MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa: Michele Bachmann, once the Republican front-runner in Iowa, is casting herself as ''America's Margaret Thatcher'' as she struggles to avoid a humiliation in Tuesday's caucuses that would end her White House hopes.
She would then face a tough battle to be re-elected to Congress in her home state of Minnesota after irritating constituents by trumpeting the fact that she was born in Iowa and all but adopting it as her homeland.
An NBC-Marist poll put Mrs Bachmann, who won the Iowa straw poll in August, a distant sixth in the state with just 6 per cent support.
She has been badly damaged by the defection of her campaign manager Kent Sorenson, an Iowa state senator, to Ron Paul, the maverick libertarian riding high in the polls. She then angrily accused Mr Sorenson of being bribed to leave her campaign.
Adding to her woes, a ''Super PAC'' - a political action committee independent of a candidate but often supporting one - switched from backing Mrs Bachmann to Mitt Romney.
With the polls in Iowa being more volatile than in any contest in the state for decades, Mr Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, appears to have edged into a narrow lead over Dr Paul with Rick Santorum moving into third and Newt Gingrich, continuing his slide, in fifth behind Governor Rick Perry of Texas. Leading Christians are concerned the social conservative vote would be split between Mrs Bachmann, Mr Perry and Mr Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator - prompting pleas for Mrs Bachmann to drop out before the voting on Tuesday.
But despite her dismal slump since August, when she was briefly hailed as the main alternative to Mr Romney, Mrs Bachmann has continued to campaign with relentless energy and enthusiasm.
On Thursday, she completed a bus tour of all of Iowa's 99 counties beginning in Sioux City on December 16 after the last Republican debate. She told the few dozen who turned up to see her at Legends American Grill in Marshalltown: ''We have had a wonderful tour. It's just been fantastic - the outpouring of support.''
The Minnesota congresswoman made no reference to the polls. Instead, she compared herself to conservative heroes on both sides of the Atlantic.
''What we needed [in 1980] was the most articulate conservative we had to hold Jimmy Carter responsible and we got Ronald Reagan,'' she said. ''Britain was also suffering under socialist policies. They needed a strong conservative too and up rose a woman and her name was Margaret Thatcher. She was the Iron Lady and she led Britain back to prosperity too. Right now in the United States, we need another strong conservative who can stand up. I want to be America's Iron Lady, America's Margaret Thatcher.'' With Iowa Republicans starting to make up their minds the 2012 US presidential contest is becoming emotional.
Mr Romney dropped his steel-eyed focus on the President, Barack Obama, to turn his fire on Dr Paul on Friday, calling his chief rival here ''a fringe candidate''.
Meanwhile, Mr Gingrich, watching his support plunge under a withering assault of negative TV ads, choked up at one campaign stop while talking about his late mother, wiping away tears.
''I'm a sadder and slower person than I was 25 years ago,'' Mr Gingrich said.
But Mr Santorum revelled in a last-minute surge of support after months of methodically working the back roads of Iowa, meeting voters one by one.
Telegraph, London and MCT
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