Michele Bachmann

Ann Romney is on the record: She would like to see a woman as her husband's running mate. And so would any number of Republicans who are concerned about their party's standing with female voters. But for all the excitement that the topic stirs up, don't hold your breath: It's unlikely a woman will share the spotlight at the top of the GOP ticket. It's not for lack of qualified candidates - former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman are often mentioned - but because of the tortured legacy of one former nominee: the inimitable, unpredictable, irascible and, oh yeah, female former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

WASHINGTON - Conservative icon Rep. Michele Bachmann called the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the healthcare law the end of economic and religious liberty in America as she rallied disheartened activists. “We lost religious liberty - that is a fundamental right under the constitution,” she said to a crowd outside the Supreme Court building Thursday. “We lost economic liberty - that is a fundamental right under the constitution. We lost our individual liberty to set our course in this country.” “This court has forced us now to pay for their utopian dreams,” she added.

WASHINGTON — One day after calling her dual Swiss-U.S. citizenship a "non-story," Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann asked the Swiss government Thursday to take her name off its rolls. "I am and always have been 100% committed to our United States Constitution and the United States of America," said Bachmann, a tea party favorite and former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Swiss citizenship was automatically conferred in 1978 when she married Marcus Bachmann, the son of Swiss immigrants, she said, and the recent news was merely because she and her family had updated their documents.

PITTSBURGH - Rick Santorum dropped his presidential bid nearly a month ago, so his meeting here Friday with presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney would have seemed like the perfect opportunity to offer Romney his endorsement. But even before the 90-minute meeting took place, everyone knew that no such nod would be coming anytime soon. Santorum, like pretty much everyone else who has run in the Republican presidential contest, has embraced the party's standard-bearer with a stiff arm. Of course they will work to defeat President Obama, they say. Yet few have been willing to get behind their party's winner with anything approaching enthusiasm.

While seeking the Republican nomination for president for much of last year, Michele Bachmann urged voters in her party to support her as the true conservative in the race - a plea that was an implicit dig at front-runner Mitt Romney. But four months after dropping out of the race, the Minnesota congresswoman will endorse the presumed Republican nominee at an event Thursday in Portsmouth, Va., according to campaign officials. With her ties to tea party and evangelical groups, Bachmann could help Romney win over and energize a crucial sector of conservative voters who have been reluctant to embrace him. Photos: The search for Romney's running mate But while widely admired by Republican voters for her tenacity and independence, she demonstrated limited appeal in the waning days of the race after briefly leading the Republican field last summer last summer.

At a time when his campaign is working to attract reluctant conservatives, Mitt Romney won the backing Thursday of one-time rival Michele Bachmann, who has vowed to use her connections in evangelical and tea party groups to help unite the party behind him. "This is what victory looks like," Bachmann declared Thursday in Portsmouth, Va., as she took the stage with the presumptive Republican nominee and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell nearly four months...

It sometimes feels as if the struggle for the Republican presidential nomination has been going on forever, but if you measure the campaign by the number of delegates chosen so far, we're only about 10% done. Much has been made about how the outcome is still far from certain despite what seems like a blizzard of primaries and caucuses, but that's not unusual. Four years ago, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton waged a struggle for the Democratic presidential nomination that didn't end until June 3. Still, it's worth pausing at this point in the race to consider a few of the lessons we've learned so far. Don't listen to the pundits . At the beginning of this year's campaign, many political reporters and analysts (including me)

Conservative activists began a three-day gathering in the nation's capital Thursday with a clear mission -- defeating President Obama -- if not a clear sense of how to get there. Thousands have descended on a Washington hotel for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at a time when the race for the Republican presidential nomination has taken yet another unexpected turn. Mitt Romney seemed to have secured his position as the front-runner with convincing victories in Florida and Nevada.

Michele Bachmann is no longer a candidate for president. And she sounds a bit relieved to be done with the national campaign. "I thought you would be interested in knowing that running for president of the United States is really one series of humiliations after another," she told conservative activists at the annual CPAC gathering here. But it was an educational experience, she joked, and shared some of the lessons that she learned while campaigning in the early primary states and navigating the national media gauntlet.