I can't be sure, but this may be one of the signs of the Apocalypse. No, I don't mean Snooki getting paid (more than Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison!) to speak at Rutgers University. But something just as alarming:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) raised $2.2 million in the first quarter of 2011, even more than Mitt Romney who raised $1.9 million over the same period, Fox News reports.

This is NOT an April Fools joke.

A few caveats to temper the desire to tear one's hair out. Neither Romney nor Bachmann has declared a formal candidacy. And it's very early in the game...you need only look at 2007, when the presumed match up for the presidential election would be Hillary Clinton vs. Rudy Giuliani. There's no way to know where either of these two end up by summer of 2012.

However, it should be absolutely clear that the tendency not to take Bachmann's aspirations seriously needs to end now. There are enough people supporting her campaign with donations that it is very serious indeed.