With the Republican National Convention set to begin this week, Ann Romney's speech was rescheduled for Tuesday. The change came when the Romney camp learned Monday's proceedings, and most importantly, Ann's original time slot would not be televised.
Mitt was disappointed in the restricted coverage, saying, "I know a number of the networks are looking to put money on the bottom line and they might not think that three hours or four hours of broadcasting a convention makes economic sense for them, but this is an important time for our nation."
But cutting Ann Romney's remarks isn't the equivalent to cutting Mitt's, or Paul Ryan's, or even Florida Senator Marco Rubio's. No one expects to miss out on any thought-provoking political philosophies by way of the First Lady Hopeful.
The Romney campaign seems to be under the impression that broadcasting Ann's speech, making her more visible to the masses, will help Mitt close the gap among single women voters that has grown to a 29-point lead for Obama.
Apparently, he believes that with the appearance of Ann, coupled with his often-derailed focus on talking about the economy, women will begin to come over to his side.
But what Mitt fails to realize is that it's policy that speaks to women, motivates women, wins women over.
Of course, it's about the economy, and whether they believe resorting to the indubitably failed policies of the past will brighten their economic future. But it's also about a deeply rooted aversion to being spoken for and controlled by a majorly male government on women's reproductive care, of which, men know little about.
Still, the Romney campaign has continued to employ its strategy of the one-dimensional parade of minorities, hoping that voters will unintelligibly draw the conclusion that Mitt's interests match those of their corresponding communities.
"Clearly, Romney supports Hispanics -- look at Florida Senator Marco Rubio on the stage!"
"Surely Mitt shares the interests of the black community -- he showed up to that NAACP convention this year, and you have to give him points for showing up!"
Mitt Romney will be conducting the same silly parade for this convention with a desperate rescheduling of Ann's speech, as if to say, "You don't believe I care about women? Well, you're wrong. I married a woman."
Newsflash: President Obama has a wife, too. In fact, he has two daughters as well, so if we're in the business of tallying female family members, it looks like women have a 3:1 incentive to vote against the Massachusetts governor.
It's sad to see that Romney continues to use Ann as some kind of pseudo-running mate, throwing her out there whenever he needs a boost among the female demographic, then committing her to the background once he feels her point has been made. It's sad to see that Mitt is still so disillusioned to think he can leave it up to her, and that by simply existing, Ann can help to close an arguably crucial gap among women that grows by the gaffe -- no pressure Mrs. Romney.