Can Bachmann Win In Iowa -- Or Anywhere? Not From Where Patch Power Outsiders See It

Less than six weeks after winning the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is all but finished as a viable contender in the eyes of politically-engaged Republican activists in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

That's the message of the latest Power Outsiders poll conducted by The Huffington Post and Patch.

Nearly half of the influential local Republicans we surveyed in the early primary states report a generally negative impression of Bachmann, and more than two thirds see little or no chance that Bachmann can either beat Barack Obama or win the Republican nomination.

This week, our HuffPost-Patch Power Outsiders poll of 160 political activists, party officials and officeholders in the early primary and caucus states focuses on Bachmann. The poll does not survey all Republican voters, but rather attempts to listen in on the "invisible primary" underway among influential local activists and political insiders that has historically driven the outcome of party nomination campaigns. This week, we heard from 38 Power Outsiders in Iowa, 57 in New Hampshire and 65 in South Carolina.

As with the Republican candidates tested previously -- Rick Perry and Mitt Romney -- we first asked respondents to use one word to describe their impression of Bachmann. Unlike with the two frontrunners, nearly half the words (48 percent) to describe Bachmann were negative, including "inexperienced," "crazy," "lightweight" and "scary."

Power Outsiders is a Patch-Huffington Post project that surveys influential Republicans in the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Details on responses about Bachmann and a full list of participants can be found here.