Calendar continues Bachmann’s commodification

At the Minnesota State Fair she was made into crop art. Last week she became an action figure. Now U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann is a calendar girl.

Bachmann has been talking up how tough her re-election bid will be in November 2010, and that’s the month she is pictured in the 2010 Great American Conservative Women Calendar from the Claire Booth Luce Institute.

You’ll be rewarded with a complete slideshow of all 11 women featured in the calendar if you visit FoxNews.com — or if you prefer, the Huffington Post, where they’re soliciting photos for a Great American Liberal Women calendar.

(Not sure why the Luce calendar has only 11 great conservative women — either they couldn’t come up with a full dozen or they are in solidarity with Nepali calendar-makers.)

Bachmann’s photo is decorated with a vintage 1958 stamp from Minnesota’s centennial and her own quote, which harkens back to an even earlier time:

Since the fall of Adam, freedom has not been the natural condition of man. However, America has chosen to light a candle, rather than curse the darkness, with the bright promise of life, liberty and freedom.

One of Bachmann’s press aides had a quote almost as long if less profound (it involved “getting soaking wet”) when she was featured last July in The Hill’s list of the 50 most beautiful people in Washington, D.C.