The Forbes piece explains "who Bachmann is" but doesn't explain why they included her on a list of the most powerful women in the world. To understand why Bachmann's name might be included on such a list, you will have to read the rest of this thing you're reading right now.
(In fact, you can skip reading the Forbes item entirely. It's puffy photo-caption c**p. It even repeats the Bachmann lie that she "raised" 23 foster children without so much as a fact-check.)
Anyway, here is why Michele Bachmann is one of the most powerful women in the United States. (Not the world.)
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Power consists in making other people do what you wish them to do, in the ability to make the things you want to happen--happen.
So Bachmann has power. A zero-achievement conservative reformer, she nonetheless has the power to influence the national policy debate that affect health care, employment and investment prospects, the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans.
You think I'm overstating this? Well, the Republicans who govern Congress don't. They know that Bachmann, as an unofficial leader of the Tea Party and as high-profile protege of the Christian right--has the power to ruin Republican and conservative careers simply by opening her mouth publicly and repeatedly.
They don't want her to that, to them--so that's their power over them, and they make the laws for the US, so you see those laws and policies pushed further and further to the right: because of their fear of Michele Bachmann and the two constituencies that can gut the GOP nationally and locally: the tea party and the national Christian right.
At the same time, Bachmann is not powerful--in the sense that she is not the one making the decisions about "who she can threaten/who she can punish." That power belongs to her mentors in the national Christian right, who were monitoring her career long before she came to prominence in Minnesota politics in 2004. (If they decide tomorrow that 'it's Perry, not Bachmann'--then her top of the ticket ambitions are through and she will have to settle for a veep slot at best.)
Tennis ball back to "Bachmann is powerful" position:
Michele Bachmann is powerful because if she appeares anywhere on a GOP White House ticket: she has the power to alter the composition of the Congress and particular state and local governments... simply by being there, on that ticket.
Bachmann's presence on the ticket triggers the enthusiastic election participation of millions of conservative evangelicals--voters, donors, volunteers, Christian media, anti-abortion activists, anti-immigrant activists, whatever. All voting in down ticket races around the country (not just in the WH race)--all showing up enthusiastically and recruiting the middle...just because they're excited about Michele being somewhere on that WH ticket. The name and the agenda she represents, are "magic" in down-ticket races.
So even if a WH ticket with Bachmann on it loses, the GOP and conservatives and Christian right pick up seats at levels of government all around the country.
That's power, to be able to use demagoguery to alter the government of the United States and move its agenda ever further to the right-- despite the desires of the majority of the American people. Her power could all dry up tomorrow, if the leaders of the Christian right decide that it's in their best interest to go with Perry... but for now: Michele Bachmann is indeed one of the most powerful women in America.