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Romney Finding Support Where Women Hold Sway
WSJ ^ | FEBRUARY 7, 2012 | NEIL KING JR.

Posted on 02/07/2012 11:12:03 AM PST by throwback

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo.—Local Republican activists Debbie Brown and Lynne Cottrell share a similar story. After backing other Republican presidential candidates over the past several months, they have now swung over to Mitt Romney.

It boils down to this: Mr. Romney's mildness, seen as a demerit by many conservatives, is a plus for him in swing areas such as voter-rich Arapahoe County, a bellwether for this key electoral state and a place where women dominate the electoral rolls.

"I have come to see him as disciplined and competent. And unlike many of the others, he doesn't carry any baggage," said Ms. Brown, a Republican campaign strategist who works from her home in the suburbs of Denver and once backed Herman Cain, among others.

Ms. Cottrell, a former Arapahoe County GOP chairwoman, puts it differently: "He's a fixer. He sees problems and goes in and fixes them."

Arapahoe is one of three swing counties, in the important swing states of Ohio, Florida and Colorado, that Journal reporters are tracking through this campaign year. In a lunch gathering with seven prominent Republican women in the county, all said they had come to support Mr. Romney in part because he seemed reliable, moderate on social issues and inoffensive.

Their decisions are in keeping with the views of many Republican women in the county, and the state as a whole, who tend to have relatively liberal views on social issues. All three female Republicans in the Colorado Senate, for example, favor abortion rights and gay marriage.

Mr. Romney's main Republican rivals, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, both lean heavily on their social-conservative stances, such as opposition to abortion, while knocking Mr. Romney for being too weak on that front.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abortion; colorado; romney
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Says something about Romney's bonafides on social issues. Also seems to indicate the culture war is a route. Can't win unless you favor homosexual marriage and the killing of the unborn. I guess I don't mind losing if this is really the majority in this country now. They can have my money. I'd rather be broke than support a country that thinks this way.
1 posted on 02/07/2012 11:12:07 AM PST by throwback
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To: throwback
said Ms. Brown, a Republican campaign strategist who works from her home in the suburbs of Denver and once backed Herman Cain,

So these woman supposedly want "mildness", yet this chick backed Herman Cain???

2 posted on 02/07/2012 11:15:28 AM PST by montag813
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To: throwback
It doesn't have anything to do with Romney having a "mild personality" or being a good family man or whatever. Women like him because unlike Gingrich he's relatively young and physically attractive. Or as my niece put it, "I'll vote for him over Obama, cause he's hot."

This may sound silly, but remember Clinton won a huge majority of women and kept them to the end even though he was a cad.

3 posted on 02/07/2012 11:20:32 AM PST by apillar
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To: throwback

Sufferage, by and large a huge mistake.


4 posted on 02/07/2012 11:20:53 AM PST by 556x45
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After NV
Delegate tally approximately
Romney 51 Newt 45
when FL vote divided per RNC rules!

Pass the word!


CLICK TO DONATE TO NEWT

CONTACT FOR RNC:
website@nrcc.org

310 First Street
Washington DC 20003

Encourage them to do the RIGHT thing: end the FL fiasco NOW!
Play by RULE 15:B:2

5 posted on 02/07/2012 11:27:00 AM PST by hoosiermama (Stand with God and Sarah, the Gipper and Newt will be standing next to you.)
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To: apillar

ya newts three marriages have nothing to do with it


6 posted on 02/07/2012 11:27:42 AM PST by skaterboy (Hate=Love....Love=Hate)
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To: throwback

SO Mitt Romney is just another symptom of the feminisation of American society?


7 posted on 02/07/2012 11:36:30 AM PST by Yashcheritsiy
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To: throwback

Mildness a positive quality in a politician? Good thing our Founding Fathers were nothing of the sort.


8 posted on 02/07/2012 11:39:32 AM PST by ConservativeTeen (Proud Right Wing Extremist)
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To: throwback
ROMNEYS ISLAND, ROMNEY'S ISLAND
9 posted on 02/07/2012 11:41:14 AM PST by FrankR (You are only enslaved to the extent of the entitlements you receive.)
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To: throwback
"If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women." -- Ann Coulter
10 posted on 02/07/2012 11:42:02 AM PST by Kazan (Mitt Romney: The greater of two evils)
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To: throwback
All three female Republicans in the Colorado Senate, for example, favor abortion rights and gay marriage.

Probably part of the mega-million $ campaign by Colorado liberal billionaires to take over the state. They've been very successful so far.

11 posted on 02/07/2012 11:43:32 AM PST by RygelXVI
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To: throwback

Ugh! I suppose I can hold up my head knowing I don’t share their utterly corrupted values.


12 posted on 02/07/2012 11:46:03 AM PST by Marie Antoinette (Proud Clinton-hater since 1998.)
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To: apillar

It isn’t silly, you are absolutely right, it’s looks. It has always been looks.
Clinton was elected based on his looks. Bush was much easier on the eyes than Algore and Kerry.
I also suspect some of these women are not quite as pro-life as they sometimes claim. Mittens’ commitment to pro-life is questionable.
Looks are the reason Paul has never had a prayer.

I think the tendency to vote based on appearances are one reason the founding fathers did not want women to have the vote.
When I see polls saying that 50% of Republican voters see Romney as the most conservative, I know they are wishfully attributing that to him based on his “Presidential” appearance.
Not all women are so easily swayed by a handsome face. I am a bit undecided between Newt and Santorum at this point. Can Newt overcome his past? Can Santorum best Obama in a debate?


13 posted on 02/07/2012 11:50:18 AM PST by Wiser now (Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)
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To: throwback
"unlike many of the others, he doesn't carry any baggage"

Yeah; no baggage.

How can these people be so f$$%ing ignorant?

Romney's Grandfather had 12 wives....legal ONLY in the Mormon Religion, and might also be interpreted as 12 mistresses on call, or cheating on his wife with 11 others....

Gimme a break.

14 posted on 02/07/2012 11:52:19 AM PST by traditional1 (Stay thirsty, my friends.)
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To: throwback

On a purely emotional (not political) level I can understand the women’s perspective.

Romney stood by a wife with MS and through her battle with breast cancer. Gingrich divorced his first wife (who had breast cancer) and his second wife (who had MS.)

Romney’s wife, is his only wife, bore him 5 sons and they present a very positive family image. Gingrich’s wife was his mistress, before she was his wife. Women’s view of the First Lady matter, probably more than men’s. (well maybe not the case, look at all the negative remarks about Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton coming from men on FR)...all that to say, a mistress, turned wife, as First Lady turns off some women voters.

As I said, none of this has to do with their politics...but
if a woman is inclined to look at things aside from political stand (and there are many who do), Romney is the antithesis or Gingrich.


15 posted on 02/07/2012 11:52:24 AM PST by dawn53
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To: montag813

“So these woman supposedly want “mildness”, yet this chick backed Herman Cain??? “

Probably for very different reasons than most Cain conservatives.


16 posted on 02/07/2012 11:52:24 AM PST by ari-freedom
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To: Kazan

“And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.” — Ann Coulter”

Projection from big time Romney supporter!


17 posted on 02/07/2012 11:53:41 AM PST by ari-freedom
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To: Wiser now
"Looks are the reason Paul has never had a prayer"

I think with Paul it's the Alien Abductions that he had endured, moreso than his looks.....

18 posted on 02/07/2012 11:54:28 AM PST by traditional1 (Stay thirsty, my friends.)
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To: throwback
Clearly, the women who are responding to Romney's appeal are not measuring him by the degree to which he displays constitutional understanding or by his fidelity to conservative principles.

For instance, Mark Levin was correct the other day on Romney's lack of understanding on the minimum wage question from a conservative standpoint. His advocacy for indexed minimum wage is the "progressive" position, not the conservative and overlooks economists like Dr. Walter Williams who points out how minimum wage laws hurt youth and others.

Likewise, Romney's remark about "the poor" didn't indicate a callousness to "the poor." What it did fail to do, however, was to take advantage of the opportunity he had to present a case for a truly conservative solution for helping 'the poor' and all other citizens.

And, to win the battle for the minds and hearts of citizens, the nominee needs to be someone whose quickness of mind and ready familiarity with founding principles can refuse to "class" people by "rich," "middle class," "poor," etc. That is Obama's playground. It is how the collectivists/redistributionists classify and divide us, and it is how they avoid accountability for providing real solutions in economic matters.

Romney, as Krauthammer has pointed out, seems "incapable" of responding with and explaining conservative ideas.

To restore America's greatness will require leaders who, like America's Founders, have thought through the ideas which made America great, for it is the restoration of those ideas to the American mind which can give freedom back to the citizens and wrest power from the hands of "rulers" who use "poverty" as their vote-getting mechanism.

Would suggest readers here visit another thread recently referencing Jonah Goldberg's observations on Romney's "not speaking the language naturally," meaning he doesn't speak the language of conservatism.

My post there points out that the problem is much deeper than "language," as this matter of his full embrace of the idea of the minimum wage illustrates.

Romney's natural philosophy, as evidenced by these and other debate answers, are just indications that his well of thought on America's core constitutional philosophy is not very deep--and certainly does not include a grounding in the Founders' ideas sufficient to rebut, rebuke, and reveal Obama's firmly-held ideology.

As a result, his "private sector" experience, while impressive and to be commended, has not prepared him for preserving the ideas which made possible his personal success in the Founders' system.

Women, especially, should understand that each candidate brings "baggage." Some "baggage" is not as consequential to the cause of liberty for our children and grandchildren as other "baggage."

No baggage is as disqualifying for the man who will compete in the battle of ideas with Obama as a lack of deep understanding and ability to differentiate between the ideas of liberty and the ideas of tyranny.

19 posted on 02/07/2012 11:54:51 AM PST by loveliberty2
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To: traditional1

“Yeah; no baggage.”

I think they are more concerned about the kind of baggage that appears under the eyes and above the waist than any other kind of baggage.


20 posted on 02/07/2012 11:56:24 AM PST by ari-freedom
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