Michele Bachmann Ad Capitalizes On 'Iron Lady' Interest

Margaret Thatcher has been all over the news as of late, thanks to the upcoming, Meryl Streep-starring biopic about the former British Prime Minister, The Iron Lady.

Hoping to capitalize on this renewed interest, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has taken describing herself as America's "Iron Lady."

In addition to making the comparison between herself and fellow conservative Thatcher while on the campaign trail, the congresswoman has now released an ad in Iowa that places even greater emphasis on her Thatcher-esque qualities.

Here's the commercial's text, via CNN:

Born and raised in Iowa, only one candidate has been a consistent conservative fighter who fought 'Obamacare,' who fought increasing our debt ceiling – even as other Republicans were cutting deals with Obama. An expert in tax law who will fight for deep cuts in spending to reduce America's debt, restore our economy and create real jobs – and she'll never back down.

But while Margaret Thatcher was able to get her way overseas, the Des Moines Register recently noted that Bachmann, for all her popular support and high-profile crusades, has been ineffective at passing actual laws.

Watch Bachmann's "Iron Lady" ad AFTER THE JUMP...

WATCH: Meryl Streep And Phyllida Lloyd Talk About 'Iron Lady'

Apparently, the new Thatcher biopic, Iron Lady, is long on Margaret-Thatcher-The-Woman and short on Margaret-Thatcher-The-World-Historic-Personage. Some critics have grumbled about the artists' insistence on humanizing the old boogylady, while acknowledging how affecting it is to see Meryl Streep, Thatcher's onscreen avatar, done up as a doddering old post-retirement Maggie in the grips of burgeoning dementia. Listening to Streep and her director, the fantastic Phyllida Lloyd (who's a lesbian, incidentally), dish on the film with The Hollywood Reporter, it becomes clear that it's all intentional -- the artists believed Maggie's politics were among the least interesting things about her. Towards the end, Streep gets off one of the coolest and most surprising answers I've heard an actor give in an interview:

Hollywood Reporter: What would you each like people to, in a perfect world, take away from this film? Would you like them to think differently in some way about Margaret Thatcher or what she represented, or the era that she came from? Is there something you'd be very pleased to know people left here thinking?

Meryl Streep: I would like to think that everybody that got on a subway and saw some old lady sitting across from them, that they would imagine that a whole huge life lay behind all those wrinkles, and that seemingly nondescript, forgettable [face]. I mean, there is almost nothing less interesting in our consumerist society than an old lady. Um ... dismissed. We don’t make movies for her. We don’t give a damn. You can’t sell her anything, she doesn’t buy anything. But just the idea that everything -- the whole panoply of human experience, births, deaths, struggles, joy -- everything’s in there. And just to imagine that. That’s what I would hope.

Watch the interview AFTER THE JUMP ...

Meryl Streep Channels Margaret Thatcher in 'The Iron Lady': TRAILER

Meryl Streep takes on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.

Watch the just-debuted full UK trailer, AFTER THE JUMP...

Movies: Project NIM, Streep's Third Oscar, Filling Classic Shoes

Nim is raised by humans and hot hippies in the 1970s

NATHANIEL ROGERS
...would live in the movie theater but for the poor internet reception. He blogs daily at the Film Experience. Follow him on Twitter @nathanielr.

 
 NOW PLAYING
It's a skewed movie-verse in which we live, this one wherein Kevin James gets to be called a movie star. ZOOKEEPER a terrible film about talking animals who know a lot about human behavior opens on thousands of screens tomorrow while PROJECT NIM, a terrific film about a "talking" animal who learns a lot about human behavior opens on a handful. Choose the documentary! Project Nim, which comes to you from the director of the Oscar winning documentary Man on Wire investigates a 70s experiment in which a baby chimp was raised by a New York family and taught sign language, only to be cruelly abandoned and handed back and forth between medical labs and animal reserves in a tug of scientific war. Nim shades its provocative story of human arrogance and interspecies curiousity with abundant humor, depressing facts, a seasons worth of soap opera fodder between its human cast members, and highly amusing period details.

Also Opening: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis plot to kill their HORRIBLE BOSSES Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey and Colin Farrell in a bald cap. (Bald is always shorthand for evil at the movies, Professor Xavier excepted.)

BONUS SCENE

Project Third Oscar. By now you've seen Meryl Streep's latest "give me my third Oscar, already!" campaign, also known as the teaser for "The Iron Lady", and you already know of her rich Oscar history as the most nominated actor of all time (Jack Nicholson is now a distant second). She's been nominated 16 times thus far, winning twice early in her career.

 

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

Watch: Meryl Streep Channels 'Iron Lady' Margaret Thatcher

There's already plenty of Oscar buzz around Meryl Streep's forthcoming turn as former British Prime Minister and Ronald Reagan pal Margaret Thatcher.

This brief trailer, which shows "Thatcher" being groomed for her political rise, helps explain why: Streep's portrayal is terrifying in its accuracy and will no doubt bring back plenty of bad memories of Thatcher's reign.

Watch The Iron Lady trailer, AFTER THE JUMP...

First Look: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher

The first image of Meryl Streep as former British PM Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady has been released.

Said Streep: "The prospect of exploring the swathe cut through history by this remarkable woman is a daunting and exciting challenge. I am trying to approach the role with as much zeal, fervour and attention to detail as the real Lady Thatcher possesses – I can only hope my stamina will begin to approach her own!"

The film, which began shooting on January 31, is being directed by British theatre director Phyllida Lloyd and also stars Jim Broadbent.