Bachmann Beat: Chatting It Up with Jay Leno and Blasting 'Perrycare'

Sixth-district congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is campaigning in Iowa today, where she will tour a pair of factories and host "employee roundtable" discussions.

MPR reports some prominent Iowa conservatives want Bachmann to ditch her highly-coreographed campaign style and "get her shoes dirty." Otherwise, they say she risks losing ground to rival Rick Perry in the state.

On Friday, Bachmann appeared on The Tonight Show, where she was interviewed by host Jay Leno, who asked about a number of her recent campaign controversies. (Watch Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview.)

The tone of the interview was respectful, but Leno was clearly skeptical of many of her views. The HPV vaccine controversy, the tea party and gay marriage were among the topics of discussion. (For those who don't care to see the whole video, ABC News has a brief summary.)

Over the weekend, Bachmann debuted a new line of attack against rival Perry: referring to his never-implemented HPV vaccination mandate as "Perrycare." She also released a new YouTube video explaining her opposition to government health mandates.

Bachmann said a $535 million federal loan to a now-bankrupt solar power company that donated heavily to President Obama and Democratic lawmakers shows "an abuse of authority and power." She then drew a connection to the Rick Perry/vaccination controversy.

The last month has been a bumpy ride for Bachmann's campaign. Today, the Star Tribune reports on what might be one of her main problems: her distrust of outsiders. Several ex-Bachmann staffers told the newspaper that the candidate relies on the advice of her family and her own political instincts over that of her professional campaign staff, often to her detriment.

Meanwhile, NPR asks the question many Bachmann supporters must be asking themselves right now: "Can Michele Bachmann Get Her Groove Back?"