Image credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

Ann Romney has a message and she's sticking to it.

Pressed to expand on her campaign talking points during an interview today with Davenport, Iowa's KWQC, the Republican candidate's wife accused anchor David Nelson of trying to drag her into a debate about "hot-button issues that distract from what the real voting issue is going to be at this election."

"Do you believe that employer-provided health insurance should be required to cover birth control?" Nelson asked Mrs. Romney earlier.

"Again, you're asking me questions that are not about what this election is going to be about," she said. "This election is going to be about the economy and jobs."

Nelson countered, pointing to a Pew research poll, that "shows those issues are very important to women," who ranked them "either 'important' or 'very important.'"

Mrs. Romney smiled, but repeated comments about the troubled jobs market.

"So really," she said, finally, " if you want to try to pull me off of the other messages, it's not going to work because I know, because I've been out there."

Romney aides like to call the candidate's wife their "secret weapon," a conduit to the female voters the Obama campaign has worked so hard to alienate from the Republican ticket.

During her Republican National Convention speech, Ann Romney made a blunt appeal, at one point yelling, "I love you women!"