She’s “Never Worked a Day in her Life…” Open Mouth, Insert Foot

 

I’m going to go out on a limb on this one and say that Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist, should have chosen her words much more carefully after “setting off a fire storm on Twitter and Cable News Programs,” yesterday when, in reference to Mitt Romney’s wife Ann, she stated:

"His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of women in this country are facing."

Now, I’m not a woman…  In fact, I’ve never been a woman.  But within the context of my own observations, I think it’s safe to say that raising five children is as much work, if not more, than even the most demanding full time careers.

Hilary did apologize to Ann, along with “anyone else who was offended,” however; Michael D. Shear and Susan Saulny of the New York Times suggest that Rosen’s remark is in fact reflective of a “decades-old debate about the roles of women in the workplace.”  

The controversial statement could not have come at more perfect time for the Romney campaign.  With Rick Santorum recently dropping out of the race, Mitt Romney has set his sights on battling Obama for the White House.  Closing the “Gender Gap” and securing the female vote, particularly among moderates, will likely prove to be more of an obstacle for conservative Romney than the liberal-democrat incumbent.  In fact, the Romney Campaign has already begun attempting to raise money as a result of the statement by sending out an e-mail entitled “War on Moms,” which read:

"If you're a stay-at-home mom, the Democrats have a message for you: you've never   worked a day in your life.  America deserves a president who will bring us together – not pit us against each other."

Unfortunately, in this e-mail, Romney makes it seem as if Rosen is the spokesperson for the Obama Administration and the entire Democratic Party, despite that President Obama released the following statement:

There is "no tougher job than being a mom" and anyone who thinks otherwise "needs to rethink their statement."

It’s clear what Romney is trying to do, despite its lack of validity.  But this is exactly what the American people have come to expect from presidential hopefuls:  Half-truths and over generalizations.

http://topics.sacbee.com/Hilary+Rosen/
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/13/4410673/criticism-of-romneys-wife-sparks.html

TelePrompters; Use with Caution

There hasn't been a President with the speaking power of Barrack Obama since arguably Ronald Reagan. Obama came into the 2008 Presidential race virtually unknown to most Americans, but  it was his power with words that skyrocketed him into the Presidential office for four years. However, his long powerful speeches quickly became the target of the right wing media and politicians, arguing that his speech writer deserves more credit than the one talking. Thus it wasn't long before Republicans went after his biggest speaking tool; his teleprompter. Now that Obama is up for re-election the Republican nominees have rallied against using the teleprompter, specifically Santorum and Gingrich hailing Obama 'the Reader in Chief'.
Now, Republican front runner Mitt Romney has been quoted agreeing that the telepromter is necessary and convenient, while he was speaking candidly with a member Fox News, Sean Hannity. So this begs the question, is using Teleprompter really a problem, or was it just another avenue to attack the political candidates?
Well, I believe that Teleprompters do have a place for politicians, but it should not be a big place. We need politicians who know what they are saying and are saying what they actually believe and I for one don't think that it is that difficult. These politicians have been playing this game their whole lives and if they don't know what they want to say by now than that is a big red flag. These people should be plenty confident of their political motives and ideologies to speak off the cuff and still get their points across.
Teleprompters do have a place in politics and I'm not saying that they don't. Because after all, I'm not against somebody writing down what they want to say and then reading it, and we are past the days of pen and paper. It would be ridiculous for the American public/media to expect anybody can speak for over an hour while staying focused, organized, and get all his points across without some kind of aid. Also as Romney was quotes as saying 'It keeps you from saying something you don't mean, you get the message out precisely the way you want to get the message out' in this day and age where one wrong phrase could ruin your campaign and I'm sure with the meticulous character Romney shows, he is happy to have the prompter as to not make any mistakes.
So the question of should there be teleprompters is yes, and no. We don't want to elect a candidate because of how persuasive his writing staff is. But Presidential hopefuls have been using notes and pre-prepared speeches since the birth of our country, they just had to look down to read them, where as today you cant even notice. So don't take their teleprompters away, but take them into consideration when considering them.
PS. If Theodore Roosevelt had a teleprompter instead of a tightly folded speech he would have been shot and killed.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57413198-503544/mitt-romney-it-makes-sense-to-use-a-teleprompter/

Santorum Suspends Presidential Campaign...Romney Wins

“This game is a long, long, long way from over,” Just two weeks before the Pennsylvania Primary Election, Rick Santorum announced from his home in Pennsylvania that he has suspended his presidential campaign on Tuesday. Though he had quite the comeback it still wasn’t enough to beat Mitt Romney’s predictable nomination. “We made a decision over the weekend, that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, and we will suspend our campaign today, we are not done fighting,” Mr. Santorum said. He did not give specific reasoning as to why he was ending his candidacy though his direct answer was “part professional and part personal;” he did refer to his daughter’s illness with pneumonia who had been hospitalized over the weekend.  

            It was reported that Mr. Santorum had called Mr. Romney to tell him his plans to end his bid in the race and told Mr. Romney that he is committed to defeating President Obama but not going to endorse right away. Mr. Santorum did in fact accuse Mr. Romney of being a weak competitor against President Obama, but has assured the public that he is going to support and fight to elect a Republican president and to ensure the Republican control of Congress. There was no mention of Mr. Romney in Mr. Santorum’s farewell speech, he focused more on the stories he had recounted and the people he had met during his time as a presidential candidate.

            Mr. Romney had a response to Mr. Santorum’s withdrawal, “Senator Santorum is an able and worthy competitor, and I congratulate him on the campaign he ran,” Mr. Romney said. “He has proven himself to be an important voice in our party and in the nation. We both recognize that what is most important is putting the failures of the last three years behind us and setting America back on the path to prosperity.”

            Mr. Santorum was running a “shoestring” campaign in Iowa and was limited to only a few supports riding in a pickup truck in late December. This started Santorum’s second round of popularity when he defeated Mr. Romney and then extended too many other Midwest primaries. Though Santorum’s fight was worthwhile, he could not seem to compete with Mr. Romney’s negative ads paid by himself and the “super PAC” called Restore Our Future, which was a main supported by being able to fund million in an effort to capture the nomination for Mr. Romney.

            Both Romney and Santorum were having financial woes with the upcoming weeks with the Pennsylvania primary and tapping to their most vital resources for contributions and having to find alternatives. “Mr. Romney had committed $2.9 million to the Pennsylvania primary, hoping to deliver Mr. Santorum a knockout blow, and Restore Our Future had begun spending there as well.” With the Santorum’s withdrawal this allows Romney as well as the super PAC to spread out their money among other states to keep the Gingrich and Ron Paul out of the public’s serious consideration for the general election against President Obama. This also allows Romney to focus his efforts on the general election and his start of the 7-month campaign against President Obama.

            Santorum had built the reputation to be a social conservative, who was against all options of abortion and same-sex marriage. A colleague of Mr. Santorum’s, Mr. Richard Land who is president of the ethics commission at the Southern Baptist Convention, commented on Mr. Santorum’s withdrawal from the election. “As his friend, I would say, you know you’ve done an incredible job resurrecting your career. You’ve done better than anybody thought you could,” “In eight years, Rick Santorum will be three years younger than Romney is now. He’s only 53 years old,” Mr. Land said. “He’ll be a significant player. I would think he could have a significant role in a Romney campaign and administration if he wanted to.”

Mr. Santorum’s decision will all but clear the way for Mr. Romney to claim the nomination. Even Mr. Gingrich has taken steps to step back and acknowledge that Mr. Romney is going to hold the nomination. In all seriousness Santorum had the only real shot in defeating Romney but even as Romney number of delegates seemed to increase it seemed unreachable.

Mr. Santorum has left this race higher than how he started, looking back when he was first nominated he was nothing more than a man from Pennsylvania with conservation views and a big dream. Now he is looked at with respect and compared much higher than his fellow candidates Michelle Bachman, Jon Hunstman and Rick Perry. With less money and less followers Mr. Santorum was able to be the last standing in the race against Romney, which was seen to be unlikely in the early stages of the election.   
Can we automatically assume Romney is going to win the nomination or still have faith and support in Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul who seem to be hanging by threads now in this stage of the election?

Obamacare

Is Obamacare constitutional, is a question that's supposed to be addressed today by the U.S. Supreme Court.  I believe that Obamacare is unconstitutional because the law would force U.S. citizens to buy health/ medicare.  It is the right of U.S. citizens to buy something if they don't wish.  The government should not force U.S. Citizens that cannot afford health insurance to buy it either.  Justice Kennedy is considered as the swing vote to decide whether or not Obamacare is constitutional. Justice Kennedy talks about the market,

"Well, but it’s critical how you define the market… You cannot say that everybody is going to participate in the substance use treatment market and yet you require people to purchase insurance coverage for that." 

Justice Kennedy addressed a good point.  Not everyone is involved in other markets, but they may have no chose to get involved in the health care market. 

Here's a video from the opinion of CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen on how Obamacare would affect Medicaid for U.S. citizens.  The Supreme Court has a lot on their plate to choose if Obamacare is constitutional for some of these reasons.

 

Banned ads

ads that never were



I believe that when it comes to having ads for politicians, there should be certain regulations of what can be said and what should not be said. After seeing some of these never before seen ads, I am glad that they were never aired on television. In a way, you should not be able to attack another candidate on an ad because it is rude.  I dread election years because of the commercials; they are obnoxious by the end of the political season. It seems like every five seconds, there is an ad on. Most of the time these ads are bashing another candidate and not discussing the candidate whose commercial it was in the first place which makes them look bad. For many this is not a big deal because they do not really pay attention to politics to begin with, but for me, it bothers me. As a political science major I want to know what a candidate stands for and not what they think another candidate did wrong. To me this is showing you are a coward, and cannot sell what you believe in instead you are hiding behind someone else’s mistake hoping it makes you look good.

 It also makes me wonder about how much they pay the celebrities that might go on there to promote them. Like in one of the commercials that were never aired it shows Ben Stein bashing Al Gore, and it is in the setting like he was in the Ferris Bueller movie. To me the whole thing is a disgrace, and both the celebrities and the politicians should be ashamed of themselves.