The Hill News

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Tuesday that her day-old presidential campaign got a strong start out of the gate following her official announcement that she'd run.

Bachmann, the Tea Party darling who stole other candidates' thunder by announcing during last night's Republican debate that she would also seek the presidential nomination, said she thinks her campaign can gain traction in the polls once she shifts to a full campaign mode.

"We're just out of the box, and I'm excited that we're starting, we're off and running," she said Tuesday on CNN. "And I think that now we'll be able to make our case to the American people, and I think that we'll see, then, an increased level of support across the country."

Bachmann has made the repeal of President Obama's healthcare law a major element of her bid for the presidency, promising to make repealing the reform law her top priority if elected. But she still trails most of the field, according to the latest poll of Republicans' choice in a nominee; 5 percent of Republicans named Bachmann as their choice in Monday's Gallup poll.

But in a Tuesday interview on ABC, she passed on criticizing the Massachusetts healthcare law that Mitt Romney (R) installed as governor, a measure that's been criticized by conservatives for its similarities to Obama's law â€" similarities that! spurred former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) to coin the te! rm "Obam neyCare."

The Minnesota lawmaker is set to formalize her announcement sometime later this month in a speech in Waterloo, Iowa. Bachmann was born in the Hawkeye State and is likely to focus a great deal of her campaign focusing on the state's caucuses.

But in the meantime, Bachmann projected optimism about Monday night's debate performance, for which she won the acclaim of pundits for standing out above most other candidates.

"Well, we're feeling great. We're looking forward to getting to all of the states and taking our message of job creation and turning the economy around," she said. "But we are very pleased with last night."