To any woman whose hope for a Romney-led surge in the economy obscures her concern about his presidency's impact on her well-being, I have to say bamboozled is the operative word.
Maybe that's a little harsh. Let's go with short-sighted.
The Romney team is working overtime to bring women into his camp with enticements of a better economy. Fair enough. We all want that.
But the path to the Promised Land is stated in applause-line generalities. Get government off our backs. Put Americans back to work. End waste and fraud. Restore what makes America great.
It's not a plan. It's talking points that outline empty promises.
Not so with our well-being. His beliefs are made of sterner stuff.
With Obama enjoying as much as a 20 point lead with women, who many pundits say could be the key to the election, you'd think that Romney would be a little more accommodating. But Romney's positions could not be clearer.
On Planned Parenthood: "... we're going to get rid of that."
He supported the Blunt Amendment -- a bill that would limit access to birth control by giving employers the right to deny insurance coverage simply based on the employer's moral convictions.
In a Fox News interview, he was asked if he supported a constitutional amendment that would legally establish that life begins at conception. His reply: "Absolutely."
Given the opportunity to make a clear statement in support of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which expands paths to challenge unequal pay, a simple "yes" could have put the matter to rest. Instead, an aide said "we'll get back to you on that."
The campaign later issued a statement in support of pay equity and is "not looking" to challenge the current law -- a bit shy of unqualified support.
He called Rep. Paul Ryan's budget "marvelous" -- despite the fact that its assault on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will be disproportionately tough on females.
His position on the Affordable Care Act: He'll "kill it dead" on his first day in office.
He's sanctioning a hit on legislation that creates an historic shift in women's health care -- preventing insurance companies from charging women more for coverage, adding coverage for screenings and other preventative measures, ending denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions -- like having been pregnant.
What's left for him to kill, of course, is pending the Supreme Court's ruling.
From the Massachusetts Governor's Office to the 2012 campaign trail, we've learned that Mitt Romney's positions are situational. What appear to be firm now may become more malleable once the fire-breathers on the far right can't so easily torch his political behind.
Or, as his advisor Eric Fehrnstrom put it to the delight of the news cycle and bloggers everywhere, campaign statements can change from the primary to the general elections -- like an "Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and start all over again."
Women can hope that Mitt Romney has a solution to the economy -- achieving that rare triumph of policy over platitude that will reset our compass and reignite our confidence. The reality is that we'll likely have to wait for something randomly apolitical like the Web or egregiously manipulated like the housing bubble to inflate our possibilities -- less a matter of leadership than timing.
But women's well-being is a different matter. Policy does have an impact -- particularly when a right-leaning Congress is there to stamp its approval. So far -- at least by the admittedly uncertain stars of Romney's sworn statements -- that impact does not look promising.
Follow Dr. Peggy Drexler on Twitter: www.twitter.com/drpeggydrexler
Andy Stern: Will the Supreme Court Eat My Health Care, Too?
Terry O'Neill: The Romney/Ryan Budget: Why Women Should Care
GOP and Mitt Romney's degrading Women piss me off.
Every politician says they are going to fix the economy, but none can tell you how they will do it! This is the new normal. Get used to it. What we had was a bubble. The jobs aren't coming back. They are gone! Corporations aren't suddenly going to develope a conscience and decide to come back and make their stuff in america. It just isn't going to happen! As long as corporations can make their stuff cheaper somewhere else and sell it here, they will continue to do so! Our economy is 75% consumer driven. And people out of work don't buy stuff!
Hey, I want credit for that dancing naked under the full moon idea! It should be in 50 Shades of Grey!
Well he never showed much success in Massachusetts, some cll it out right failure. But The President can only try to lead in the issue of the economy the legislature actually has more influence. Then the GOTP had control for 8 years and they took a gov't int the black for 3 years into the red and basically the financial markets and greed destroyed the economy. I would hardly call Romney successful in creating jobs as a businessman.
Look Romney is a real GOTPer, rich and white and wanting to rule not govern. He attitudes towards women, well look at his religion. Mormon women hold a very submissive role and brought up through Young Womens organization in the Church to be wives and mothers period, dependent on men, encouraged to get married by early 20s. I am not saying that is wrong per se since this is their beliefs but it certainly does not mirror most of our society where women are equal and all opportunities are open. Look at Mormon Universities home to the MRS degrees, look ow quickly returning missionaries get married within a year or two. Next get to know Mormon men they are without a doubt expect submission by their wives, not say they or that is bad, but that is what they believe. Mormon females are just not equal to men in any way shape or form.
"first, i'll chain you up in the basement for awhile. in a week or so i might let you out."
???
Some may call this fear mongering but these are things promised us by the Romney campaign. This is not made up, just go back to the beginning of the campaign, check the debates, listen to the campaign promises from Iowa to Florida. It's there. The message is clear..............
And there had better be a significant move in that direction this election.
Better get to work, people!
I think we should not lose sight of the fact that Mitt Romney is Mormon, and the Mormon viewpoint for women has been to keep as many as possible in their sexual power. Romney's own great-grandfather left the country so he could keep five wives in his bed and as personal servants. This is the legacy Mitt Romney brings to the table when the equality of women is under debate by backward misogynists. What makes any woman think they will fare any better than his great-grandmothers did in Mexico?
Simplicity, has its value, and so do historical role models, but the manifestly transparent chauvinist affronts to women issued by Republicans is just one more highly disturbing characteristic of their "so called" conservative ethics.
VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS!
These little men that feel the need to control their women and the women everywhere with their ideas of "how women should be in society" should really feel the wrath of a ticked off woman in the middle of a menopausal hot flash....then he be changing his mind about controlling any woman to conform...he be lucky to survive.
I think it high time we start pounding our message .....leave us alone or pay the price. We out number them and we have what they want. Things won't be so good for them if they keep doing what they be doing.
Ya gotta get out the vote.
You can't just sit on here and complain.
Ya gotta get out the vote.
Help people get ID.
Help people register.
Help people get to the polls.
Help your DEMO Congressional candidates.
V-O-T-E
Reducing this issue to the female genitals is a perverse distortion of the issue. I really don't know how you came to this conclusion when this is obviously about abortion. I don't know if you passed biology in high school but last I checked babies grow in the uterus. None of the legislation is about controlling the "V" it's about people who feel human life begins at conception not wanting to see that life terminated.
At this point the women who think men want to control, support, or dominate women are suffering from self delusions. Please have a conversation with the nearly half of women who are pro life so you can get a clue. It as a majority of women who voted Republican in 2010. Elections have consequences.