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Brian Snyder / Reuters
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop at Alpha Graphics in Hartford, Connecticut April 11, 2012.
HARTFORD, CT-- Mitt Romney pushed back aggressively on Wednesday afternoon against the notion of a Republican-led "war on women," repeating his argument that any such suffering by women is actually the result of President Obama's economic policies.
"This is an amazing statistic ... 92.3 percent of all the jobs lost during the Obama years have been lost by women. 92.3 percent!" Romney said, holding a new piece of campaign literature produced today displaying various dismaying economic statistics. "Now the president says, 'Oh, I didn’t cause this recession' -- that’s true. He just made it worse and made it last longer, and because it lasted longer, more and more women lost jobs."
And while independent fact checkers have questioned the veracity of that number, Romney came prepared with other damning numbers he said were the result of the president's poor stewardship of the economy.
"Under President Obama, 858,000 more women are out of work. 858,000 out of work under this president. And finally the total female unemployment rate has gone from 7 percent when he took office in January 2009 to 8.1 percent in March of 2012," Romney said. "This president has failed America’s women and if I’m the next president of the United States I will go to work to get American women good jobs, rising incomes and growing businesses."
Mitt Romney pushed back against the narrative of Republican-led "war on women." Romney told a group in Hartford that President Obama's economic policies have hurt women. Video edited by NBC's Matt Loffman
While Team Romney has pushed back on the idea that the all-but-official GOP nominee has a problem with female voters, his campaign has begun an aggressive outreach effort -- surrounding the candidate with women on stage, as they did today, and having him meet with female business owners, as he did yesterday.
Democrats have touted stories of the GOP's gender gap, and today seized on a comment by a Romney surrogate on a conference call that called into question whether Romney would have supported the Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009, which extended the statute of limitations for women to file wage discrimination lawsuits.
As the back-and-forth between the Romney and Obama campaigns flared over social media, the Romney campaign sent three press releases from prominent female surrogates focusing on the economy -- not the Ledbetter act, (which a Romney aide later said he would not change), a strategy Romney appeared to double down on towards the close of his remarks here today.
"This president will do, in his campaign, anything he can to deflect from his record. What I'm going to have to do every day is bring him back to his record. I have to show, for instance, that the policies of this administration have led to 92 percent of the people who have lost their jobs being women in this country," Romney said. "When he says, ‘Oh, there is a war on women,’ let's bring him back to the fact that it is the real war upon women that has been waged by his economic policies. Let’s hammer day in and day out what has happened under his policies, and recognize those policies, those things he believes, do not work."
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Hey Ladies, BELIEVE Etch-A-Sketch and he'll tell you another bunch of bulls--t! The TRUTH IS ETCH-A-SKETCH is only concerned about your vote! He doesn't like women & he doesn't like the POOR! What he does like is the corrupt corporates, the ones that put this puppet up for vote! We, the 99% American People, certainly DID NOT SELECT HIM TO RUN FOR OFFICE! We have much better judgment than we are given credit for by these corrupt corporates, who continus to steal from us!
Rose What have Eric Holder and Obama done to curb the banksters? What have they done about John Corzine. No one party has a lock on curbing or promoting white collar crime!
I am an independent that supported George W. Bush and one thing I can smell is a phony politician. In my life, I have never seen any politician as blatantly phony as this Mitt Romney guy. I mean does he think we are stupid? How can you say you're for women and the same day, your top strategist could not even answer a question on whether you support the equal pay act? I mean is this guy serious? You had to go consult with your pollsters to figure that out? Is this what he will do when faced with an emergency in the white house? Folks, being President means your finger is on that nuclear trigger. Do we need a spineless flip flopper, that will need to consult with pollsters to determine if to pull that trigger? It's even insulting that this guy is running for President.
The only phony I see is Barack Obama. He wants to make us think he is waging a war for women, please, like he really cares! He knows very well he will need this voting block to help him win since he polls so poorly with white males. He has been the real phony since he took office!
Dee. all you have to do is look at the way his looks at his wife of 20 yrs. and is supportive of whatever she wants to do, look at his genuine concern when he is talking to individuals in a crowd, he really pays attention to what they say, especially women! He is a definitely a people person whereas Romney is a robot, kisses a baby and moves on! The baby can't ask him questions that might put him on the spot! It's not just for votes! People see that, why can't you? Racist maybe?
92% of all the job losses were women? Really. This fool expects us to believe that. The housing construction sector was one of the worst hurt industires and I find it extremely unlikely that 92% of those jobs were women.
Someone needs to tell that idiot we are not stupid. I can't fathom his GOP supporters believe that BS...
He's just trying to get the subject off contraceptives and back on the economy, the problem is the job lossess are all the result of the GOP anway.
His argument, Obama didn't bring the jobs back quick enough. The GOP solution, eliminate planned parenthood, that will create jobs, eliminate contraceptives, that will create jobs, pass legistation to make abortions harder to get, that will create jobs, give more tax breaks to the rich,.....that will create jobs.... I'm sick of this crap.....if people haven't seen since 2010 they had no plan to create jobs, well they do now.
Don, that is why on ABC World News tonight they said, if the election were held yesterday, President Obama would have beat Romney 51% to 44%. They also said more women than men liked the President and his numbers approval with women soared well above Romney, like 57% to 26%!!! That is why he is putting on this staged act today! But, as you said, we aren't stupid! The number of women in the work force is about equal with men now and there are many more, intelligent, college grad women than there ever was! But his biggest failing is his robot personality! In the likeability dept. I read a poll a couple of months ago that all voters, Repugs, Indies, and Dems gave President Obama and 83% approval rating! Members of Romney's own party don't like him! As Santorum said, "He is the worst Republican you can have"! Even tho I am a dem, I think Santorum, out of all the GOP clowns, was the most honest. He was almost to honest for his own good and turned people off when trying to mix Religion with Politics! I was sorry to see him go and wish his family the best of luck with their little girl! Obama 2012
Mr. Romney has numbers that he feels will help him get the Presidency and get women to vote for him!!! But if it's an out and out lie about a number that says 92%%%%%%%%% of women lost jobs compared to men since the President took office he just destroyed himself and lost the womens vote for lying. Sorry ladies and gentlemen of the right Mitt and hist staff might be the gift that keeps on giving to the democrats.
TO: paul-440967 who wrote:
Pauly, Romney's experience is eliminating jobs, laying off American Workers, and shipping American Jobs overseas, not to mention all of those employee pensions he kept for him and his partners to divide, leaving all those folks who put their hard money into their pension plans high and dry, you know, just like he wants to do with out Social Security and Medicare money!
And Republicans have ALSO had 3-1/2 years to turn this country around but instead did everything in their power to STALL our recovery because they were more interested in the political benefits of maintaining a POOR economy than they were in creating any JOBS JOBS JOBS for the American People.
Now you want to give the folks who caused the Economic Collapse of the Entire United States Economy their jobs back, even though they did NOTHING to solve any of the problems they created!
No way.
Obama / Biden 2012
Come on now folks, give the guy a chance to explain........
Personally I believe the whole vaginal probe thing was part of a vision/visitation straight from Joseph Smith or, or maybe it was Michael the Arch Angel, or or ........Xc?zrt$$*fnp.
S**t I'm confused it's just a goofy thing
But I know for sure Obama declared war on women or or rich people or or christians.......ya thats it......Obama is really the antichrist and the only way to stop him from destroying the WORLD is to elect ME. See.....surely you can see that.
TO: jay in salem-707200 who wrote:
That's a lie. Those are nothing more phoney made up Republican Talking Points that Republicans use to brain-wash their followers, and if you think Republicans can lie their way through this election than all Republicans are going to prove is that Romney is nothing more than another lying a$$ George W. Bush!
Obama / Biden 2012
Calm down, sweetie, jay in salem was employing sarcasm. Funny, too.
Do the Democrats have anything to offer women who have never had a problem making as much money as their male co-workers, will never apply for food stamps, will never get an abortion and aren't worried about having a $0 co-pay for their birth control pills?
Obviously, he is targeting women who need and want things, who are dependent on the Government but he is trying to seem more sympathetic to all women so most women, especially the ones who do not need Government assistance would vote for him, like he thinks they are that stupid. We will see how his strategy works coming November as unemployment staggers above 8%.
Obviously he is targeting you, Dee.
TO: Dee Patriot who wrote:
You're darn right Dee, we want and need our freedom, and we DON'T want any stinking Republicans fighting over which Republican is going to rule over women's wombs!
We want and need our freedom of choice!
And we want and need equal pay for equal work, which was the very FIRST piece of legislation President Obama signed after being Inaugurated!
Obama / Biden 2012
I want freedom of choice too...the freedom to choose what health insurance plan to buy and the freedom to choose a voucher if the public school is not doing a good job of educating my children.
There aren't any Republican's ruling over my womb. I actually have that under control and so should all other females.
How exactly do you prove equal work? Every employee is a unique individual who brings different things to the table.
Romney is going to have his hands full trying to convince -- not *just* women,
but true Evangelicals- who really don't like his faith,
African-Americans,
Latinos,
*Indies*,
and even some DEMS if he is going to have even a SHOT at beating Obama.
His intense style of negative campaigning,
his constant flip-flopping on positions,
his gaffes,
his IMMENSE wealth --
making him INSANELY Out of touch with anyone who makes under $100k/yr aka the *99%'ers.
What you are really saying is he will have a hard time convincing bigots that he's a better choice than Obama. Let's just call it what it is, ok?
TO: As I stand before you today... who wrote:
Bigots? Really?
I doubt very seriously if any of those 1%ers want you calling people names who are probably their staff members and others who work for them.
On the other hand, I'm willing to bet the mega-rich are so happy that they could care less about anybody who want to be where they are.
But you just keep on using negative terms when you talk about rich people, that ought to REALLY turn off the 99%ers!
Obama / Biden 2012
Well put, Indie!
Come on Mitt, lets not be delusional. As anybody would remember, your party created the War on Women and it all started a month ago when your buddy Rush inappropriately called Sanda Fluke some despicable names, which i wont be saying here because it was and still is literally disrespectful on his part.
So are the rest of the issues you party came up with, like Freedom and Values in this country, and how we all were attacking the very fiber of the economic freedom of this nation, well Freedom and Values, are all connected to all of us if one needs to be reminded. If it wasn't for all of us, your well being wont coexists among the 1%, would it sir?????? Again, one thing you are forgetting is, it is us the people who are trying to keep those two important things alive and well in the American Traditions, as they had been throughout this Nation's past Heritage.
So Evidently, what is next on your blame game list? Is that all you got sir????
All we seem to get from the simple minded like Don, GT,and Wayne is Rhetoric, with no facts. I could give a $hit less what sector took it in the shorts. We're talking about job loss, not sector, and gender, not who can swing a hammer.
Here are the facts.
. In January 2009, there were 288,000 jobs lost by women in the private sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The next month, there were 201,000. In March, there were 240,000. In April, it was 276,000. That's more than 1 million private sector jobs lost by women in the first 3.5 months of Obama's presidency.
Now the facts are what the facts are. You can point the blame finger. You can say it's not true, or you can keep your mouths shut and quit showing your ignorance. Romney's numbers are accurate. There are all kinds of reasons why it happened, none of which change the facts. If Obama wants to explain it, fine. But deny it, he can't.
And folks that say it isn't true are just plain ignorant.
In case you were wondering there were 2.6 million jobs lost in 2008. Did you think that the job losses were going to stop the day Obama took office? And since you were giving the facts how many men lost there jobs during this time?
It doesn't do any good to say how many women lost there jobs unless you tell us how many men lost their's. That's what the whole discussion is about. You know equal pay for women compared to what men make etc. If you are going to make a point try and make one.
96,000 men lost their jobs during the same time frame of January 2009 to present. Far more men lost their jobs under Bush. Far more women lost their jobs under Obama. That clear enough for you. I'll spell the point out for you. Obama cares far more about women being able to obtain condoms and birth control from the Catholic Church than he care about them being able to earn a living. I'll make it even clearer for you. GOP WAR ON WOMEN MY A$$. It's a Democrat contrived diversion to avoid Obama's miserable job on the economy.
Are we clear now, Keyllee11?
I'd like to know your sources?
I bet you're one of Willards campaign lackeys! Come on, fess up Ron!
Now that is a good statement Ron!!! In other words gloss over the reasons why it happened and just say it happened and then say "I would have been able to prevent it from happening" if you're Mr Romney!!!!! The next question would be "How when most of these job losses were teaching, and administrative government jobs when you're going to layoff more government workers and block grant education funding to states???!!! Then and only then will I give Mr. Romney any credit if comes up with a credible answer.
Jeffrey, Romney is only trying to point out the obvious to anyone that successfully completed the 3rd grade.
Obama is trumping up a phony GOP war on women issue when it is obvious that he could give a $hit less about the issues that really concern women. That would be the economy and jobs. (Keystone pipeline comes to mind).
It's a diversion to try and take the attention off of his failure on the economy, on jobs (for women and men) and the overall lousy job he's doing.
All but the simple minded have it figured out.
Phony my ass! Go to Yahoo, Ron! Yahoo has all the right wing, extremist, racist, making up @!$%# bloggers that are Repugs/teabaggers! You're in the wrong venue!
The reality is Ron, Mitt could be entitled to those credit if members of his own party came to compromises on how those job losses could have been prevented back then. You emphasis clearly identifies where Romney stands on every issues that came up, I strongly suggested that your candidate won't take any negative positions on this issue as well. Again, I can see right through his blame game as his only game changer propelling your candidate along with his already flip flop statements to the White House.
You want me to continue.....????
Oh hell, I didn't know the Rules. I get it now. We're going to go from It's not true, to It's not Obama's fault. What's next? It's BP's fault for putting female life guards out of work on the Gulf Coast?
What ever the crisis you folks will find a way to blame someone else except the guy in charge. If you can't get people to believe that the truth is a lie, then we'll just blame someone else.
Well that's an argument that can't be won using reason, logic, and the truth, so I'll leave you folks to your fantasies.
Altogether now, All Hail Obama, you bunch of nitwits.
Romney looks ridiculous...again! If there is any bias in the work force in America today, it exists because of the corporate culture that Mitt Romney, by his own admission, has helped create/been a part of more than anybody.
What a fool-Obama gets blasted daily for a health plan that fights for a women rights to health services, while Romney supports policy that challenges a women's common decency and principles...yet, by once again trashing Obama on a choreographed stage, Romney feels he is making waves with informed voters...come on Mittens!
Protest all you want Willard.Women are not stupid and they will see through your half assed attempt to woo them.Woo ? Is that the appropriate term in the world of magic underpants?
Yeah if he can fool a few voter perhaps he'll get closer to the White House. I don't see that happening except this candidate creating pandemonium on the airwaves about a bunch of political nonsense that was partly his party's fault.
As the current flag bearer of the Republican party, for "Mulligan Mitt" to make such an unfounded lie that women have suffered under President Obamas watch is not only a lie. But a blatant slap to any non white 1%ile male as well. This flip-flopper will say and do anything to get a vote or even sell a company to the orient. Remember this guy is a "Vulture Capitalist". So if you are what you do, than statements like this whopper of a lie is only just the beginning. And since he is the flag bearer of the GOP, then he marches lock in step with the rest of the right wing-nuts and their agendas when it comes to womens rights as well. Or doesn't he, after all he is known to all as the "Flip-Flopper" of this election cycle. But let me just put this out there for a sec... It is truly deafening about the silence of the Republican women on how their rights as human beings have been decimated. And yet how can any of them and the democratic and independent women as well get behind and sponsor a political party that lobbies fear, hate-mongering and the same old failed trickle-down economic policies that got us Americans into this economic $h!t-hole in the first place...
Go figure, then go vote...
Alex, It is so nice hearing this from a man! President Obama needs more guys like you! Thank you for sharing! ;o)
Slick Mitt is doing it again! He's flip-flopping to get votes! What does he think we are all stupid and can't see his tactics? I am so tired of his mimmicking the President! Anything President Obama says against him, he says the same thing about President Obama, no matter how obviously untrue it is! It's so childish and ridiculous, like a little kid saying "did not! Did so!" back at the other kid! He can't even think of anything original! It just go to show that he and the whole Republican party will say anything to gain power back! It's killing them to have to kowtow to a black man, even one who is only half black and has brought this country back from the abyss the Repugs created! He has as much political experience as "that one" they ran for VP in 2008! He was an almost a one term governor! When his popularity started going downhill in Massa. he left to pursue the Olympic games! He doesn't seem to like not being boss! I read his bio, he skipped around from job to job and only stayed at ones where he was boss! So, how is that gonna play if he is President and congress says "no"? Is he gonna do what his crony Dubya did and go over everybody's head and do it anyways? Sounds like we have an embrionic Dubya in the race here! He is not qualified to be President with an almost one term as Governor under his belt just like Palin wasn't qualified! I wonder if he can see Russia from any of his houses?
Romney's statistics are general who's being laid off. Nothing to do with laws.
Obama's complaint is all about Laws being passed against women. Huge difference between the two.
Dear Friends:
I am a woman and an American Voter. Romney go where the sun does not shine.
U S O B S O B
Dear Friends:
Romney's dirty dick is hanging out. Tell him where the out house is and turn it upside down on him when he is in it. Nanotech and furbish him to death.
Dream Scape Romney is a liar and Mormoniser.
OMG....it must be getting really bad for the GOP! I am actually starting to feel sorry for them!
This old man is doin the in and out burger dance to all these stupid woman. Surely the men of the USA are more intelligent and real men than this looks like.
Vote for anything but communism, socialism and Mormonism.
shar walker, Haven't you heard, there's a new boy in town. Some black Republican freshman Rep. (probably another teabagger) and he's even more ridiculous than Willard, running around saying that the 80 DEMOCRATIC congressman in the house are Communists!! ROFLMAO!!!! They are even thinking of making him Willard's running mate! ROFLMAO!! This just keeps getting better and better! I forget the man's first name (It's on MSNBC's site) but his last name is West. The Romeny and West 2 ring circus is still in town folks!
OK, OK Republicans since you insist on not accepting any responsibility for any of this mess we are in, I volunteer to do the vaginal probes for you. I am just a dirty ole man and will not tell anyone what happens. Now ladies, just close your eyes and spread your legs wide. And don't worry about there not being a need for this exam. The republicans says you need it. And then when I am done, just place this aspirin between your knees and all will be OK.
Also you don't need a job anyways. Your jobs is to make babies and wait on us men hand and foot. Also you don't need to vote because you will never understands a mans world. You don't need equal pay because bare foot and pregnant is all you are required to do. There is also no need for you to go to school, us men will teach you everything you need to know outside of what your mother teaches you.
Now be a good little Stepford wife and sit there and be quite.