Romney: Obama is waging "the real war on women"

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, waves as he arrives at the spring reception for the Republican Committee of Chester County Tuesday, April 10, 2012 in Mendenhall, Pa.

/ AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Updated: 1:18 p.m. ET

MENDENHALL, Pa.--Mitt Romney, the all but certain Republican presidential nominee now that Rick Santorum is out, is trying to reframe the battle for female voters by accusing the Obama administration of waging "the real war on women" by its failure to jump-start the economy.

"During the Obama years, women have suffered," Romney told a crowd Tuesday in this town just outside Philadelphia. "This president did not cause the recession; he just made it worse and made it longer. And it's been harder for the recovery to occur. And, as a result, women have suffered."

He added: "The brunt of the burden of job losses during the Obama years have been suffered by women."

Romney said that 92.3 percent of the jobs lost during Obama's years as president were women's jobs, a figure that has been rated "mostly false" by the fact-checking website Politifact for failing to take into consideration the full picture of unemployment during the recession.

While it is true that women have lost significantly more jobs during the past three years, the reverse was true in 2007 and 2008, when the larger number of jobs lost were men's, particularly in the construction and manufacturing fields. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that since the recession started in 2007, women account for just 39.7 percent of the total job loss.

The Obama campaign fought back Wednesday with a statement from Lilly Ledbetter, who said she was "shocked and disappointed" that his campaign declined on a call Wednesday morning to say if Romney supports the 2009 equal-pay law passed in Ledbetter's name. It gives women more tools in their fight for equal pay with men and was the first bill Obama signed into law.

Romney's focus on women on the trail and in interviews, including one Wednesday on Fox News -- comes as recent polls have shown him trailing Obama by double digits among female voters, with a USA Today/Gallup poll released on April 2 putting him 18 percentage points behind Obama in 12 of the country's battleground states.

Some political strategists have suggested that debate on issues like contraception during the Republican primary have hurt the party's standing with women. Romney was criticized by Democrats and some women's groups for promising to get rid of Planned Parenthood (or at least federal funding for it) and for his support of the "Blunt amendment," which would have allowed exemptions for employers who have religious or moral objections to including birth control or other health services in their insurance coverage.

By shifting the conversation about female voters away from social issues such as contraception and toward the economy, Romney is attempting to reframe the argument and hit the president in an area where he has shown weakness. Some of the same polls that have shown Romney trailing Obama among women also show the former Massachusetts governor with an edge over Obama on the economy.

Lately, Romney has begun to accuse Obama of adopting populist policies and rhetoric that are divisive. Speaking in Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday, Romney painted Obama's "Buffett Rule," a proposal that would create a minimum 30 percent income tax for millionaires, as one such example.

"See, this president goes around and tries to find some group of Americans that other Americans may not like a lot, or may not trust a lot," Romney said. "And then he says, 'Let's tax them. It's their fault.' This blame, this populism of going to try and divide America is not only wrong, it's dangerous."

[Orca_Nunchuka]

Foolish nonsense by Mitt Romney. If he is talking he is lying.

The Republicans are really bashing logic aren't they?

They are lying regarding Women's Rights when they are trying to remove it and women's birth control and a woman's right to choose. Then Mitt is saying Obama is at war against women because he really defending them from Republicans.

[jcm521]

So the main reason that women lost most of the jobs late in the recession was that was when the states were firing teachers. Why were they firing teachers? Because Republicans filibustered an attempt by the Obama campaign to provide funding to states to pay teachers.

This is sort of like the example of the man who killed his parents asking the judge to give a compassionate sentence because he's an orphan.

[hsinco-2009]

So Mitt, show us the math you used for the 92% figure who are spouting!

[harv823]

Good try Romney. But, the American women are too smart to believe your "spin."

[modonnel22]

Sorry Mitt, women just aren't buying it. Even with all the GOP's superpac money, they can't buy you a personality.

[lgccac]

Obama can't run on his record. He doesn't believe in and support the U.S. Constitution. It is a "flawed document". His words, not mine.

His re-election strategy is to divide America with class warfare, race warfare, and a made up war on women. It just isn't fair. Well who gets to decide what's fair?

The Constitution is founded on the principle of individual rights, not group rights. Every American citizen has the same opportunities. What you choose to do about it is up to you.

[KPeters_from_UK]

"Flawed document" as in a document that constantly need interpretation and clarification mostly done by the courts. If the Constitution wasn't flawed then we wouldn't have these problems over religion vs State, gun control vs well armed militia, the use of the gender Man opposed to human...

Flawed like the Bible ...oh, yes indeed I said that. There are thousands of different interpretations of the Bible. And each interpretation is a base for a different religion.

[jgnv]

"Flawed" may not be the correct term, but you must admit that given how much has changed in society since its inception, there are certain segments that are continually challenged in the courts. I don't think you can honestly believe President Obama's re-election strategy is to "divide America"....we have, unfortunately, already managed to do that on our own. If anything, we need a leader you will inspire us to all come together again as a nation and support one another, socially and economically.

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

Romney: Obama is waging "the real war on women"
----

Re: Sandra Fluke comments by Limbaugh

Romney: Limbaugh remarks "not language I would have used"

Obama said he doesn't know "what's in Rush Limbaugh's heart," but said that such remarks "don't have any place" in public discourse.

[karek40]

The blame game worked for Hitler, why not Obama? With Hitler it was the Jews fault, with Obama it is the fault of the rich. You ever wonder who gets to decide who is rich, if you ask the $0.21 cent per hour garment worker in India I'm pretty sure those working at MacDonalds would be considered rich.

[thechooch1]

karek40 that is the most ridiculous comparison I have ever seen. So you think your President is going to gas the rich?

[1pheasant1]

This is one area where Mitt Romney does not flip-flop.
He just flops.

[grumpas]

That is the most ridulous nonsense I have heard recently!!! His crediability is about zero now and statements like this are not helping him. He is the one who got himself into the mess he is in, by trying to prove he is a lunatic like the hard right. I personally will not vote for him or any other Republican until they lose the social issues and the war on women!!! As a woman voting for a nut like Romney is an insult to my intelligence.