Politics

Tea party icon whiles away time, alone, at Bachmann HQ

David Martosko Executive Editor
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A half-hour after the Iowa caucuses got underway Tuesday night, Des Moines Register reporter Jason Noble caught an unusual indicator of how little support Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann enjoys in the Hawkeye State.

Seated at a table in a West Des Moines hotel ballroom rented by the Bachmann campaign was William Temple, the musket-wielding Revolutionary War reenactor who has become an unofficial tea party mascot. Temple sat alone, reading, and waiting for a victory party that would almost certainly not convene.

Less than an hour later, the Fox News Channel would declare — in its first “projection” of the evening — that Bachmann, who won the Ames, Iowa straw poll just a few months ago, would most certainly not win the caucus voting.

Still, Temple kept his faith. He is, after all, a Christian pastor in Brunswick, Ga.

“I believe if Michele could win, that she’ll attack the national debt like no one else,” he told the Register.

“I believe that God’s going to give us what he wants us to have,” he added. “UItimately, the American people get the government they deserve.”

As of 9:34 EST, Bachmann was running last among the six actively campaigning Republican presidential candidates participating in the Iowa caucuses, with 6 percent of the vote.

David is The Daily Caller’s executive editor. Follow him on Twitter