June 27, 2011 08:11 PM UTC

Michelle Bachmann, Iowa Frontrunner

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• by: Colorado Pols

From our friends at “The Fix“:

he new Des Moines Register poll, which was released late Saturday night, tells the story.

Bachmann is in a statistical dead heat with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney – she takes 22 percent to his 23 percent. Businessman Herman Cain is the only other candidate to receive double-digit support (10 percent.)

While the topline numbers are impressive for Bachmann, they reveal only some of her Iowa strength.

The other piece of it comes from the passion that the Minnesota Republican engenders in her supporters. In the Register poll, 65 percent said they had a favorable impression of Bachmann, with 31 percent saying they felt very favorably toward her. (Just 12 percent felt unfavorably about Bachmann.)