Rural Thoughts

It was a better than average day for the news shows, although I wouldn't say that they were great. Meet the Press had a conversation between Rep. Michelle Bachman and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Gillibrand let Bachman run over her, either intentionally or not.

Whenever Gillibrand would be talking, Bachman would talk over her and Gregory didn't really try to stop it. As the time of the two interviews went on, Bachman got more and more aggressive about talking over Gillibrand and trying to drown her out. The problem with Bachman, is that she got more and more aggressive with her talking, and by the end, I turned to Kristi and said, "she's raving," and she was. She was just babbling as fast and loud as she could about how horrible everything Obama has done is. After a while you tuned it out because it was so obviously not any kind of objective analysis - it was political hackery.

At first, Gillibrand made a meek attempt to stop Bachman from jumping in on her and dominating the time, but after awhile, she sort of just sat back and let Bachman do it. I wondered if she wasn't doing it on purpose, because the more that Bachman talked, the more emphatic she got. Near the end, her voice was loud, almost shouting, and she was just saying things that were obviously exagerrated political attacks. You lost what she was saying in her demeanor and presentation. It's exactly the kind of the thing that cost her the republican presidential nomination after she took the Iowa straw poll early in the process. She just can't turn it off or moderate her speech. That makes her attractive only to a less than significant minority - everyone else just tunes her out as a political hack.

One topic of discussion on just about every show was the blunder of the lady who has been described as a CNN analyst and an Obama strategist, (although apparently she had no "official" role with the campaign) who said that Mrs. Romney "hadn't worked a day in her life." I knew the point she was trying to make, but it unnecessarily gave the republicans a chance to say that democrats were snobs toward stay at home moms.

There are several reasons why it is wishful thinking by the republicans that this gaff will have a significant impact on the campaign. First, it is April and the election isn't until November, and the republicans will do plenty of things between now and then to turn off women, just as they have been doing. Second, the campaign instantly disavowed the statements, indicating strongly that they didn't agree with that. Obama even went so far as to say that the wives should be off limits in the campaign. We'll see on that one. And third, even though the woman misspoke, I don't think that most women will believe that Mrs. Romney faced or is facing the same challenges that an "average" or lower income female who were or are stay at home moms with children. That was the point, and it is a valid point, and Mitt Romney has made it a valid point by being so proudly and outwardly superrich, mostly by him comments on the campaign trail.

So don't expect that Mrs. Romney is going to head out to the campaign trail, and with a few shakes of her apron and skillet will capture the imagination of a lot of females and undo all the damage the republicans have done with females due to their talk on contraceptives, abortion, and other gender based issues. It just isn't going to happen.

And I will be very surprised if another mistake like that is made by an Obama supporter. But then again, I know nothing about this lady, and could it be that she isn't really an Obama supporter?