Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appears to be inching ever closer to a run for president –Â and as she has now said in her latest public statements, her prayers on the subject have now yielded a calling from God himself.
In an interview with Iowa Public Television, broadcast on Friday:
Henderson: You recently referenced your Christian faith. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, when he announced he would not run, said that he just didn’t feel called to do that. Have you had that sort of calling to run for president?
Bachmann: Well, every decision that I make I pray about as does my husband and I can tell you, yes, I’ve had that calling and that tugging on my heart that this is the right thing to do and because it’s such a momentous decision, not only for myself, my husband and our 28 children, it is a momentous decision what ideas will I bring to bear? What are the resources that I have to marshal in terms of people, assets, the message and also the finances, the amount of time this will take, what this will mean for the nation. Am I the right person for the job? Every decision and every endeavor my husband and I have made we think it through, we’re not rash people. We make a plan because we want to succeed, we don’t want to fail and so we’ve been very deliberative in this process and that’s why we’re now coming to the culmination and next month, as I announced last night, I’ll make that decision right here in Waterloo and the world will know.
[Note: Bachmann has had five biological children, and a total of 23 foster children over a span of many years.]
Bachmann has previously said she was praying for an “inner assurance” about her 2012 decision. It should be pointed out that for Bachmann, this stuff about receiving a divine calling to run for office is no joke — it has allegedly happened before.
The last time Bachmann sought a higher national office, in 2006, when she was a state senator running for an open U.S. House seat, she famously told a mega-church audience that she had communicated with God, receiving through fasting and prayer the command to run:
“And in the midst of that calling, God then called me to run for the United States Congress. And I thought, what in the world would that be for? And my husband said “You need to do this.” And I wasn’t so sure. And we took three days, and we fasted and we prayed. And we said “Lord, is this what you want? Is this Your will?” And after — along about the afternoon of day two — He made that calling sure. And it’s been now 22 months that I’ve been running for United States Congress. Who in their right mind would spend two years to run for a job that lasts for two years? You’d have to be absolutely a fool to do that. You are now looking at a fool for Christ. This is a fool for Christ.”
