SALON

Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 10:39 PM UTC

GOP candidates put their moms to work

Republicans' go-to talking heads: Their moms (and dad) VIDEO

By

Topics: Connie Mack, Election 2012, House of Representatives, Richard Mourdock, Senate, Tom Smith, Advertisements, ,

GOP candidates put their moms to workRichard Mourdock AP/Tom Strattman (Credit: AP)

The political conventions were not the high water mark of family marshaled for political theatrics. You may have thought that the peak of pandering was Ann Romney shouting, “I love you women!” and Michelle Obama’s repeated self-designation as “mom-in-chief.” In fact, if you’re a Republican, it’s enlisting your mother or grandmother to promise that nothing is going to happen to your Medicare — unless it’s Obama looting it.

It’s not easy being a down-ticket Republican with Paul Ryan a notch below the top. Democrats got plenty of leverage early in the fall pointing out Ryan’s plans to voucherize Medicare and past designs on Social Security. As compiled in a roundup by the National Journal, the senate and House candidates who trot out their mothers (and to a far lesser extent, their fathers) to, well, vouch for them respond using the same discredited line that Romney-Ryan have: That it’s Obamacare, not the Republicans, that are a real danger to Medicare.  And who is more credible than a sweet, white-haired lady who conveniently might double as a salve to the gender gap?

Interestingly, two of the Senate candidates who employed this tactic are, the apt words of Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Joshua Green, “one of the rape guys.” Need to distract attention from the time you said your daughter getting pregnant consensually was the same as rape? Bring your mom to chime in “right” when you twist the facts on Medicare.

And fellow rape-gaffer Richard Mourdock was the rare Republican to opt for his dad — perhaps his mom was too busy contemplating God’s gifts — to channel the father from Frasier and grumble that Democrats should get off his lawn.

Elsewhere, the prominent placement of Florida Senate hopeful Connie Mack’s parents make plain one of his major arguments for his candidacy: His dad used to be a Senator. “I love him dearly!” Mack’s mother chirps at the end. So far, judging by the polling, Florida voters are less enthusiastic.

And Rep. Larry Bucshon of Indiana’s mother-law promises that he can be trusted with Medicare, “No matter what liberal politicians say.” In the briskest, catchiest ad, one of the few GOP women to go the ancestral route — not that there are many Republican women in Congress to choose from — Rep. Kristi Noem brings out her grandmother to talk about, yes, defending Medicare at the same time that she condemns “government run healthcare.”

That contradiction isn’t the only rhetorical trick these congressional Republicans share with the presidential campaign. Colorado Republican Rep. Mike Coffman says his mom is his “number one adviser on Medicare.” Mitt Romney, who touts his wife as his conduit to women, would be proud.

Continue Reading Close
Irin Carmon

Irin Carmon is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @irincarmon or email her at icarmon@salon.com. More Irin Carmon.

Next Article

Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

What To Read Awards: Top 10 Books of 2012 slide show

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10
  • 10. "The Guardians" by Sarah Manguso: "Though Sarah Manguso’s 'The Guardians' is specifically about losing a dear friend to suicide, she pries open her intelligent heart to describe our strange, sad modern lives. I think about the small resonating moments of Manguso’s narrative every day." -- M. Rebekah Otto, The Rumpus

  • 9. "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter: "'Beautiful Ruins' leads my list because it's set on the coast of Italy in 1962 and Richard Burton makes an entirely convincing cameo appearance. What more could you want?" -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"

  • 8. "Arcadia" by Lauren Groff: "'Arcadia' captures our painful nostalgia for an idyllic past we never really had." -- Ron Charles, Washington Post

  • 7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn: "When a young wife disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, her husband becomes the automatic suspect in this compulsively readable thriller, which is as rich with sardonic humor and social satire as it is unexpected plot twists." -- Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science Monitor

  • 6. "How Should a Person Be" by Sheila Heti: "There was a reason this book was so talked about, and it’s because Heti has tapped into something great." -- Jason Diamond, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

  • 4. TIE "NW" by Zadie Smith and "Far From the Tree" by Andrew Solomon: "Zadie Smith’s 'NW' is going to enter the canon for the sheer audacity of the book’s project." -- Roxane Gay, New York Times "'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon is, to my mind, a life-changing book, one that's capable of overturning long-standing ideas of identity, family and love." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 3. "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain: "'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' says a lot about where we are today," says Marjorie Kehe of the Christian Science Monitor. "Pretty much the whole point of that novel," adds Time's Lev Grossman.

  • 2. "Bring Up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel: "Even more accomplished than the preceding novel in this sequence, 'Wolf Hall,' Mantel's new installment in the fictionalized life of Thomas Cromwell -- master secretary and chief fixer to Henry VIII -- is a high-wire act, a feat of novelistic derring-do." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 1. "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo: "Like the most remarkable literary nonfiction, it reads with the bite of a novel and opens up a corner of the world that most of us know absolutely nothing about. It stuck with me all year." -- Eric Banks, president of the National Book Critics Circle

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10

Related Videos

More Related Stories

Comments

 4 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( profile | log out )

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

From Around the Web

Recommendations