The New Battle of Waterloo

Pundits have made much hay over the fact that three-term Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann is from Waterloo, Iowa. She officially declared her White House bid there today. Surely, her many detractors surmise, the gods must be laughing. How could there not be a providential connection between the famous 1815 Battle of Waterloo and Bachmann's political fate? In that much-studied set-piece battle, the Duke of Wellington soundly defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at a site in what is now Belgium. The French armies were driven off the field in a rout. The defeat ended Napoleon's rule as French Emperor. Surely Bachmann is about to face her own Waterloo, right? Har har har. But here's a question that no one has adequately answered yet: Is Bachmann Napoleon or Wellington? When the canon fire ceases and the smoke clears, the GOP may find itself with a big, unpleasant surprise.