Poor Ann Romney, her husband's chief adviser on lady things, was offered up as a sacrifice to the four "sharp-tongued" women of The View because Mitt's schedule was just oh-so-packed that he had to cancel. (Funny, as pathgirl noted, his schedule today looks pretty wide open.)
Plus, as Mitt has told us before, he always prefers to have his wife talk to women for him when possible. She's just so much better at talking to women and then reporting back to him what they think. And Mitt, being a real swell guy, even listens to her, for which she's very "grateful."
So the campaign sent Ann to do the lady-talking. And, as per usual, Ann did a lousy job of making the case for her husband, but a great job of demonstrating once again that she has no idea what she's talking about.
Ann: It's heartbreaking what women are talking to me about now. Four years ago there were a lot of other issues that were on the table. This year, it's nearly 95, I would say 95 percent of what I hear from women is, "Help. Please help."
Barbara: Economic help, you're talking about.
Ann: Absolutely.
You really have to wonder who these women are who keep talking to Ann about nothing but the economy and also sometimes the deficit. Now she's claiming that 95 percent—95 percent!—of what women care about is the economy. Which is funny, because Gallup
just released a new poll showing that the top concern, by far, for women in 12 swing states is abortion. The economy ranks way below abortion. And jobs. And health care. And it's basically tied with equal rights and equal pay. Guess Ann's not talking to those women.
But at least she was gracious in acknowledging that women get to choose what matters to them, which is awfully big of her, since she's been running around telling women to "wake up" and that they must vote for Mitt.
Ann: And you know, women are going to have a choice. I mean, it's clear. If you really want to make a choice, and those choices are about reproductive rights, that's your choice. If they're about economic issues and making a better future for your children and making sure that we have this—And that's the beauty of what we have in this country is being able to have those choices.
Did Ann really just imply that voters who "choose" to care about reproductive rights might want to choose a candidate who isn't her husband? I think so. Great messaging there, Ann. Guess those women in the swing states who think abortion is the top issue know how Ann thinks they should vote. And it's not for Mitt.
Then, because Ann Romney is Ann Romney, she launches into yet another verse of "It's so hard being me":
Ann: I will tell you, I did not want to do this again. I did not want to do this again. This was a very hard thing for me to decide to go forward again. I think people know and recognize—
Barbara: To campaign and go through all—
Ann: For the family to have to go through this. The children have a hard time with it. I have a hard time with it. And yet I felt as though there was something my husband could offer this country that was uniquely his that he could bring better economic hope and prosperity to women and men and all Americans.
No one cares about how hard Ann Romney thinks it is to be Ann Romney. That doesn't make her, or her husband, likable. It doesn't make them human. It makes them seem completely out of touch with the real problems that people face every day—problems that are bigger than figuring out how to fast-track the permits needed to build a car elevator in their new vacation beach house.
And insisting that it's awful hard on "the children" for Mitt Romney to keep running for president doesn't exactly win the sympathy vote. "The children" are all adults, first of all, and while it's no doubt super tough for them to bum around the country helping their dad run for president—or, as Mitt calls it, "showing support for our nation" instead of joining the military—apparently, they can't quite take the pressure. At least, not without threatening to "take a swing" at the president.
Don't you just feel so sorry for Ann and "the children"?
She's right about one thing, though. Women do have a choice. An important choice. And women care about things like reproductive rights and health care and equal pay—those things the Romney campaign keeps insisting women don't care about—then the choice couldn't be clearer.
Let's choose to send more, better women to Congress to fight for those rights we actually do care about. Please give $3 to each of our Daily Kos-endorsed women candidates for the House and Senate.