Michele Bachmann is a good speaker. She's holds bona fide conservative views. But that's about it, said Ron Carey, Bachmann's former chief of staff for her congressional office, in a Des Moines Register op-ed.

Carey said Bachmann can't lead and doesn't have anything to show for her career as a lawmaker. He said the congressional and campaign office he assumed under Bachmann was wildly out of control.

He said Bachmann left stacks upon stacks of contributions unopened. She also had thousands of communications from her constituents that she didn't bother to answer.

If she is unable, or unwilling, to handle the basic duties of a campaign or congressional office, how could she possibly manage the magnitude of the presidency? he wrote.

Indeed, from the beginning of Bachmann's run for the 2012 Republican nomination, her competency has been relentlessly questioned.

Serious or not, her critics (mostly from the liberal side) allege her frequent gaffes (or claims she really believes?) are signs of her stupidity and tenuous relationship with the facts, in the words of Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart.

Some of Bachmann's gaffes/claims include calling global warming voodoo, mistaking Massachusetts for New Hampshire, and crediting the US Founding Fathers for attempting to root out slavery.

Then there is the lack of experience.

Bachmann served only three terms in the US House of Representatives. She also lacks significant legislative accomplishments during her tenure there.

In fact, she arguably has much less experience than Barack Obama had in 2008. The conservatives, of course, harped on that very issue during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Conservatives rightly state that [Obama] appears unprepared and inexperienced when facing difficult challenges. Let's not make the same mistake again, wrote Carey.