Mitt Romney handed Barack Obama a potentially winning new slogan for his campaign for re-election in November: ‘Paul Ryan is bad for women.’
As much as Romney would prefer the upcoming election to be a referendum on Obama’s financial policy, his will probably force social issues to take center stage. Romney has worked hard to avoid discussing his mixed record on topics like women’s reproductive rights and health care reform, but Ryan’s entry into the campaign trail may render that impossible.
Ryan may also erode any lasting sliver of hope Romney had of winning back the support of conservative single women who have felt alienated by the Republican Party. Ryan has been a prominent figure in the recent “war on women,” voting to defund Planned Parenthood four times and vocally supporting overturning Roe v. Wade, seeking to make abortion illegal even in cases of rape and incest.
Ryan also co-sponsored the federal Sanctity of Human Life Act, which sought to give a fertilized embryo all the “legal and constitution attributes and privileges of personhood.” This is in spite of the fact that personhood amendments have been thus far unpopular on state ballots and would make certain forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization treatments illegal. Ryan also supported the Protect Life Act, nicknamed the ‘Let Women Die Act’ by Democrats, that would have allowed hospitals to deny women emergency abortion care, even in a life-or-death situation for the mother.
In 2009, Ryan voted against the relatively uncontroversial Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which passed without his support and grants women protection from being denied equal pay for equal work. This is not to mention Ryan’s consistent lack of support for LGBT rights, his record on immigration, and his much lauded budget plan that would slash safety net programs and dismantle Medicare as we know it.
The full impact of Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate will not be known until the election in November. But as the race heats up in the next two months, it seems Ryan’s deeply conservative stances on social issues may do more harm than good.
1) He has "failed" as a leader, not able to get even one vote from his OWN PARTY for his "budget," as one example. 2) He has "failed" to keep any of his campaign promises, other than to ram through Obamacare and to radically and un-Constitutionally "Remake America" into a poorer and nearly bankrupt nation. 3) He has "failed" to do anything that has helped the economy, but has instead made it, and joblessness much WORSE!!!
Give it a rest with the "FAILURE" talk. All of the presidents from my lifetime have had successes and failures, some of which can actually be attributed to that president (most of which belong to their party). W made lots of mistakes, but I don't think he was a failure. Clinton and George B also made mistakes. When you start ranting about everything being a failure, you just sound out of touch, biased and guilty of self-sulfilling prophecies. It's simple psychology ... if you expect failure, you will find it (whether it's there or not). Unfortunately politics have become a sport of sorts ... played by professional athletes, where all that really matters is holding office. If a moderate has to pander to tea party extremists to get some votes, he will. If a moderate has to pander to liberal extremists, she will. And so it goes ... just try not to be one of the lemmings.