You know Barry may be able to talk a good line about being all in favor of equal rights for women, but too bad for the women on his staff that he doesn't practice more of what he preaches. What we heard from him at Tuesday’s Hofstra University presidential debate as both he and Gov. Romney duked it out over pay equity for women, was nothing more than his standard talking point. Because while Barry made the empathetic case for his single mother and his belief in equal pay, pointing out that the first bill he signed as president was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, he failed to address reports this year that demonstrated that his own White House pays women less than men. And I thought that was something that Gov. Romney could have jumped on and revealed what a total and complete fraud Barry is on the topic.
Barry continued to spew, ad nauseam, how is somehow to be seen as being a champion of women's right. We heard him saying again during the second debate, "The first bill I signed was something called the Lily Ledbetter bill. And it’s named after this amazing woman who had been doing the same job as a man for years, found out that she was getting paid less, and the Supreme Court said that she couldn’t bring suit because she should have found about it earlier, whereas she had no way of finding out about it." Droning on he said, "So we fixed that. And that’s an example of the kind of advocacy that we need, because women are increasingly the breadwinners in the family. This is not just a women’s issue — this is a family issue, this is a middle-class issue, and that’s why we’ve got to fight for it."
But once again his rhetoric falls far short of his deeds. His being so eager to pat himself on the back just doesn't stack up well when placed against actual facts. Because according to a report published by the Free Beacon in April, the 2011 annual report on White House staff revealed that the median annual salary for female White House employees was 18 percent less than male employees, or $60,000 compared to $71,000. Well imagine that, Barry lied! And back in 2008, Scripps Howard syndicated columnist Deroy Murdock noted that as in Barry’s U.S. Senate office, women were paid less than men: While the average male staffer brought home $54,397, female staffers averaged $45,152. As they say, actions speck louder than words, and on this topic, Barry's words speak volumes.
Now Romney, on the other hand, provided to us a rather detailed summary his professional history, recruiting women into positions of power during his tenure as governor of Massachusetts. He further pointed out all of the economic suffering women have been made to endure under Barry, including the loss of 580,000 jobs among women and that there are now 3.5 million women who are now being force to live poverty. "What we can do to help young women and women of all ages is to have a strong economy — so strong that employers that are looking to find good employees and bringing them into their workforce and adapting to a flexible work schedule that gives women opportunities that they would otherwise not be able to afford," Romney said. All of which makes very good sense.
Barry did his best to press Romney on the Lily Ledbetter Act, noting that earlier in the year, when asked about the legislation, the former Massachusetts governor dodged the issue. "I just want to point out that when Gov. Romney’s campaign was asked about the Lilly Ledbetter bill, whether he supported it, he said, ‘I’ll get back to you.’ And that’s not the kind of advocacy that women need in any economy," Barry said, reverting back to the tired old tactic of trying to attack Romney for his opposition to government of Planned Parenthood and the contraception mandate in Obamacare, painting Romney’s opposition as a potential economic hindrance to women. But his accusations rung a bit hollow when placed up against his own record of how continues to treat women in his employ.
Barry said, "In my health care bill, I said insurance companies need to provide contraceptive coverage to everybody who is insured. Because this is not just a — a health issue, it’s an economic issue for women. It makes a difference. This is money out of that family’s pocket. Gov. Romney not only opposed it, he suggested that in fact employers should be able to make the decision as to whether or not a woman gets contraception through her insurance coverage." Going on to say,. "That’s not the kind of advocacy that women need. When Gov. Romney says that we should eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, there are millions of women all across the country, who rely on Planned Parenthood for, not just contraceptive care — they rely on it for mammograms, for cervical cancer screenings."
Following the debate, pro-life groups blasted out myriad statements disputing Barry’s idiotic assertion that Planned Parenthood provides mammograms. Romney, of course, was not allotted sufficient time to respond fully to Barry’s follow up, but in answering the next question the Republican nominee revisited his stance on contraception. "I’d just note that I don’t believe that bureaucrats in Washington should tell someone whether they can use contraceptives or not. And I don’t believe employers should tell someone whether they could have contraceptive care of not. Every woman in America should have access to contraceptives," Romney said. "And the president’s statement of my policy is completely and totally wrong." As was the case for most, if not all of the evening.
So in watching the debate I'd give the night to Romney, but not by nearly the margin he won by in the first debate. And while I think he did well enough to win there were at least four instances that I thought he could have nailed Barry. One, of course, is what we've discussed here. Another was Barry moronic statement about Libya and how it was that he called it a terrorist immediately. He did not. Another was on oil drilling, while I thought Romney provided an adequate answer, I thought he could have done better. And lastly, when Barry brought up that 'secret' tape of Romney, I think Romney cold have squelched things by mentioning Barry 'bitter clinger tape' from the last campaign. Now I know it's easy to Monday morning quarterback, but make no mistake, I was quite pleased by Romney overall performance in debate two.
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