Michele Bachmann has given up her presidential bid.

The Republican Minnesota representative announced her plan to “stand aside” last Wednesday after results for the Iowa caucus revealed she had fallen drastically behind her running mates.

We have to admit that we aren’t surprised, and we were a little relieved.

Granted, Bachmann’s campaign had its high points. Her win in the Ames Straw Poll seemed to reveal a relatively strong candidate with supporters who were willing to show up.

But she’s just made too many silly mistakes.

Bachmann quickly became known for getting her historical and political facts a little skewed. PolitiFact, a Pulitzer prize-winning fact-checking website, has rated 19 of her statements as “false” and 12 as “pants on fire.” (It rated five as “true” and four as “mostly true.”)

Stats like that just don’t make for a strong candidate.

But perhaps it was her most recent ad that raised the most eyebrows. In it, she describes herself as “America’s Iron Lady,” attempting to channel Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister.

It seems Bachmann was using Thatcher’s recent popularity, due to the new film “The Iron Lady,” starring Meryl Streep, to gain some attention and possibly some votes.

But the parallels just aren’t there, and it’s quite easy to see.

John Campbell, author of  “The Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, from Grocer’s Daughter to Prime Minister,” wrote on HuffingtonPost.com that Bachmann’s conservative politics are mostly centered on religion; Thatcher’s weren’t. For instance, the Los Angeles Times reported that Thatcher kept abortion out of her politics.

The ad was a stretch and a ridiculous comparison.

But what’s done is done, and Bachmann’s decision to end her campaign for the presidency was a smart one.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.