Michele Bachmann read John Edwards tell-all for insight into potential 2012 bid

Michele Bachmann knows that running for president is serious business. So as she considers a 2012 White House run, the Minnesota congresswoman has been reading up on what a presidential bid might be like--though at least one of her literary choices seems a bit unusual.

According to MinnPost's Derek Wallbank, Bachmann recently read 'The Politician," a former John Edwards staffer's memoir about the ex-senator's attempts to cover up an affair with a campaign aide during the 2008 election.

Bachmann, Wallbank writes, has read the book "cover to cover"--perhaps gleaning insight that a candidate should never make a sex tape, lie to your cancer-stricken wife about an affair or ask a staffer to pose as the father of your mistress' child.

Less surprising, Bachmann also owns up to reading "Game Change," a salacious 2010 bestseller about the '08 campaign that reportedly prompted John Thune to bypass a 2012 bid.

"'Game Change' is a book that is very difficult to put down, at least I found it difficult to put down, and it gives a person pause," Bachmann tells MinnPost. "But the other thing that it does, I think, is it informed me of what I don't want to do.

"I'm still a human being, and I still have the values that I stand for," she added. "It tells me that the pursuit of a brass ring, the pursuit of an office, is not worth losing your health, losing your marriage, losing your integrity. That I'm not willing to do."

(Photo of Bachmann: Alex Brandon/AP)