The RNC's autopsy on the 2012 election is getting a very different reaction from GOP women in and out of office. Those in office are making all sorts of excuses about the messaging, and those out of office
are just fed up.
“[The RNC report] has the right message, but we’re still not meeting women in the right places,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who recommended using media outlets like women’s magazines and programming to better communicate with them. [...]
“I think our party thinks in terms of the man who will run instead of the women who have more experience,” Blackburn adds. “Women generally don’t raise their hands to run, but wait to be called on.”
Those darned women! It's all their fault for not getting in the game. But if we start talking to them in "their" places, then they'll realize that the GOP doesn't hate them.
Out-of-office Republican women, however, aren't making any apologies for their party.
“When you have senators who don’t even know the anatomy of a woman, you have a problem,” said former Rep. Connie Morella (R-Md.). “They need to keep quiet.” [...]
“It’s not about the messaging; it’s the message,” [former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman] said. “We are perceived as being unsympathetic to the needs of the most vulnerable.” [...]
Another example is last year’s political debate over contraception. “The most conservative position you can take is to get the party out of the bedroom,” Whitman said. “But instead, you’re getting into that issue and it really turns people off.”
What's that, you say? There's good reason for people to think there's a Republican War on Women? Well, at least some Republicans are willing to admit it. Whitman and Morella are old news, though, voices in the wind that the current Republican power structure won't be listening to.