Carey’s comments and the migraine stories are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to former staffers venting or represent the full extent of the critique of Bachmann that will be offered by former employees. 
 
 There’s little question that the migraine story — and the questions it raises about both Bachmann’s fitness for office and what role her former staff will play in the presidential race — is the first major bump in what has been a quick ascent in national politics for the Minnesota Republican to date. 
 
 Putting the story behind her as quickly and completely as possible will be critical as she seeks to build momentum for the Ames Straw Poll next month. 
 
 Read more on PostPolitics.com 
 
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 Allen West: Wasserman Schultz chair ‘not a lady’ ||||| Michele Bachmann, the former U.S. representative from Minnesota and one-time Republican presidential candidate, said in a TV interview that she is mulling a political comeback by running for the U.S. Senate seat vacated Tuesday by Al Franken. 
 
 "I've had people contact me and urge me to run for that Senate seat. The only reason I would run is for the ability to take these principles into the United States Senate, to be able to advocate for these principles," Bachmann said, referring to the Christian conservatism that defined her political style. 
 
 "The question is, should it be me? Should it be now?" Bachmann asked, in her appearance on the "Jim Bakker Show" in late December. She did not answer the question, but spoke of what she described as the increasingly high personal toll of big political campaigns. 
 
 "The price is bigger than ever because the swamp is so toxic," Bachmann said, borrowing a campaign refrain from President Trump to "drain the swamp" of Washington, D.C. 
 
 Bachmann did not respond to a phone message left at her home on Tuesday. She served four terms in Congress from the Sixth Congressional District, from 2007 to 2014, and was an unsuccessful GOP candidate for president in 2012. She was a vocal supporter of Trump's candidacy, and remains one of Minnesota's most well-known Republicans. 
 
 In this Jan. 26, 2011 file photo, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., left, talks with Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., during the "Hot Dish Off," cooking contest in Franken's office on Capitol Hill in Washington, 
 
 On Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Tina Smith will be sworn in to replace Franken, following her appointment by Gov. Mark Dayton. Smith has pledged to run for the remainder of Franken's term in a November special election; the seat will be on the ballot again in 2020, when Franken's term would have ended. 
 
 So far, the only other candidate to announce a run is state Sen. Karin Housley, R-St. Marys Point. Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, another unsuccessful GOP candidate for president in 2012, is also seen as a possible candidate. 
 
 Bachmann would bring a committed base of supporters and a proven ability to raise significant sums from small dollar donors via a valuable and closely guarded mailing list. 
 
 "She has extremely high name recognition and a national fundraising base. So, there's some strengths there," said David FitzSimmons, who was a GOP state legislator in Bachmann's district and is currently chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, who won Bachmann's seat when she did not run again in 2014. 
 
 Even now, Bachmann has $1.67 million in her old House campaign account that she could move into a Senate race. 
 
 Bachmann's shoot-from-the-hip style of conservative populism mirrors Trump's. Her ability to make news with a provocative tweet or Facebook post would be unparalleled in Minnesota politics. 
 
 FitzSimmons cautioned that Bachmann would also confront challenges: "Running statewide is a tough hill to climb, and there a lot of different constituencies that you have to piece together," he said. 
 
 Bachmann has long been a polarizing figure both in Minnesota and nationally. She was a champion of religious conservatives and a relentless critic of Obamacare and other policies of former President Barack Obama. 
 
 Democrats would be energized to stop her. They spent millions trying to unseat her from a solidly conservative House district that included the St. Cloud area and some northern Twin Cities suburbs. She became nationally known for statements that fact checkers found to be untrue, such as a claim in a nationally televised presidential debate that the HPV vaccine can cause mental retardation. 
 
 "Michele Bachmann is a national embarrassment. Her extreme views are dangerously out of touch with the people of Minnesota," DFL Chairman Ken Martin said. 
 
 He said her time in the U.S. House was "so focused on spewing hurtful rhetoric that she accomplished little more than humiliating our state." 
 
 Her presidential campaign, which briefly sparked the imagination of social conservatives, flamed out. Later, news of an FBI investigation surrounding the campaign broke into public view. 
 
 Two former aides to the Minnesota Republican told the Star Tribune in 2013 that they had been questioned by FBI agents from the bureau's public integrity section. 
 
 Central to the FBI inquiry were alleged payments to former Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, a top official in Bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign who endorsed Rep. Ron Paul in the closing days of the 2012 Iowa caucus race. 
 
 Sorenson was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison last year, according to the Des Moines Register, after admitting to taking payments from the Paul campaign in exchange for the endorsement. 
 
 An independent counsel in Iowa concluded he had also taken payments from the Bachmann campaign. 
 
 Changing of the guard: Sen. Al Franken left office Tuesday, and Tina Smith was set to be sworn in. B1 
 
 Bachmann denied the allegations that her campaign paid Sorenson, but the issue is bound to come up should she make a run for the Senate. 
 
 Bachmann acknowledged the challenge of running as a conservative Republican given the current political climate. 
 
 "My husband and I aren't money people. We're just normal," she said, "If you're a billionaire, maybe you can defend yourself."
– Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign is brash and boisterous—and increasingly rough with the reporters covering it, reports Politico. In less than two months, there have been at least five incidents reporters have called unusually hostile, including a Norwegian reporter who says an aide threatened to break his arm. Bachmann's campaign says security is just doing what it needs to keep their candidate safe, but veteran reporters say her security is going too far, well beyond the norms for bigger and more controversial candidates' security. Bachmann's spokeswoman defended one guard, a retired Secret Service agent, who has particularly come under criticism for his rough style. “He’s guarded presidents and vice presidents and knows exactly what needs to be done,” she said. “When he gives a warning to whoever it may be, the person needs to heed the warning.” On the other hand, with celebrities calling Bachmann a "bigot" to her face—as Kathy Griffin recounted on her Monday appearance on Conan—perhaps her security feels the need to stand up for their candidate.