“ 'This is a reminder that a Republican Congress working with a
Republican president Mitt Romney would (feel) that women should not be
able to make choices about their own health care,' Obama spokeswoman
Jen Psaki said Wednesday morning."
Short of insanity and/or stupidity, why would ANY female vote for
Romney and the GOP and what plans they have for the future of womens'
decision making?
======================
"Mourdock apologizes for ‘misinterpretation’ of rape comments, Obama
campaign pounces"
By Aaron Blake and Chris Cillizza
October 24, 2012
Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock on Wednesday
insisted his comments about rape and pregnancy were being willfully
misinterpreted for political gain even as President Obama’s campaign
sought to ensnare Mitt Romney in the growing controversy.
“If there was any interpretation other than what I intended, I really
regret that,” Mourdock said in an midday press conference in the
Hoosier State. He added: “Anyone who goes to the video tape and views
that understands fully what I meant.”
Mourdock’s explanation will likely do little to quiet the national
firestorm created by his initial comments at a debate Tuesday night;
“I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape,
that it is something that God intended to happen,” he said.
In fact, even before Mourdock sought to clarify his comments,
President Obama’s campaign was working to hang those remarks around
Romney’s ankles.
“This is a reminder that a Republican Congress working with a
Republican president Mitt Romney would (feel) that women should not be
able to make choices about their own health care,” Obama spokeswoman
Jen Psaki said Wednesday morning. To further drive that point home,
the Democratic National Committee released a web video splicing
Mourdock’s rape comments with Romney’s full-throated endorsement of
him.
Romney, sensing danger to his growing momentum and to his attempts to
court suburban women, sought to quickly distance himself from
Mourdock’s comments.
“Governor Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock’s comments, and they
do not reflect his views,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a
statement Tuesday night. But on Wednesday, Saul said that Romney would
not rescind his endorsement of Mourdock or ask that the recent
endorsement ad he cut for the Indiana Republican be removed from the
airwaves.
But while Romney distanced himself from Mourdock, National Republican
Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (R-Texas) gave the party’s
nominee a vote of support.
“Richard and I, along with millions of Americans – including even
(Mourdock’s Democratic opponent) Joe Donnelly – believe that life is a
gift from God,” Cornyn said. “To try and construe his words as
anything other than a restatement of that belief is irresponsible and
ridiculous.”
While about half of Americans oppose abortion, many who do also
support exceptions in the case of rape and incest.
Mourdock, who beat longtime Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) in a primary
earlier this year, is locked in a tight race with Donnelly despite
Indiana’s Republican lean. Republicans note that Donnelly also opposes
abortion rights and was a co-sponsor in the House of a bill that would
have denied abortion funding for victims of rape and incest and
created a separate category called “forcible rape.” The bill was soon
amended to eliminate the “forcible rape” designation, which Donnelly
said he didn’t know was included in the original bill. Republicans
believe they can level the playing field — at least somewhat — by
pointing to Donnelly’s involvement in that controversial bill.
For the national GOP, it’s a potential case of deja vu. The party’s
chances in the Missouri Senate race plummeted when newly minted
nominee Rep. Todd Akin remarked in August that “legitimate rape”
rarely causes pregnancy.
Akin has since apologized for the comment but is struggling both in
the polls and in fundraising. GOP leaders tried unsuccessfully to push
him out of the race so they could get a different candidate.
If the GOP loses the Senate races in Indiana and Missouri, its path
back to a Senate majority becomes very difficult.
Romney — and Republicans more broadly — have worked hard in recent
weeks to push back against Democratic allegations that they are waging
a “war on women” because of the policies they pursue. The Mourdock
controversy is likely to re-ignite that debate just 13 days before the
election.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/10/24/mourdock-god-intended-for-babies-to-result-from-rape/?print=1