The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that the national unemployment rate rose from 8.2 to 8.3 percent in July. And yes, while the US economy did in fact add 163,000 jobs -- a significant improvement from previous months -- it’s still not enough to keep up with population growth. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that President Obama and his supporters are waging a fact-free, deeply divisive presidential campaign centered on character assassination and class warfare. Nothing is off limits, it seems. In fact, we’ve already seen unsubstantiated accusations of serial tax evasion, charges of “vulture capitalism,” and now -- ta-dah! -- Mitt Romney wants to roll back women's reproductive rights (via LifeNews):
As I understand it, no Republican seeking high national office -- let alone the presumptive Republican presidential nominee -- is waging a war on women or trying to restrict females from accessing birth control. Mitt Romney himself said as much during a GOP debate last January:
What the GOP presumptive nominee reportedly opposes, however, is federally subsidizing Planned Parenthood (an organization that performed more than 300,000 abortions in 2010 alone) with taxpayer dollars. The truth is hundreds of thousands of pro-life Americans, against the dictates of their own conscience, are forced to stand idly by as their hard-earned money is redistributed by the government to medical clinics that, in their view, murder innocents. I suspect this reality weighs heavily on Mitt Romney (as it does on those of us who find abortion morally repugnant) and is a compelling reason why he firmly believes cutting all federal funding to Planned Parenthood is both legitimate and necessary.
But in the end, of course, this is merely Team Obama’s distraction du jour; that is, their latest attempt to avert the nation’s eyes from the president’s failed economic record. Andrea Saul, a Romney spokesperson and surrogate, concisely summarized this point during a recent interview with Politico:
“One day after the unemployment rate increased and we reached 42 consecutive months with a jobless rate greater than eight percent, it is not surprising that the Obama campadign would release a false ad in an attempt to distract from the effects of the President’s failed policies. Dishonest political attacks will not change the fact that President Obama has not turned around the economy, and his policies have hurt women and families all over the country. We tried it the President’s way, and middle-class workers have paid the price. Mitt Romney has a Plan for a Stronger Middle Class that will jumpstart the economy and bring back millions of jobs.”
Thinly veiled charges of misogyny might poll well with women voters, but it’s disingenuous to assert -- or even imply -- that Mitt Romney wants to take America back “to the 1950s,” or whatever. In fact, unlike President Obama, Governor Romney actually wants to move the country forward in a way The One has demonstrably (and ironically) failed to do: By implementing sound economic policies that will promote job creation, inspire entrepreneurialism, and -- above all -- grow the middle class.
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