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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / The War On Women / What do women want? Campbell Brown doesn’t have a clue; President Obama does.

What do women want? Campbell Brown doesn’t have a clue; President Obama does.

by Imani Gandy (ABL)|  May 20, 20125:11 pm| 130 Comments

This post is in: The War On Women

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Campbell Brown penned an op-ed for The New York Times that is so irritating and wrong-headed, that I found myself saying “oh, do shut up, lady” several times as I read it. So, consider that your trigger warning. Also, while reading it, keep in mind that her husband is a top Romney advisor (a fact which she doesn’t disclose until nearly the end of her op-ed):

My bigger concern is that in courting women, Mr. Obama’s campaign so far has seemed maddeningly off point. His message to the Barnard graduates was that they should fight for a “seat at the table” — the head seat, he made sure to add. He conceded that it’s a tough economy, but he told the grads, “I am convinced you are tougher” and “things will get better — they always do.”

Hardly reassuring words when you look at the reality. According to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, about 53.6 percent of men and women under the age of 25 who hold bachelor’s degrees were jobless or underemployed last year, the most in at least 11 years. According to the Pew Research Center, if we broaden the age group to 18- to 29-year-olds, an estimated 37 percent are unemployed or out of the work force, the highest share in more than three decades.

The human faces shouldn’t get lost amid the statistics. I spent last weekend with a friend who attended excellent private schools and graduated from Tufts University two years ago. She’s intelligent, impressive and still looking for a full-time job.

The women I know who are struggling in this economy couldn’t be further from the fictional character of Julia, presented in Mr. Obama’s Web ad, “The Life of Julia,” a silly and embarrassing caricature based on the assumption that women look to government at every meaningful phase of their lives for help.

My cousin in Louisiana started a small company with a little savings, renovating houses. A single mom, she saved enough to buy a home and provide child care for her son. When the economy went belly up, so did her company. She was forced to sell her home and move in with her parents. She has found another job, but doesn’t make enough to move out. Family, not government, has been everything to her at this time of crisis. She, and they, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Another member of my family left her job at an adoption agency just before the economy crashed. Also a single mother, she has been looking for a way back to a full-time job ever since. She has been selling things on eBay to make ends meet. Friends and family, not government, have been there at the dire moments when she has asked them to be. Again, she, and they, wouldn’t have it any other way.

This is not to say that government doesn’t play a role in their lives. It does and it should. But it isn’t a dominant one, and certainly not an overwhelming factor in their daily existence.

It’s obvious why the president is doing a full-court press for the vote of college-educated women in particular. The Republican primaries probably did turn some women away. Rick Santorum did his party no favors when he spoke about women in combat (“I think that can be a very compromising situation, where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission, because of other types of emotions that are involved”); when he described the birth of a child from rape as “a gift in a very broken way”; and how, if he was president, he would make the case for the damage caused by contraception.

But Mitt Romney will never be confused with Rick Santorum on these issues, and many women understand that. (I should disclose here that my husband is an adviser to Mr. Romney; I have no involvement with any campaign, and have been an independent journalist throughout my career.) The struggling women in my life all laughed when I asked them if contraception or abortion rights would be a major factor in their decision about this election. For them, and for most other women, the economy overwhelms everything else.

Oh really, Campbell? Many women understand that Mitt Romney will never be confused with Rick Santorum on “these issues”? Issues that include whether or not women should be paid equal pay for equal work or whether or not women should allow men to beat them up? Even though Mitt Romney’s position on “these issues” is exactly the same as Rick Santorum’s?

Exactly which women comprise your group of “many women”? Who did you ask? Your friend who went to “excellent private schools” (plural) and who graduated from Tufts University?

Tell me, Campbell: Do any of these friends of yours rely solely on Planned Parenthood for healthcare like so many women have to? Because to those women, there’s no difference between Rick “have a rape baby” Santorum and Mitt “Planned Parenthood — we’re gonna get rid of that” Romney. It doesn’t much matter that Santorum is a true believer and that Romney is a shapeshifter. Romney and Santorum both stand for the exact same policies! A President Romney will enact the same policy that a President Santorum would because it’s Republican policy.  And as The New York Times editorial board put it, “that women’s rights and health are casualties of Republican policy is indisputable.”

As for this —

I have always admired President Obama and I agree with him on some issues, like abortion rights. But the promise of his campaign four years ago has given way to something else — a failure to connect with tens of millions of Americans, many of them women, who feel economic opportunity is gone and are losing hope. In an effort to win them back, Mr. Obama is trying too hard. He’s employing a tone that can come across as grating and even condescending. He really ought to drop it. Most women don’t want to be patted on the head or treated as wards of the state. They simply want to be given a chance to succeed based on their talent and skills. To borrow a phrase from our president’s favorite president, Abraham Lincoln, they want “an open field and a fair chance.”

— stop the bullshit, lady.

[read the rest at TRS-ABLC]
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Reader Interactions

130Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeff Spender

    May 20, 2012 at 5:15 pm

    Do you think people who read this stuff nod there heads and say, “Quite right,” while refilling their pipes and sipping brandy?

    Bad image, but I can’t imagine people actually think she’s got a point (well, sane people).

  2. 2.

    Hunter Gathers

    May 20, 2012 at 5:15 pm

    Shorter Campbell Brown – Shut up and vote for Romney, I want my fucking tax cut!

  3. 3.

    Jeff Spender

    May 20, 2012 at 5:17 pm

    Well, more to the point, I can’t imagine any of the “many women” I know who would actually read that and say, “She’s got a point.”

    They have minds of their own and they’d likely decide she’s full of so much shit.

  4. 4.

    Violet

    May 20, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    When they start complaining about Obama’s tone, you know he’s doing something right.

  5. 5.

    Jeff Spender

    May 20, 2012 at 5:21 pm

    And you know what?

    This–

    The struggling women in my life all laughed when I asked them if contraception or abortion rights would be a major factor in their decision about this election. For them, and for most other women, the economy overwhelms everything else.

    –isn’t journalism. It’s fiction. Yes, I said it. It’s fiction.

  6. 6.

    BGinCHI

    May 20, 2012 at 5:22 pm

    GOP: lie all the time.

    Fake Independents who want to protect the status quo of the upper class: argue by anecdote.

    I’ll bet you dollars to donuts CB’s “friend in Louisiana” has gotten more help from the government than family. But that goes without challenge when it’s assumed we’re talking about white people. But when Obama talks to Barnard gals about their future, it’s the black dude selling government dependence.

    Hey Campbell Brown, fuck you. You wouldn’t know need if it jumped up and bit your privileged ass.

  7. 7.

    Southern Beale

    May 20, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    Campbell Brown can fucking BITE ME. You know what’s condescending, honey? Catholic Bishops and Republican politicians telling you that you shouldn’t worry your pretty little head about healthcare decisions, that they’ll decide all that for you.

    That column was the first thing I read this morning and it fucking pissed me off BIG TIME.

  8. 8.

    c u n d gulag

    May 20, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    Did anyone really expect any better from her?

    Her husband’s a Mitt toady.

    I just hope that he wasn’t the one responsible for the EMPATHY2013 upload into the MITT2012 Cyborg, because it was an epic fail.

    And can she, and her hubby really survive in the style they’re accustomed to, if hubby loses HIS job?

    Stay tuned, I’m sure the NY Time will write an article about the poor millionaire spouses, and their expenses, if one of them loses their jobs.
    THEY DO THAT EVERY FECKIN’ WEEK!!!

  9. 9.

    Nutella

    May 20, 2012 at 5:32 pm

    Wow, she literally made the tone argument.

    That means she’s got nothing else.

  10. 10.

    vtr

    May 20, 2012 at 5:32 pm

    I think a quick look at Alma Dale Cambell Brown’s bio in the Wikipedia points to the roots of her thinking.

  11. 11.

    Ash Can

    May 20, 2012 at 5:35 pm

    @Hunter Gathers:

    Shorter Campbell Brown – Shut up and vote for Romney, I want my fucking tax cut!

    QFT

  12. 12.

    gogol's wife

    May 20, 2012 at 5:36 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    Just the headline made me so mad I didn’t bother to read it. And I love the buried “disclosure” that she’s married to a Republican operative. They identify her as a “CNN anchor.”

    My poor husband suffers so much when I bring in the NYTimes in the morning. I start ranting and raving. I don’t know how we’re going to make it to November.

    ETA: The comments on the Times are either blasting her for the reasons we would, or blasting her for supporting abortion rights. “Don’t care about the rights of unborn women, do you Campbell?” Lie down with dogs (other than Lily) . . .

  13. 13.

    SIA

    May 20, 2012 at 5:36 pm

    Preach it ABL!! You hit that nail on the fucking head!

  14. 14.

    Joseph Nobles

    May 20, 2012 at 5:36 pm

    Concern trolling: it’s not just for the Intertubes anymore.

  15. 15.

    James E Powell

    May 20, 2012 at 5:40 pm

    The question is, is Campbell Brown wrong? Are women going to reject Romney & the Republicans in sufficient numbers to cost Romney the election?

    As much as I disagree with Brown, I have no idea if women, generally, disagree with what she is saying.

  16. 16.

    Jeff Spender

    May 20, 2012 at 5:43 pm

    @James E Powell:

    I’m pretty sure this election and how it turns out will decide whether or not I’m going to devote any more of my time to politics and democracy.

    It’s looking grim.

    I really hope that Campbell Brown is just an asshole.

  17. 17.

    Violet

    May 20, 2012 at 5:43 pm

    @gogol’s wife:

    They identify her as a “CNN anchor.”

    I thought she’d left CNN. Is she still working there? She doesn’t have a show, does she?

  18. 18.

    gbear

    May 20, 2012 at 5:49 pm

    I followed a link to Campbell’s ‘piece’ this morning. She was getting ripped into teeny tiny shreds in the comments. She deserves every word of it.

  19. 19.

    MariedeGournay

    May 20, 2012 at 5:52 pm

    “How dare Obama imply that just because I’m a woman I have any responsibility to ensure other poorer women are cared for. Solidarity is for losers.”

    I just want to hit her with a frying pan…for irony’s sake.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    May 20, 2012 at 5:53 pm

    “This is not to say that government doesn’t play a role in their lives. It does and it should. But it isn’t a dominant one, and certainly not an overwhelming factor in their daily existence.”

    That’s what husbands are for.

  21. 21.

    gogol's wife

    May 20, 2012 at 5:53 pm

    @Violet:

    No, I didn’t go back and look, maybe it says, “has been a CNN anchor” or something like that. The point is the ident of her tries to make her look like an unbiased observer.

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    May 20, 2012 at 5:54 pm

    @Violet:
    NYT sez:

    Campbell Brown is a former news anchor for CNN and NBC.

    Per her Wikipedia entry, Brown’s last show on CNN was aired July 21, 2010. Her show was cancelled for poor ratings, and there is no mention of any other job since.

  23. 23.

    rikyrah

    May 20, 2012 at 5:54 pm

    1. her husband is a Romney Advisor.
    2. she needs to S-T-F-U
    3. she’s talking to all those suburban White women like herself, for whom all the problems of the ‘ little people’ just aren’t their concern. Like Ann Romney being put forth as some sort of positive female sympathizer because she’s a cancer survivor, yet, whose husband wants to DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD – the major healthcare provider for MILLIONS of women in this country – WHO DON’T HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE.
    4. maybe she doesn’t need governmental protection, but I believe the million + women who worked at Wal-Mart, and were cheated, and lost their case at the Supreme Court, and thus, were the impetus for the Lily Ledbetter Act, wish they’d had a Lily Ledbetter Act.

    Campbell Brown can go fuck herself.

  24. 24.

    Nutella

    May 20, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    @gogol’s wife:

    Byline on the article says “Campbell Brown is a former news anchor for CNN and NBC.”

    Wikipedia says she left CNN almost 2 years ago. Apparently she hasn’t had any gigs worth mentioning since.

  25. 25.

    nellcote

    May 20, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    @Violet:

    I thought she’d left CNN. Is she still working there?

    She got fired. No one was buying what she was selling.

  26. 26.

    Allan

    May 20, 2012 at 6:00 pm

    Audition reel for FoxNews complete. Bank on it.

  27. 27.

    nellcote

    May 20, 2012 at 6:00 pm

    The Campbell Brown/Senor nuptuals happened during Hurricane Katrina. That’s why most of the WH staff was out of town.

  28. 28.

    Redshift

    May 20, 2012 at 6:00 pm

    How many times in this campaign are Romney or his surrogates going to talk about friends or relatives who started a business with ‘a little savings’ like that’s comparable to regular people? People who have been unemployed or foreclosed on *don’t have savings* you rich assholes!

    They are so out of touch, they don’t even know when they’re sounding out of touch.

  29. 29.

    BarbCat

    May 20, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    She married the creepy & pathological Dan Senor. We really need not know any more than that.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    May 20, 2012 at 6:04 pm

    Why can’t Obama close the deal with rich, white Republican women?

  31. 31.

    Yutsano

    May 20, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    It’s like Campbell borrowed her attitude straight from Ann Romney. And you can bet this was written in order to make Ann look better for all her out of touch comments. I hope she gets torn to shreds further in her comments. Hell I’d write a letter to the NYT after that dreck, asking them if the handjob she gave them to write that was any good. Ugh.

  32. 32.

    Redshift

    May 20, 2012 at 6:09 pm

    @James E Powell: A lot can happen between now and the election, but polls so far suggest that the GOP has really screwed themselves with women. Since Brown’s “women don’t care about abortion and contraception, they care about the economy” line is *literally* the one the Romney campaign had been pushing for weeks, there’s no particular reason to believe that her anecdotal women are anything but fictional.

  33. 33.

    Redshift

    May 20, 2012 at 6:16 pm

    @efgoldman: Hmm, I don’t think I agree. In pieces like this, they’re desperately trying to appeal to regular people. I don’t think they actually care, but they want to sound like they do. They just don’t know how, because their idea of ‘struggling’ is when they couldn’t get the wine they had their heart set on for their dinner party.

  34. 34.

    FlipYrWhig

    May 20, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    I always like the variants on “why should people need the government to take care of them, when they can just turn to their posse of rich and generous friends?”

    And it’s especially galling when a woman pull this shit. Even Republican-dominated states have resources to help women start businesses — because banks didn’t like to do it.

  35. 35.

    eemom

    May 20, 2012 at 6:20 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Campbell Brown can go fuck herself.

    That is all that needs to be said. Anything more is attention this twat does not deserve.

  36. 36.

    David Koch

    May 20, 2012 at 6:21 pm

    The struggling women in my life all laughed when I asked them if contraception or abortion rights would be a major factor in their decision about this election. For them, and for most other women, the economy overwhelms everything else.

    “The struggling women in my life”?

    Beside her maids, what “struggling women” does the rich Campbell know?

    Here’s the conversation she had with The Help:

    Campbell: Lupe, you’re a struggling woman, right?

    Lupe: Si Señora!, you no pay well, and new york is very expensive.

    Campbell: Lupe, what do you think about birth control as an issue?

    Lupe: Oh, Señora, (giggling) you’re making me blush.

    Campbell: I knew, it! Struggling women don’t care about birth control.

  37. 37.

    Mbl

    May 20, 2012 at 6:22 pm

    My favorite part is where the tens of thousands of dollars necessary to start a business flipping houses is described as “a little savings. “

  38. 38.

    Scott S.

    May 20, 2012 at 6:24 pm

    Five’ll getcha ten, all the relatives she mentioned have gotten plenty of government assistance, whether it’s unemployment while job-hunting or tax assistance while starting a new business, or even the ever-popular government-built roads, Internet, plumbing, etc., etc., etc…

  39. 39.

    FlipYrWhig

    May 20, 2012 at 6:24 pm

    (I should disclose here that my husband is an adviser to Mr. Romney; I have no involvement with any campaign, and have been an independent journalist throughout my career.)

    I see, an “independent journalist.” Beholden to no one. On account of not having a job because of an ongoing lack of talent, savvy, and personal appeal.

  40. 40.

    MariedeGournay

    May 20, 2012 at 6:24 pm

    @David Koch: Ha!

  41. 41.

    Aimai

    May 20, 2012 at 6:24 pm

    It should be obvious even to Campbell brown that all of her single mom with one child friends use contraception, planned parenthood, schip for the children’s health care, government backed loans for their education, public schools for their children, and et fucking cetera. No adult woman in the real world does not know that her personal financial future is intimately connected to contraception and abortion. The hit you take financially with an unplanned pregnancy is devastating.

  42. 42.

    FlipYrWhig

    May 20, 2012 at 6:25 pm

    @David Koch: I probably shouldn’t have laughed as hard as I did.

  43. 43.

    James E Powell

    May 20, 2012 at 6:28 pm

    @Redshift:

    Well, I haven’t given up hope, but the memory of pro-choice women voting for George W Bush lingers menacingly.

  44. 44.

    AA+ Bonds

    May 20, 2012 at 6:28 pm

    I don’t really get the relevance of those anecdotes about how her friends and family were doing okay until the recession, I mean, is the idea that the only way to “speak” to people in a bad place is to tell them that everything sucks

    For whatever it’s worth the Obama campaign seems to be advertising itself by telling people that it’s okay to have a government that serves your needs and that it’s okay to ask for one if your needs have not yet been met, even if your ‘needs’ do not involve the capital gains tax

    There is a larger question about whether the Democrats can fulfill those needs (I am . . . skeptical) or whether the intentions of most Democrats to fulfill them are in good faith (ditto) or whether the fulfillment of that promise would ever result in a center-right party taking power (need I even) but attacking the message itself bewilders me – pessimism as dogma – not even the revolutionary left neglects the idea that there are good examples in the world

    This must be some liberal thing about feeling people’s suffering in just the right amount, no more, no less

  45. 45.

    piratedan

    May 20, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    hey now, she only read the news, doesn’t mean that she understood it

  46. 46.

    David Koch

    May 20, 2012 at 6:32 pm

    speaking of shitty ratings, Erin Burnett’s heavy promoted show on CNN gets beat by a 3 to 1 margin by a repeat of Hardball. Ooof.

  47. 47.

    Nicole

    May 20, 2012 at 6:38 pm

    Seriously, she talks about people having to sell off their personal belongings as a GOOD thing? And that they wouldn’t have it any other way?

    I look forward to her annotated Les Miserables:

    “And while we certainly feel a certain amount of sympathy for Fantine when she has to sell her personal belongings, her teeth, and then her body, we, the reader, take comfort in the fact that she is standing on her own two feet, or les deux pieds, as the French might say, without requiring a handout from the government. Her premature death is unfortunate, but, c’est la vie. I’m sure Fantine wouldn’t have had it any other way and neither would we.”

  48. 48.

    suzanne

    May 20, 2012 at 6:40 pm

    I’m always astounded by the “women don’t care about social issues, women care about THE ECONOMY” line.
    First of all, I know it comes as a shock to these motherfuckers, but I CAN THINK ABOUT TWO THINGS AT ONCE.
    And secondly, the economy IS a social issue.

    God DAMN.

  49. 49.

    Cacti

    May 20, 2012 at 6:42 pm

    Wife of Romney employee says that women care about what Romney says they should care about.

    In other news, water is wet.

  50. 50.

    karen

    May 20, 2012 at 6:43 pm

    I just got robocalled for a political survey…I answered yes and no to a bunch of questions but when I said no to their questions of if I’m male and if I’m 50 years old or older and then they said thank you for your time…was that a coincidence?

    I wonder.

  51. 51.

    Cacti

    May 20, 2012 at 6:43 pm

    @suzanne:

    I’m always astounded by the “women don’t care about social issues, women care about THE ECONOMY” line

    Unless you are rich enough to belong to Mitt’s country club, family planning is an economic issue.

  52. 52.

    Joseph P.

    May 20, 2012 at 6:47 pm

    Relax, people! Campbell Brown is just auditioning for a job at Fox News.

  53. 53.

    Weaselone

    May 20, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    The friend she refers to went to two private schools prior to graduating from Tufts. Chances are this friend is taking part time work and unpaid internships in order to find her way into a job in her field. Hee parents are probably picking up the tab in certain areas to make certain she has a decent place to live, good health insurance, etc.

    Her cousin’s business sounds suspiciously like flipping houses. That’s a job that probably isn’t going to come back anytime soon. Fortunately, she has family to fall back on.

    Of course, this is Campbell Brown’s disconnect if she’s actually being honest and not just trying to get in on that wingnut welfare grift. She and her friends come from upper-middle to upper class backgrounds. They’ve had access to the best educations available and their families have the resources to step in and help out. There are a lot of Americans who don’t have parents that can pay their way through private schools, help out with tuition, or when times get up or have connections that they can leverage to get their offspring a foot in the door in a desirable career.

    You sort of have to feel bad for Campbell. She was inches away from people in her profession who were pulling in tens of millions of dollars over a couple of years. She got her own gig on CNN. Now she’s a nobody.

  54. 54.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 20, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    @David Koch: and somewhere this week, a group of CNN suits will meet to determine how to get more centrist. “How about if we mortgage the building to get Carville and Matalin to anchor a two hour prime time show? Everybody loves them! See if we can get Evan Bayh or Blanche Lincoln to do bipartisan election coverage with Gergen and Erickson. And you know who’s exciting and provocative? That Michelle Malkin”

  55. 55.

    Rita R.

    May 20, 2012 at 6:50 pm

    Why does unemployed ex-journalist and failed news anchor/boblehead Campbell freaking Brown get an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times? What qualifies her to weigh in with her ridiculous “more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger” nonsense other than the fact that she’s a woman? In which case, I’d expect that the Times would be rushing to publish an op-ed written by me saying that Brown is a full of s*it partisan hack, just like her husband, since I too have ovaries. Oh, and Campbell, by writing this, you lose the right to claim you are an “independent journalist,” because you’ve made your opinion quite clear.

  56. 56.

    kay

    May 20, 2012 at 6:52 pm

    I think what we may not have fully realized yet is, Romney is going to bring back all the Bush people, like Dan Senor.

    That’s appalling all by itself, if he wins, but in the next 6 months I expect we’ll hear from all the Bush-promoting media personalities, too, like Brown.

    The Bushies are back! Oh, joy.

  57. 57.

    FlipYrWhig

    May 20, 2012 at 6:55 pm

    @David Koch: Erin Burnett has a truly terrible show. It’s like taking Anderson Cooper’s show and removing his sporadic attempts to investigate things or cover the world, leaving only the mugging and head-shaking irreverence.

  58. 58.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    May 20, 2012 at 6:55 pm

    So Campbell has a new soup and it’s selling points are that it’s Brown and tastes like shit?

    I’m sure the conservatives will eat it right up.

    My wife and daughter laughed their asses off at her worthless blather when I told them about it.

    No sale.

  59. 59.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 20, 2012 at 6:56 pm

    @kay:

    I think what we may not have fully realized yet is, Romney is going to bring back all the Bush people, like Dan Señor.

    I keep saying, Romney’s general indifference to foreign policy, and his apparent willingness to hand state and defense back to the neo-cons, is one of the big under-covered stories of this campaign. I think Rachel Maddow covered it a week or two ago, but CNN and the NYT were too busy talking about Obama’s college girlfriend and Hillary Rosen. Ask Romney about an actual policy in these terms, push him beyond “leadership and no apologies” and he starts stammering and blinking even more rapidly than usual.

  60. 60.

    Cacti

    May 20, 2012 at 6:57 pm

    @Jeff Spender:

    —isn’t journalism. It’s fiction. Yes, I said it. It’s fiction.

    Campbell Brown is just like the lady next door…

    If the lady next door lived in a 3.9 million dollar Tribeca apartment.

    Oops, there I go with the class warfare.

  61. 61.

    JPL

    May 20, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    @kay: Stand by your man. Do you think he wrote the oped article for her or was he just standing over her shoulder?

  62. 62.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 20, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    @Jeff Spender:

    What Campbell Brown, from her position of affluence, doesn’t get, is that contraception IS an economic issue for many women. In that they can’t afford to get pregnant and take care of a child.

    Campbell doesn’t get that, and she never will.

  63. 63.

    Suffern ACE

    May 20, 2012 at 6:59 pm

    @kay: Well, when Romney said he’d be “formulating foreign policy after the election, so don’t talk to him about it,” it’s kind of a clue why that would be and who would be in charge of it. Sure, the big ones are too old, and I wouldn’t expect Rice to be back, but every protege of Wofie, Pearle, Cheney and Bolton will be smiling back on us once again. I wouldn’t doubt that every Deputy Assistant Secretary will be back in full regalia. Well, at least the ones who aren’t gay.

  64. 64.

    Cacti

    May 20, 2012 at 6:59 pm

    @kay:

    I think what we may not have fully realized yet is, Romney is going to bring back all the Bush people, like Dan Senor.

    His economic policies are total Bush redux, too. Tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, privatize social security and medicare.

    Mitt’s only core message is “vote for me because I’m rich, and I deserve the Presidency.”

  65. 65.

    David Koch

    May 20, 2012 at 7:04 pm

    @Rita R.:

    Why does unemployed ex-journalist and failed news anchor/boblehead Campbell freaking Brown get an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times?

    The liburel NYT does that to placate their reactionary advertisers.

  66. 66.

    Suffern ACE

    May 20, 2012 at 7:05 pm

    @Cacti: Their healthcare policy is to repeal Obama and that’s about it. So we can go back to recisions, ever rising numbers of uninsured, and probably pass some “Patient’s Bill of Rights” that has done so much to shield the people of Texas.

  67. 67.

    Southern Beale

    May 20, 2012 at 7:08 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Yep, a Vanderbilt U poll, here it is.

    It also shows that people are sick of our Republican legislature focusing on all of the God-guns-gays crap, ironically the same poll last year showed the same thing. AND the year before. And yet, people still vote Republican. GO FIGURE.

    Head —> brick wall ——> BANG

  68. 68.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 20, 2012 at 7:08 pm

    After going back and reading the thread, it overwhelms me, how redundant my post at #65 is.

    Everyone here gets what Campbell Brown cannot.

    Family planning IS AN ECONOMIC ISSUE.

  69. 69.

    FlipYrWhig

    May 20, 2012 at 7:08 pm

    @Suffern ACE: You forgot Poland “tort reform”!

  70. 70.

    AA+ Bonds

    May 20, 2012 at 7:09 pm

    Out of curiosity how hot were all of y’all on Campbell Brown during 2008? Plenty hot?

  71. 71.

    Dee Loralei

    May 20, 2012 at 7:10 pm

    Also, the reason two of those women didn’t receive government assistance when the economy went belly up was because 1 quit her job, so no unemployment insurance for her. And the 2nd was self-employed, and I bet in a red state like Louisiana that also means no unemployment insurance either.

    Great STFU to Campbell, ABL!

  72. 72.

    FlipYrWhig

    May 20, 2012 at 7:10 pm

    @AA+ Bonds: I don’t remember ever finding her anything but vapid.

  73. 73.

    Jeff Spender

    May 20, 2012 at 7:11 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I get that, but I’m not a woman and don’t really feel it’s my place to speak for them.

    And I don’t really think my friends represent a valid statistical sampling of women, considering my female friends are all very well educated and very liberal.

    So–thanks.

  74. 74.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 20, 2012 at 7:11 pm

    @efgoldman:

    That’s two Gibbs brothers down, three, if you toss Andy in, although he wasn’t part of the BeeGees act. Maurice passed some time back.

  75. 75.

    Linnaeus

    May 20, 2012 at 7:12 pm

    Selling things on eBay to get by isn’t a sustainable survival strategy. I don’t think Brown highlighting that as some sort of solution speaks well for her argument.

  76. 76.

    rikyrah

    May 20, 2012 at 7:13 pm

    ot: Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees has passed away at 62.

  77. 77.

    Jeff Spender

    May 20, 2012 at 7:14 pm

    @AA+ Bonds:

    I remember finding her full of insipid blather and nonsense. Tuned her, and most of the TV personalities, out when I graduated high school and found myself too mature for that garbage.

    ETA: I just rebuilt my Lego Millennium Falcon last week.

  78. 78.

    AA+ Bonds

    May 20, 2012 at 7:16 pm

    That’s funny because I remember when she went after Palin a bunch of heads disappeared under her desk

    I guess it’s like how a decade after the war was over, all French liberals were in the Resistance

    The takeaway for me is that the Palin narrative became poisonous for the left once it became clear that she had been selected as the scapegoat for McCain’s doomed campaign (well before November IIRC)

    It made it look like the problems with the Republicans were during the draft instead of in their playbook

  79. 79.

    Todd

    May 20, 2012 at 7:17 pm

    This election appears to come down to the choice of suburban/exurban women. Will theyvote self-interest, or will they do what paper shoving, hysterically fearful, pansy-assed husbands tell them to do? How much discipline will those suburban/exurban mega churches claim from them, and will they actually give a damn about the future of their daughters?

  80. 80.

    rikyrah

    May 20, 2012 at 7:18 pm

    @Cacti:

    Mitt’s only core message is “vote for me because I’m rich, and I deserve the Presidency.”

    Your forgot – I’M WHITE.

    add that into it, and you’re on point.

  81. 81.

    Cacti

    May 20, 2012 at 7:21 pm

    @AA+ Bonds:

    That’s funny because I remember when she went after Palin a bunch of heads disappeared under her desk

    I’m all for Republicans attacking each other.

  82. 82.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 20, 2012 at 7:21 pm

    @Linnaeus:

    Selling things on eBay to get by isn’t a sustainable survival strategy

    Didn’t the Dark Lord think that was the future economic activity for the proles?

  83. 83.

    kay

    May 20, 2012 at 7:22 pm

    @Suffern ACE:

    Well, but that’s if he wins.

    For the campaign, we get the Bush-era “embedded journalists, like Brown.

    I love how there are about 500 people who trade chairs, in and out of media, government and lobbying. Dan Senor and Campbell Brown, you’re up again!

  84. 84.

    Cacti

    May 20, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    @kay:

    I love how there are about 500 people who trade chairs, in and out of media, government and lobbying.

    God bless the American meritocracy.

  85. 85.

    FlipYrWhig

    May 20, 2012 at 7:24 pm

    @AA+ Bonds: I googled my nym and “Campbell Brown” and found a bunch of hits to this place featuring sharply negative comments, going back to at least 2009. Though I didn’t find any from myself, there were ones from Kay and lamh32 near the top.

  86. 86.

    JPL

    May 20, 2012 at 7:25 pm

    The major problem with the article was they did not identify that she’s married to Dan Senor who works for Romney. Something like that would be important for the readers to know and then they could make up their own mind on whether or not she had an agenda. imo

  87. 87.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    May 20, 2012 at 7:25 pm

    I can haz open thread? I have been cooking today and wanted to share.

  88. 88.

    Mike in NC

    May 20, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    By all means, let’s here more about Campbell Brown’s struggling circle of friends. Does it include people like Lady De Rothschild, we can only wonder?

  89. 89.

    JPL

    May 20, 2012 at 7:27 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt: yum

  90. 90.

    AA+ Bonds

    May 20, 2012 at 7:28 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Didn’t the Dark Lord think that was the future economic activity for the proles?

    . . . . how the shit could that possibly work given access to information about an item’s price

    were there some sort of early glory lemon days on eBay when everyone participating didn’t know jack shit, is that how that worked?

    I kept running into that idea when I was younger and I was like, idgi and I still don’t

  91. 91.

    schrodinger's cat

    May 20, 2012 at 7:29 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt: What did you make? BTW you looked great in uniform.

  92. 92.

    FlipYrWhig

    May 20, 2012 at 7:43 pm

    @JPL: Well… Look again at the last paragraph ABL blockquoted.

  93. 93.

    JPL

    May 20, 2012 at 7:48 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: The entire piece was bullshit but I still think the NYTimes should have had a disclaimer. Then those reading might decide hmmmm….
    If Mrs. Obama writes a piece, first it is not bullshit, but everyone knows who her husband is. That’s my point.

  94. 94.

    FlipYrWhig

    May 20, 2012 at 7:51 pm

    @JPL: Whoops, I meant to highlight this bit:

    (I should disclose here that my husband is an adviser to Mr. Romney; I have no involvement with any campaign, and have been an independent journalist throughout my career.)

    She didn’t name names, but the Romney connection is actually there.

  95. 95.

    Patricia Kayden

    May 20, 2012 at 7:52 pm

    But ABL 2.0 has to respect the fact that there are many women who don’t mind that Romneybot will oppose contraception, abortion, Planned Parenthood, etc. Romneybot is on the record for supporting the Blunt Amendment. Isn’t Romneybot leading in the polls among women? Perhaps it’s we progressive women (especially those of us who are of color) who are out of the mainstream.

    Even if this election should just be about the economy, I think President Obama has done a fabulous job of taking us from the brink given what he inherited from the Repubs. We’re moving in the right direction and most of the blame for President Obama not being able to do more lays at the feet of the do-nothing Repubs in Congress.

    Apart from lowering taxes for the rich even more, what is the Repub economic plan? The Ryan fiasco would only worsen the deficit while eliminating services for the middle class/working folks.

  96. 96.

    JPL

    May 20, 2012 at 7:54 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: Thanks.. I get the Times and noticed the by line but refused to read her swill.

  97. 97.

    Nutella

    May 20, 2012 at 7:56 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Romney’s general indifference to foreign policy, and his apparent willingness to hand state and defense back to the neo-cons, is one of the big under-covered stories of this campaign.

    Doesn’t it remind you of W when he was running for president? He went around saying foreign policy was not important, too, through the election and into the beginning of his term. Right up to about 9/11/01 when he suddenly realized that it was.

  98. 98.

    James E Powell

    May 20, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    We’re moving in the right direction and most of the blame for President Obama not being able to do more lays at the feet of the do-nothing Repubs in Congress.

    I wonder what percentage of Americans agree with this statement. I am afraid it is very small.

    Although it may be true, the argument that Obama could have done more if it weren’t for those mean Republicans doesn’t sound like a winner.

  99. 99.

    Southern Beale

    May 20, 2012 at 8:05 pm

    They finally closed the comments on that Campbell Brown op-ed. They were brutal — to Brown.

  100. 100.

    JoyceH

    May 20, 2012 at 8:09 pm

    Wait – Dan Senor is straight?!

  101. 101.

    piratedan

    May 20, 2012 at 8:10 pm

    @James E Powell: and perhaps you’re right, all we have to do is look at the signature piece of legislation that this Congress has passed. When you figure out what it was, please let me know what it was.

  102. 102.

    Smiling Mortician

    May 20, 2012 at 8:13 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Isn’t Romneybot leading in the polls among women?

    Umm . . . no?

    @James E Powell:

    the argument that Obama could have done more if it weren’t for those mean Republicans doesn’t sound like a winner

    It worked for Harry Truman, and it’s certainly no less true today.

  103. 103.

    WereBear

    May 20, 2012 at 8:14 pm

    I didn’t read it, but I have got to think selling your stuff on Ebay has got to be a short-term strategy. What next? The banks don’t seem inclined to lend money to get the economy going.

  104. 104.

    kay

    May 20, 2012 at 8:24 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    It’s just, come ON.

    Her husband was the face of the Iraq reconstruction debacle and he’s now a Romney advisor. We all know if Romney wins he’s back in power. To act as if she’s some disinterested observer offering advice to Obama is pure bullshit. It’s insulting to readers.

    I don’t mind that we hear from the same fucking 500 people over and over and over again, but I have to insist they acknowlege that they’re often conflicted and probably compromised in their “unbiased opinions”.

  105. 105.

    Frankensteinbeck

    May 20, 2012 at 8:26 pm

    @James E Powell:
    Apparently it is, but like a lot of the best messages, it only works if you show rather than tell. I haven’t a clue how to look up the polls that show this, but isn’t Obama way ahead of the Republicans in terms of who the public thinks is reasonable and who they think is obstructionist?

  106. 106.

    Linnaeus

    May 20, 2012 at 8:30 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Didn’t the Dark Lord think that was the future economic activity for the proles?

    Pretty much. What could possibly go wrong?

  107. 107.

    Davis X. Machina

    May 20, 2012 at 8:33 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Reasonable and a quarter will get you a ride on the subway.

    “Obstructionist” is also “tough”, “principled”, “committed”, “decisive” and a dozen other things worshiped alike by the devotees of the DC-based Cult of the Savvy and low-information/high-misinformation voters.

    U.S. politics at the national level is a dick-measuring contest.

  108. 108.

    Suffern ACE

    May 20, 2012 at 8:34 pm

    @Linnaeus: Pretty much. The national rummage sale and flipping houses defined all of the growth in economy for the last four years of Bush’s term. If we hadn’t overconstructed condos and sold our junk, there probably wouldn’t have been much growth in jobs at all.

  109. 109.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 20, 2012 at 8:35 pm

    @AA+ Bonds: I know, liberals suck, right? Only proletarian, Catholic revolutionaries who keep tabs on Fox News know what’s really going on.

  110. 110.

    ABL

    May 20, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    @David Koch: HA!

  111. 111.

    ABL

    May 20, 2012 at 8:50 pm

    @suzanne: Precisely. More importantly, what these ass clowns often forget, is that for women, family planning is inextricably tied to the economy, especially for women who are a one income household

  112. 112.

    ABL

    May 20, 2012 at 8:51 pm

    @Cacti: yup.

  113. 113.

    Frankensteinbeck

    May 20, 2012 at 9:03 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:
    Not exactly true. The Village, despite what they so desperately want to believe and want everyone else to believe, does not reflect the opinions or makeup of the US population at large. They want to think that because they control the message they control public opinion, but it’s not true.

  114. 114.

    Nutella

    May 20, 2012 at 9:13 pm

    @Suffern ACE:

    The national rummage sale and flipping houses defined all of the growth in economy for the last four years of Bush’s term.

    An economy that depends on flipping houses and selling off possessions is an economy in deep, deep trouble. Both of those are short term stopgaps that don’t contribute to the long term health of the economy.

  115. 115.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    May 20, 2012 at 9:26 pm

    I think Campbell Brown’s fantasy is owning a large plantation in Louisiana, and imaging all those young black men for her own Mandingo playthings.

  116. 116.

    Suffern ACE

    May 20, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    @Nutella: Well, yes. Which is actually what I remember Krugman saying at the time. It was a common enough sentiment that Greenspan needed to state that the economy seemed to suck, but the balance sheet of the households was fine! Until it wasn’t any longer.

  117. 117.

    Anne Laurie

    May 20, 2012 at 10:10 pm

    @Linnaeus:

    Selling things on eBay to get by isn’t a sustainable survival strategy. I don’t think Brown highlighting that as some sort of solution speaks well for her argument.

    Depends on the definition of ‘sustainable’. If Ms. Brown’s “friends” were the kind of recreational shoppers who filled all the spare rooms in their McMansions with unopened high-end name brand shoes / jewelry / gadgetry, they could probably stave off the sheriff for at least three to six months. And Republican-friendly economists are religiously enjoined against thinking further ahead than the next quarter, so: the Underpants Gnomes say ‘PROFIT!’

  118. 118.

    M. D.

    May 20, 2012 at 10:14 pm

    Who is Campbell Brown?

  119. 119.

    karen marie

    May 20, 2012 at 10:15 pm

    @Baud: Or wealthy parents.

  120. 120.

    Mouse Tolliver

    May 20, 2012 at 10:57 pm

    She really is loathsome. On CNN her catch phrase was “no bias, no bull” which was a lie.

  121. 121.

    mainmati

    May 20, 2012 at 11:41 pm

    I work in a professional services firm in which I am the endangered species: the white middle-aged professional. 80% of this international firm’s Washington home office is female and/or recent immigrants who are also mostly female. And it’s great! In my experience, women work collaboratively and more effectively than a lot of men. This is not absolute of course but just sayin’. I have a lot of great male friends at work but I like working with my great female colleagues.

  122. 122.

    karen marie

    May 21, 2012 at 12:24 am

    @kay: That might not be so bad for the Obama campaign. Describing members of the Romney campaign as “former Bush administration official” would serve as constant reminders of that foul time and voters may well ask themselves whether they want a repeat.

  123. 123.

    karen marie

    May 21, 2012 at 12:33 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Isn’t Romneybot leading in the polls among women?

    No.

    @Nutella: Right up to about 9/11/01 when he suddenly realized that it was, after which his administration full of neo-cons got to fulfill their wet dream by invading Iraq.

  124. 124.

    karen marie

    May 21, 2012 at 12:40 am

    @WereBear: It presumes a lot of things. Number one, that you’ve got anything to sell that people are willing to buy. And then of course there’s access to a digital camera, a computer, the internet, a Paypal account or an ability to wait for 8-10 days to get cash in your hand for the item you sold for $5, and, of course, a willingness or ability to navigate the workings of selling stuff on Ebay,

  125. 125.

    Kane

    May 21, 2012 at 1:06 am

    The struggling women in my life all laughed when I asked them if contraception or abortion rights would be a major factor in their decision about this election. For them, and for most other women, the economy overwhelms everything else.

    What the Romney campaign, Republicans, and Campbell Brown don’t seem to understand is that contraception and abortion rights are economic issues. Contraception and abortion rights are also a jobs issue, a family issue, and a health issue. If Campbell Brown was actually an “independent journalist” with her finger on the pulse of American women, she would understand this.

  126. 126.

    Kane

    May 21, 2012 at 1:19 am

    But Mitt Romney will never be confused with Rick Santorum on these issues, and many women understand that.

    Mitt or Rick?

    This election cycle Romney said that the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade. He said that he wants to get rid of Planned Parenthood. He said that he supports the Blunt/Rubio ammendment. He said that he would support a constitutional ammendment to establish the definition of life at conception. He said that he would repeal “Obamacare.” He endorsed the Ryan budget that ends Medicare as we know it. He opposes marriage equality.

    I don’t see any daylight between Romney and Santorum.

  127. 127.

    rea

    May 21, 2012 at 6:16 am

    The difference between Romney and Santorum is that Santorum is a true believer, while with Romney we’ll be able to comfort ourselves that he doesn’t really believe in all the awful policies he’s implementing.

  128. 128.

    Eli Rabett

    May 21, 2012 at 7:55 am

    @David Koch: because Dan hired a public relations flack to write the thing and circulate it.

  129. 129.

    Nora

    May 21, 2012 at 11:05 am

    She did in fact disclose her familial connection to the Romney campaign, but three quarters of the way through the piece, when, if she were writing this at all and the Times publishing it at all, she should have put that right up front.

    I could feel my blood pressure rising when I read that, and I know I started shouting and waving the newspaper around violently.

  130. 130.

    MsFortune

    May 21, 2012 at 1:52 pm

    @Jeff Spender:

    I believe it to be true. The wealthy and moderately well to do have nothing to worry about if healthcare and abortion is restricted – we can travel to Canada or the next state or whatever. The shocking part is that she does not understand that the women in her circle are not typical. Blinded by her privelege.

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