Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann reached across the pond and back a few decades at a campaign stop Wednesday, comparing herself to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
"Just like in 1980 with Ronald Reagan, we needed that conservative. There was another nation in a lot of trouble at that time. It was England, and they decided to take a chance on a very strong woman. Her name was Margaret Thatcher," Bachmann said while speaking at the Waukee Pizza Ranch in Iowa, according to Patch.
"Margaret Thatcher came in and she turned England around. She got them set on the right course and they called her the 'Iron Lady.' They meant that term as a mean term, but she wore it as a badge of honor. She said, 'That means I'm principled. That means I stand.' That's me too. I want to be America's Iron Lady."
Bachmann sought to draw a similar connection back in September, saying that her foreign policy views were "strong" like those of Thatcher.
The comments come as Bachmann enters the final stages of her bus tour through all of Iowa's 99 counties ahead of the Jan. 3 caucus. The task of remembering the names of all of those counties may have gotten to her Wednesday, however, as Patch reports that she mixed up the name of county she was speaking in, calling it Waukee instead of Dallas.
The Bachmann campaign was rattled late Wednesday night when her Iowa chairman, Kent Sorenson, abandoned the Minnesota congresswoman for Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
She sought to get over that hurdle Thursday, taking questions from Iowa callers on a local radio program. One supporter called in to explain his belief that Bachmann's campaign was significantly disadvantaged because President Barack Obama had some degree of control over social media networks and internet search engines.
"Michele Bachmann is up against not only the other candidates, but up against President Obama, who has Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube in its back pocket," the caller claimed, according to Talking Points Memo. "I believe that helped him win the last election. No president should have the monopoly of those companies in their back pocket."
Bachmann concurred.
"I absolutely agree, Jonathan," she responded. "We have seen, whether it is the head of Facebook or Google, it is clear there is an alliance with the Obama administration, as well as with NBC."