Even as Rep. Michele Bachmann said she had been misunderstood, strong reaction Sunday to her claim that Barack Obama "may have anti-American views" brought an unexpected shakeup to the race in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District.

News reports, political TV shows and websites buzzed with chatter about Bachmann's comments Friday on MSNBC's "Hardball."

On Friday, Bachmann was asked by host Chris Matthews whether she believes that Obama may have anti-American views. She replied, "Absolutely. I'm very concerned that he may have anti-American views."

The exchange took on national scope Sunday as former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denounced the Republican's comments.

Meanwhile, Elwyn Tinklenberg, Bachmann's DFL opponent, said Sunday that her remarks about Obama triggered a surge of contributions to his campaign that will allow him to wage a more vigorous media campaign.

Tinklenberg's campaign said that in the 48 hours after Bachmann's remarks, $640,000 from nearly 13,000 people came in to his campaign. That is more than all donations he received during the entire third quarter.

His campaign now will air more TV ads than it had planned this week. National Democrats say they will help.

"We're certainly going to be able to be on TV a lot more than we originally thought was going to be possible," Tinklenberg said. "We are confident that we are going to be able to go step for step with her the rest of the way."

At the end of September, Bachmann had about $1 million more to spend than Tinklenberg. It's unknown how much she and the National Republican Congressional Committee will raise in the final weeks before the election. The party, which recently has concentrated its efforts on saving embattled incumbents, has been spending money on ads in the Sixth District.