Former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich, a pro-choice Republican who is supporting Mitt Romney, blames Romney's problems with female voters on Rick Santorum:
MORGAN: Obviously Governor Romney has got a problem in the polling with women. Not entirely surprising given that the social issue debates that have been raging in the Republican party have been pretty negatively received. How does he rebuild trust in the female vote?
EHRLICH: I think that's more a function of the Santorum campaign, quite frankly, and the Democrats using some of Senator Santorum's verbiage to their electoral advantage, to their partisan advantage.
I think when the general election -- again, when you have one on one general election and they see, again are reminded of Governor Romney's real views, that gender gap will dissipate rather quickly.
Nice try Bob, but it wasn't Rick Santorum who said he wanted to "get rid of Planned Parenthood." That was Mitt Romney. In fact,
Romney attacked Santorum for supporting Planned Parenthood.
It wasn't Rick Santorum's Super PAC who said Newt Gingrich was too liberal on reproductive freedom, that was Mitt Romney's Super PAC. And it certainly wasn't Rick Santorum who forced Mitt Romney to say employers should have the right to ban birth control coverage on insurance plans for their female employees. Mitt Romney did that on his own.
It's true that Mitt Romney campaigned in 1994 and 2002 as a pro-choice Republican. But he lost in 1994 and after winning in 2002, he flip-flopped and became anti-choice. Ever since breaking his 2002 campaign promise, he's followed Republican orthodoxy on the issue.
That all being said, Ehrlich is half-right. Women are definitely going to be "reminded of Governor Romney's real views." The thing is, it'll be Democrats doing the reminding. Romney and his gang will be busy fumbling with their Etch-A-Sketches.