Hopeful rips at Obama: Rep. Bachmann kicks off run in Waterloo, Iowa

WATERLOO, Iowa -- The U.S. House of Representatives is a notoriously poor launching pad for presidential ambitions, but Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who formally kicked off her campaign Monday in the town where she was born, enters the contest for the 2012 Republican nomination with several strengths.

They include deep family roots here in the first state to vote next winter, a strong conservative record that appeals to tea party activists hungry for a champion against both major parties in Washington, and a commanding speaking style that rallies the faithful and helps her stand out in the pack.

"In a field of candidates with a whole bunch of beige," said veteran Iowa political analyst Dennis Goldford, "she's neon orange."

Those strengths already have helped her, first in a June 13 New Hampshire debate where she won favorable reviews, and in a new Iowa poll Sunday showing her neck and neck in the state with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Bachmann, 55, formally launched her campaign Monday in her birthplace with a salute to small-town values and a vow to vanquish President Barack Obama.

"I stand here in the midst of many friends and many family members to announce formally my candidacy for president of the United States," Bachmann said to cheers from about a hundred supporters.

"I want to bring a voice, your voice, to the White House, just as I have brought your voice to the halls of Congress."

Bachmann didn't mention any of her Republican rivals. Instead, she used the kickoff to indict Obama for what she called a failure of leadership at home and abroad. She ripped him for high unemployment, for piling up government debt, for high gas prices, and for failing to reverse the crisis in housing that's caused waves of foreclosures and left the dream of home ownership "distant" to too many Americans. "We cannot continue to rack up debt on the backs of future generations," she said.

Announced

Michele Bachmann, U.S. Rep, Minnesota

Herman Cain, businessman

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House

Jon Huntsman, former Utah governor

Gary Johnson, former New Mexico governor

Ron Paul, Texas representative

Tim Pawlenty, former Minnesota governor

Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor

Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania senator

Possible candidacies

Rudy Giuliani, former N.Y. mayor

Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor

Rick Perry, Texas governor