Megan Carpentier on Democracy Now: Ann Romney's 'soft' appeal is 'insulting'

In an interview with Democracy Now, Raw Story's Executive Editor Megan Carpentier and former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson talked about the Republican Party's ever-shifting position to the right on women's issues, despite Ann Romney's "soft" appeal to women voters.

Anderson said he used to view Romney as someone more in the center. "Well, I supported Mitt Romney because he was a very moderate, reasonable person running for governor of Massachusetts. He never could have won that race had he not been that kind of a moderate," he said. "You know, when you hear Ann Romney say you can trust Mitt Romney, who can trust a man who changes his position on fundamental issues on a dime, who decides to run for president of the United States, and all of a sudden he goes from pro-choice to anti-choice, whose wife has MS and objects to stem cell research?"

Carpentier reinforced that Ann Romney's appeal to women voters may not be enough to bring around voters, especially since Romney is already hopelessly behind among women voters.

"I think Ann Romney’s speech about love and Mitt as a family man was clearly designed to appeal to a certain kind of stereotype of women, you know, the soccer mom, the soft, you know, it’s not really about the issues, it’s about the man himself," Carpentier said. "And I’m sure there are women voters for whom that’s important, but we’re talking about an election cycle and a two-year period where everything from women’s contraceptive access to reproductive rights to equal pay has sort of been put on the table by the Republican Party, and women don’t just care if Mitt Romney is a good father."

"I mean, obviously, she didn’t write the speech, and obviously that’s what his advisers think women want to hear, is that he’s a nice guy. And, you know, that’s, I think, kind of insulting," Carpentier added.

According to a recent CBS News poll, Obama leads Romney among women voters, 50 percent to 42 percent.