GOP candidates put their moms to work

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 22:39:00 +0000

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?

Tom Smith: Meet the new Todd Akin

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:11:00 +0000

Perhaps you're confused at what Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Tom Smith was getting at in a recent interview when he was asked about abortion in cases of rape and started talking about the shame of "out of wedlock" birth. Don't be: As with Todd Akin, it was a moment where a conservative was just a little too honest in expressing his views on women.

An Associated Press reporter asked Smith, "How would you tell a daughter or a granddaughter who, God forbid, would be the victim of a rape, to keep the child against her own will?" Smith replied, "I lived something similar to that with my own family. She chose life, and I commend her for that. She knew my views. But, fortunately for me, I didn’t have to. She chose the way I thought. No, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t rape." What was it, then? His daughter had "a baby out of wedlock." Asked if that was similar to rape, Smith stammered, "No, no, no, but … put yourself in a father’s situation, yes. It is similar. But, back to the original, I’m pro-life, period."

Salon.com > Tom Smith

GOP candidates put their moms to work

Tom Smith: Meet the new Todd Akin