•  Campaign Videos (April 2012) « Obama for America
  

[Music]

TEXT: MITT ROMNEY: EXTREME ON Women's Issues

Unidentified Woman: Rights that women felt were settled for nearly a generation have suddenly become contested again.

TEXT: EXTREME ON Economic Security

Wolf Blitzer: Scott Walker back in Wisconsin tried to do away with equal pay for women in Wisconsin.

Romney: Your great governor.  What a hero he is. [audience cheers]  Scott Walker.

Unidentified Woman: Gov. Romney supports the Ryan budget...

Romney: I applaud it.  It's an excellent piece of work...

Male News Announcer (voiceover): The plan would cut funds for Pell Grants; about two-thirds of college students who get those, female.  It would cut funds for Medicaid, and about 70-percent of Medicaid beneficiaries are women.

Romney: Congressman Ryan and I are the same position.

TEXT: EXTREME ON Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Unidentified Woman on Face the Nation: Mitt Romney has been asked whether he supports equal pay.  He says yes but he hasn't said whether he supports the Lilly Ledbetter Act which makes it easier for women to sue on equal pay.

TEXT: Sam Stein, Reporter for Huffington Post to Romney Campaign

Sam Stein audio: Does Gov. Romney support the Lilly Ledbetter Act?

[Ticking SFX]

Romney Campaign: Sam, we'll get back to you on that.

TEXT: EXTREME ON Reproductive Rights

Romney: I'm so happy to be here to make sure that my endorsement of Tom Corbett is heard loud and clear.

Female News Announcer: Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett catching some flack for defending a controversial bill...  The bill would require women to have an ultrasound before going through an abortion, and the person doing that ultrasound would have to make sure that the woman can see it.

Off Camera Reporter: Making them watch, does that go too far in your mind?
Corbett: I don't know how you make anybody watch.  Okay.  'Cause you just have to close your eyes.

Rachel Maddow: The bill forces doctors to position the screen in front of a woman's sight line while the procedure is being performed, and it requires a print out of the image to be filed away in the woman's medical records even if she does not want that.

Corbett: You just have to close your eyes.

Romney: ...my endorsement of Tom Corbett is heard loud and clear.

Male News Announcer: One issue that has become very controversial is that personhood amendment.
Female News Announcer: They say it prohibits rape victims who want abortions from doing so, outlaws birth control, in vitro fertilization, and puts lives at stake.

Huckabee: Would you have supported the constitional amendment that would have established the definition of life at conception?
Romney: Absolutely.

TEXT: EXTREME ON Roe v. Wade

Romney (clip from debate): Do I believe the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade?  Yes, I do.

TEXT: EXTREME ON Health Security

CBS Evening News: A controversy over contraception is now an issue in the presidential campaign.
Foster Friess, Romney Mega Donor: Back in my days they used Bayer aspirin for contraception.  The gals put it between their knees.

Female Announcer: ...The Blunt Amendment.  The amendment would have let insurers employers opt out of providing birth control coverage...
Romney (audio): Of course I support the Blunt Amendment
Meet the Press: ...heard the debate about contraception.  Really are we turning the clock back to something that seemed settled...

Unidentified Woman on Face the Nation: Mitt Romney has called for the end of federal funding of Planned Parenthood.

Romney: Planned Parenthood, we're going to get rid of that...

Eric Cantor on MSNBC: Mitt Romney's been very clear.  He's said he will sign a repeal of Obamacare.

Romney: If I'm president I will repeal Obamacare, and I'll kill it dead on its first day.

Female Announcer (voiceover): Some of its key provisions: Insurers can no longer deny children coverage for pre-existing conditions...  and preventive care such as cancer screenings will be covered completely at no cost to you.

Romney: ...kill it dead on its first day.

Unidentified Woman: We seem to be going backwards in time rather than forward.  Should Mitt Romney be elected president of the United States, what public policies is he going to put forward that are going to help America's women?

TEXT: MITT ROMNEY: TOO EXTREME FOR WOMEN

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Notes: Various sound bites strung together.  This approach lends itself to statements being taken out of context, and the campaign's failure to include dates of the clips also undermines the effectiveness of the video.  To note another transgression, the campaign has added CG to the news clip of Foster Friess identifying him as a "Romney Mega Donor."

The press release provides this summary...

Mitt Romney is extreme on issues that matter to women.  He refuses to say whether he would have signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and make sure women receive equal pay for equal work.  He called Roe v. Wade “one of the darkest moments in Supreme Court history” and supports banning all abortions – even in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of  the woman.  He even said he would “get rid of” Planned Parenthood, a vital health care provider of preventive services like breast and cervical cancer screenings for millions of women. 

Mitt Romney’s run to the right may be winning him Tea Party voters, but American women are realizing they cannot trust Romney to stand up for them. 

Copyright © 2012 Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.