“The Candidate Palin Was Supposed To Be”

After reading this WSJ interview, Ezra Klein expects Michele Bachmann to "quickly emerge as the acknowledged leader of Tea Party America":

Bachmann is a better politician than Palin, a better policy wonk than Palin, and because she’s a better politician and a better policy wonk than Palin, she’s actually able to be a bit more extreme than Palin, as Palin rarely gets specific enough to do such precise ideological positioning. Put simply, Bachmann is the candidate Palin was supposed to be.

Chait's on the same page:

[S]he may be crazy, but she does have a strong grasp of political reality. The problem with so many radical candidates is that they lack political sense as well. Bachmann is a potent combination of substantively radical and politically shrewd, much like Ryan. And if Ryan does not run, Bachmann could make some noise.

Andrew Leonard compares Palin and Bachmann's reading lists.