Romney’s shameless appeal to women

[DonViejo]

Mitt turns to a strategy that worked for him 10 years ago in the only general election he's ever won

BY STEVE KORNACKI

Two things happened yesterday that don’t seem unrelated. First, there was the release of a new poll in Ohio that showed Mitt Romney pulling closer to President Obama but still trailing by 4 points – thanks to a massive 36-point gender gap. Then came Romney’s statement to an editorial board that “there’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.”

This is an extension of the strategy Romney employed at last week’s debate, simply playing dumb when confronted with the aspects of conservative ideology that are difficult to market outside the Republican Party base. In this case, there is a clear urgency for Romney in creating distance between himself and the right’s recent fixation on reproductive issues: A recent Bloomberg poll of swing voters in Ohio and Virginia found Romney leading among married mothers by a few points in each state – with the potential to open much bigger leads if he can work around the concerns they have about his views on women’s issues.

Romney, the Bloomberg poll showed, enjoys a clear advantage among these women on the economy, but has been hindered by, among other things, his vow to defund Planned Parenthood, his opposition to Obama’s decision to mandate insurance coverage of birth control, and his antiabortion position. The new Ohio numbers, from a CNN poll released yesterday, speak to Romney’s challenge. Among men in the Buckeye State, he’s now clobbering Obama, 56 to 42 percent. But with women, Obama is winning by a 60-38 percent margin. That translates into a 51-47 percent overall lead for the president, but if Romney can erode Obama’s advantage with women even a little, he can make up that ground.

Romney has played this game before, in the only general election before now that he ever won. It was exactly 10 years ago that he was running for governor of Massachusetts and found himself trailing in the race’s final weeks. The Romney campaign’s main strategy was to scare suburban swing voters with the specter of rampant Democratic cronyism in the state capitol – warning voters that a “gang of three” Democrats would run the state if Romney’s Democratic opponent, Shannon O’Brien, were elected.

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/the_old_abortion_trick/

[TroyD]

1. And that's why Team Obama needs to take a page from Ted Kennedy and SMASH HIM

Before he gets away with it.

[fugop]

2. Absolutely!

If we can't show women what a danger Romney is to them, we don't deserve to win. Seriously. There's a great Tim Kaine radio ad playing here where he speaks (maybe at a debate?) about how women's issues ARE economic issues. I stop and listen every time it's on. It's absolutely pitch perfect at pointing out the crappy policies Republicans have when it comes to women, and how it's all tied to the economy, stupid! I love that ad.

The Obama team needs to hammer that home, too.

[Smilo]

3. I have seen a couple of "women for Romney" posters

.......... one I asked why and she said "I don't talk politics".

[GallopingGhost]

4. "that I'm familiar with..."

I'm sure he calls that a *loophole.*

Give me an effing break.

[TroyD]

5. Their strategy is smart though

You have to admit they played this right. They saw the huge lead Obama had with women and they ran with it.

They realized they couldn't win with that sort of a gender gap. That's why the Pew poll (fake numbers or true numbers) made a lot of news because of the gender gap being supposedly halved.

Romney tried this with Ted Kennedy too and he was ahead of Ted Kennedy in the polls for a while until Ted caught up in the final lap.

That clip I keep posting is important - 'My opponent is MULTIPLE CHOICE'. Obama needs to come up with an equivalent approach.