Michele Bachmann — the tea-party-long-shot-turned-legitimate-contender for the Republican presidential nomination — should scare you, and not just because of her “Krazee-Eyez Killa” impression on the cover of Newsweek.

Coming from the great state of Minnesota, I’ve had the privilege of observing Bachmann’s antics ever since she first ran for Congress in 2006. And in the five years since she won that election, I’ve seen her political stock skyrocket and watched her achieve national prominence. And let me tell you, it is terrifying. Indeed, over her political career, many Facebook groups and websites have been dedicated to Bachmann’s peculiarities, including the group “Michele Bachmann was dropped on her head multiple times as a baby” — a group I may or may not have created.

In the infancy of her national political life — when she was just getting started as a congresswoman — Bachmann was, at worst, an embarrassment to the political system and, at best, a highly entertaining sideshow. Indeed, in her most famous early gaffe, she sparked outrage after an October 2008 MSNBC interview in which she stated she was “very concerned that [Barack Obama] may have anti-American views.”

Yet, in recent years, as she rose to national prominence as a leader of the tea party movement and now as a presidential candidate, Bachmann has moved beyond being an embarrassment and become something much more scary: an individual who may have a shot at becoming the next president of the United States.

It only takes one viewing of “Michele Bachmann Says The Darndest Things” on YouTube to appreciate the insanity that is her mind. Among the best quotes: “Not all cultures are equal,” and my personal favorite, “This cannot pass. What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass.”

Spoken like a true president.

Moreoever, throughout her political career, she has boldly proclaimed many things about the United States, but a lot of them are plainly wrong. For example, Lexington — the site where “the shot heard ’round the world,” which incited the Revolutionary War, was fired — is found in Massachusetts, not New Hampshire, as Bachmann told a crowd in March. Moreover, her claim in January that the Founding Fathers worked to end slavery was dead wrong.  

Still, for all the questionable remarks she has made in the past, she has immense and even growing support. Indeed, in the last week, she has become a frontrunner for the Republican nomination. She beat out individuals such as her fellow Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) and former governors Mitt Romney (Massachusetts) and Tim Pawlenty (Minnesota) to win the Iowa straw poll, an important early testing ground before caucuses and primaries begin. And as unlikely as it seemed months ago, Bachmann now has a chance to grab the nomination, and more alarmingly, the presidency.

Even if Bachman fails to win the nomination, the fact that she has received so much support already may be far more telling.

If our leaders embody the times, what times do we live in? Maybe Americans need something extreme, and Bachmann has filled that void. Or maybe we are so desperate for a leader we will turn anywhere. Or maybe we were all just dropped on our heads multiple times as babies.

Nadav Karasov is a sophomore economics and psychology major. He can be reached at njkarasov at gmail dot com.