By Dee Dee Myers for Politico – It might be too soon to say she’s over — hers is still a powerful brand. And she still looks great wearing 4-inch heels and carrying an otter purse (both part of her ensemble at a dinner with journalists). But no one really thinks she’ll be president. Last week, Time magazine’s Mark Halperin put the odds at 60 to 1.

Which brings us to the new Palin, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

Last winter, a focus group of Iowa Republicans was shown video of 11 potential GOP candidates for president. Bachmann finished third — behind Mike Huckabee (who said Saturday that he had decided not to run) and Newt Gingrich but ahead of Palin. The third-term congresswoman clearly appeals to social conservatives, who dominate the important Iowa caucuses. Should she decide to run, it’s easy to imagine scenarios in which she could seriously affect the outcome.

What’s impossible to imagine is that she could be a serious candidate. She knows shockingly little about history and public policy.

This is the woman who claimed that the Founding Fathers ended slavery and said in not one but two speeches that the Revolutionary War’s “shot heard round the world” at Concord and Lexington happened in New Hampshire. She insists that judges encourage kids to try homosexuality, gay marriage is the most important issue of the past 30 years and the Serve America Act, an effort to increase volunteer service, is a sinister plot to create “re-education camps.”

But such incidents don’t seem to discourage reporters from writing about her — or supporters from listening. Bachmann is one of the most widely covered and quoted members of Congress. But will people vote for her? Halperin puts the odds of a Bachmann presidency at 1,000 to one.

So what about the women who are provocative but may render their husbands unelectable?

First, the sheer volume of wives makes this group newsworthy. Newt Gingrich has been married three times, ditto Donald Trump. Mitch Daniels has been married twice — to the same woman. We’re only three names in, and we’ve already got eight marriages and enough infidelity to fuel an entire season of “Real Housewives.”

To read the op-ed, click here.