Iowa: Bachmann playing the gender card in final days before vote

Posted at 11:09 AM on January 1, 2012 by Emily Kaiser
Filed under: Iowa

In the final days leading up to the Tuesday Iowa caucuses, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann appears to be making gender a bigger issue in her campaign for president. 

From the Associated Press:

The Minnesota congresswoman has made the gender card central to her closing argument. She's urging voters to embrace the idea of a "strong woman in the White House" and is molding herself as "America's Iron Lady" in the vein of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

It's a play that carries as much risk as potential reward because some of the ardent religious conservatives she's aggressively courting have traditional views about gender roles.

As Bachmann darted around Iowa in the hectic days before Tuesday's caucuses, she hit the woman theme hard.

"I'm an Iowa girl. And one thing I remember about Iowa is we are a state of strong women," Bachmann told the lunch crowd at a 50s-themed burger joint in Mount Ayr. "We need a strong woman to turn this country around, right?"

Photo by Jennifer Simonson/MPR

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