During her run for the presidency, Michelle Bachmann terrified us all on a regular basis. So perhaps it should not come as a surprise that True Blood creator Alan Ball took inspiration from her for the upcoming season of the show. He says,

My first instinct about going into religion and politics was from watching Michele Bachmann, who thinks she has a direct line to God. What would happen if she became president? A lot of right-wingers would like to see a theocracy in America. From there we thought, "What would a vampire theocracy be and how would you justify it? What kind of impact would it have on humans?"


All interesting questions, and I'm sure it will make for a very enjoyable season. (Did somebody say Christopher Meloni? Delicious.) But it is a bit of a disappointment that Ball didn't base a character on Bachmann directly. A smiling bloodsucker in a powersuit with a Minnesota accent would have been just the right mix of hilarious and scary—and, in fact, she would have made a terrific guest star. Her steady gaze was certainly transfixing enough to glamour some of us into thinking she was legitimately capable of governing a country. I don't see why she couldn't convince people to let her suck their blood.

This Week's Cover: The cast, characters, and crazy new season of 'True Blood' [EW]