Sioux City Journal - Bachmann Says Core Convictions Drive Her Campaign

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By James Q. Lynch

Michele Bachmann calls herself an "accidental politician," someone who never dreamed of being of living in the White House, but someone who finds herself on the presidential campaign trail as a result of her core convictions that began to take shape during her childhood years in Iowa.

"I think what people will learn is that really was the foundation that helped launch me to do the things that I've done," Bachmann said Monday about her book, "Core of Conviction: My Story." "We had a lot of adversity that we had to overcome, but it was the core foundational principles that helped me overcome those obstacles, to be able to continue to be able to move."

The Minnesota congresswoman who entered the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination back in June will be in Eastern Iowa this week to promote the book, which has been published by Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin Group USA. She'll make stops in Mason City, Waterloo and Dubuque on "Black Friday" and in Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Sioux City over the weekend.

The purpose of the 206-page book, complete with childhood pictures, is to explain to people who she is, Bachmann said from a car in New York City where she had just completed a television interview.

It provides an opportunity outside the campaign to "speak to people directly, in an unfiltered manner, so they get a 3-D picture about who I am and what my background is," she said.

But "it's not a campaign speech" Bachmann said. "It's my life story,"

It's her core of conviction that sets her apart from the GOP presidential field, Bachmann said. She relates her disappointment in many politicians, starting with a chapter "Jimmy Carter and Me," as well as Republicans including President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain for their support for the Wall Street bailout.

Bachmann said, "I have been a consistent conservative though my life. I don't change."

That doesn't mean she can't work with people who she believes have not been consistent conservatives.

"No one ever gets 100 percent of what they want," she said. "But there is a difference between that and actually compromising on core principles over and over and over again."

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