New Romney ad courts female vote

Taking square aim at President Obama's already-diminished margin among female voters, the Romney campaign released a new ad on Wednesday stressing the GOP candidate's moderation on questions of abortion and contraception.

The ad features a former Obama supporter, Sarah Minto, explaining, "Those ads saying Mitt Romney would ban all abortions and contraception seemed a bit extreme."

Minto apparently refers to an Obama ad, "Dangerous," that warned Romney would "allow employers to deny coverage for cancer screenings and birth control" and would "outlaw abortions even in cases of rape or incest."

"I looked into it," explains Minto. "Turns out, Romney doesn't oppose contraception at all. In fact, he thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape, incest, or to save a mother's life."

Romney opposes abortion rights but has said he approves of exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Critics have noted, however, that he also expressed support for a constitutional amendment declaring that life begins at conception, an absolutist position that would criminalize abortion with no regard for extenuating circumstances.

Pivoting from social to fiscal issues, Minto says, "This issue's important to me, but I'm more concerned about the debt our children will be left with."

The message dovetails with the Romney campaign's insistence that women voters are not singularly concerned with abortion and contraception, and that economic issues like job creation and the debt could enable Republicans to make inroads with women whose aversion to social conservatism might otherwise yield a vote for Mr. Obama.

Both Romney and his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, spoke to women's issues at campaign events on Wednesday, underscoring the importance of the female vote as Election Day approaches.

After Tuesday's debate, however, Romney may need to redouble his courtship of women voters. Asked about pay equity, Romney declared that he sought and received "binders full of women" from groups in Massachusetts highlighting qualified female applicants for cabinet posts in his gubernatorial administration. It was an innocuous enough statement, but the awkward diction immediately metastasized, spawning a mocking Tumblr blog and hours of dissection on cable news.

Compounding the problems wrought by Romney's off-key phrasing was a report questioning his implication that he initiated the search for "binders full of women." According to David Bernstein of the Boston Phoenix, the list of qualified female applicants was actually prepared by civic groups prior to Romney's inauguration who presented the new governor with their compilation. Romney himself played no role in initiating the search for qualified female appointees, though he eventually did appoint record numbers of women to his cabinet.

Mr. Obama, for his part, seemed delighted to needle Romney for the remark, saying on the stump Wednesday, "We don't have to collect a bunch of binders to find qualified, talented women ready to teach in these fields right now. And when young women graduate, they should get equal pay for equal work. That should be a simple question to answer."

[Ru4Real88]

This ad is seriously disgusting. To state that the debt is more important than women's issues is absolutely ridiculous..
By choosing Paul Ryan as a running mate Romney showed that he does support the personhood amendments. When he says he doesn't he's lying.

[StenDeadio]

Just another lie from the lying liar who says he'll "work with Democrats" (right after he repeals Obamacare...I'm sure Dems will eagerly cooperate).
If you vote for this guy, congratulations, you are totally moral-free.
Just eight more days until this (many colorful expletives go here) is sent back to his day job, baptizing dead non-Mormons.
America does not need this embarassment to the human race soiling it's history.
Get lost, Mitt the Liar.

[marychgo]

Three words, ladies (and gentlemen): Supreme Court appointments....

[CBSDebbie]

What the ad fails to see is that while women are not just concerned about abortion, contraception but the economy is that there is a concerted effort to reduce women's rights. When it comes down to the economy or my rights I will vote for my rights to be protetcted, for without my rights the economy does not matter. Romney and the GOP have made a concerted effort to reduce the rights of women over the last decade. I was a republican for 35 years. The party's 1950's stance on women was one reason why I left. Romneys binder issue is evidence...he became governor in 2003 and he was just wondering where the women were? The issues of womens reproductive rights and equal pay rights began in the 1970's. That means at best Romney was 35yrs behind the curve. I'm guessing his 47% remark was directed mostly at women...he has little value for women and is condecending. As an Independent I will vote Obama. The economy is a mess but Obama is not out to reduce womens rights.

[nearl451]

So he lied yessterday about being "concerned" that not enough women were being suggested for theoverner's staff.....when the names were given PRE-election or him by an activist group. (liar).

THe women in this group may soon find out exaclty how fast their rights can change....when Romney is elected.

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

Romney,Ryan and the republicans anti women reprouductive policies shows they have a yesteryear mindset proves they want women to be continually barefoot and pregnant, pure and simple. Good luck progressing in the world in that scenario ladies.

[audemus]

I wonder what women are going to think of the "Great White Hope" when they discover that in his heart of hearts he believes women should be subservient to their husbands and that he LIED (surprise, surprise, surprise), when he said in Tuesday's debate that HE had noticed the lack of women applicants for positions in his cabinet when he was elected Governor of Massachusetts, so HE decided to "go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet," is a lie. The process had been created and implemented by an independent group called the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus or MASSGAP, well BEFORE Romney was even elected governor.