With the constant jarring public statements, zealot social views, and ignorant beliefs on basic science and economics how is Bachmann being elevated above fringe candidate status?
Because she has been getting away with it -- so far. She gets the media attention in politics for much the same reason that a story that "Fire swept a vacant warehouse" makes its way onto a bad newscast. Predictable images and one screeching word attract the attention of people getting what would otherwise be a news item of little interest.
Follow the money. When one right-wing Republican who promises to enrich extant elites falters, in comes another new character.
Take a look at the really creepy stuff going on and the creepy characters behind it. Think about what our super-rich want in view of what they have gotten in some other countries -- complete dominion over economic and political life, with anyone showing any sign of dissent meeting a nasty end. Michelle Bachmann is blatant in expressing more of this than anyone else. She is as anti-intellectual as Sarah Palin; she stands for a veritable Inquisition against anyone whose "patriotism" (really, acquiescence in plutocracy); her economic values are extreme.
As significantly, look at the shadowy right-wing organizations (Citizens United, Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth, the National Chamber of Commerce, American Crossroads, and to some extent the John Birch Society), and you see that those groups seek some legitimacy as a ruling clique. Someone so blatant as Michelle Bachmann can seem to make those groups look 'moderate' by contrast -- something like the KKK making the more 'establishment' White Citizens Councils look moderate in the pre-1965 South.
The right-wing Establishment wants America in lockstep, believing some myths compatible with its agenda of a corporate-dominated State in which Big Business gets cheap and submissive labor, resource extraction and consumption becomes the measure of prosperity, captive markets become the norm, people are materialistic brutes who can't make any but the crudest of moral judgments, and anyone who runs afoul of the system either flees, dies, or ends up in some torture chamber or 'educational labor camp'. She may be a crude stereotype of everything wrong in right-wing American politics
Just watch Karl Rove; he is the real leader of the GOP Establishment. Just when you think that he is going objective and conceding defeat he is planning to strike in ways that nobody thinks of except himself and his associates. Do you remember how incompetent Michael Steele was and how his bumbling would help consolidate the authority of President Obama in late 2009 and early 2010? This, the purest Machiavellian to ever wield power beyond a city hall, knows the seams in our Constitutional system and has no qualms about exploiting those for his own power and the enrichment of his backers. Remember -- should Michelle Bachmann prove troublesome, then there is some fresh card in the deck., a card that is whatever Karl Rove finds most convenient at the time. If he needs a "12*" to get blackjack because he has a visible '9', and you have a pair of face cards other than aces, then he will come up with exactly that a '12'.
Don't be so sure. New Hampshire Democrats might be wise to cleave to the Democratic Party, as New Hampshire has two shaky Republican Representatives even if the Presidency is a sure thing. Some will be so concerned that President Obama will face a strong challenge that they might vote for what they think is a sure loser in Michelle Bachmann. But even if she loses, she might be the shill for something as troublesome for America but more subtle.
* For those unfamiliar with cards games, no standard deck of cards has a "12".
