Michele Bachmann Pushing Comparison to 'The Iron Lady' in TV Commercial

In her only television commercial coinciding with the Iowa caucuses -- and the opening of a certain movie from the Weinstein Co. -- the Republican candidate for president leans on Margaret Thatcher.
Maybe the Weinstein Co. should have opened The Iron Lady in Iowa, where they’d be getting some free publicity courtesy of Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann.
Bachmann has finally cut another television commercial – her only other one was seven months ago – to convince Iowans to support her in Tuesday's caucus, and the ad compares her to Margaret Thatcher, who was dubbed “the Iron Lady” as prime minister of the U.K from 1979-1990.
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A movie about Thatcher starring Meryl Streep and called The Iron Lady opened in New York and Los Angeles on Friday and will go wide in a few weeks. At $70,102 per theater, the film did outstanding business.
Bachmann’s 30-second ad, reportedly running on NBC and Fox affiliates in Iowa, doesn’t verbally mention Thatcher, but a graphic of her appears for a brief moment with “America’s ‘Iron Lady’” above her photo, which might suggest to some viewers that Thatcher may have once referred to Bachmann in that manner. While there’s no evidence that that’s the case, Bachmann has been using the line to describe herself lately, as she did Sunday on ABC’s This Week when she said, “America needs a candidate that will be in the legacy of a Ronald Reagan and a Margaret Thatcher. That’s what I intend to do, is to be America’s Iron Lady.”
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Bachmann’s campaign didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The commercial introduces Bachmann as a native of Iowa – she later moved to Minnesota and was elected to Congress – and when the photo of Thatcher pops up a narrator claims Bachmann is the only candidate who has been “a consistent conservative fighter, who fought Obamacare, fought increasing our debt ceiling even as other Republicans were cutting deals with Obama.” Video is below.
Unlike other candidates, Bachmann has largely shunned television advertising in Iowa. Her other commercial ran in July and also stressed her Iowan roots, as well as her business and family-values credentials. (Video below).
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