Mitt Romney's Spectacularly Sexist Attack Ad Elucidates Mormon Misogyny

Romney Attacks Hillary Clinton as a Woman on the Premise a Woman Should Not Be President

Willard "Mitt" Romney, the former governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, has been running hard in New Hampshire throughout 2007, spending millions of dollars on television ads targeting Republicans and crossover voters in the run-up to the Republican Presidential primary. New Hampshire has more registered independent voters than registered Republicans or Democrats and a semi-open primary in which Independents, on Election day, can request the ballot of either party. To woo Independents as well as Republicans, Romney pitches many of his ads as if he is fighting a general election, attacking the Democratic candidates. (From February 2007, when he announced his candidacy, though July, Romney personally spent $4.9 million on his TV ad campaigns, according to the Associated Press. He has a personal fortune estimated at $250 million.)

Romney recently launched an attack ad in the New Hampshire TV market that features a speech attacking Hillary Clinton, the favorite for the Democratic Presidential nomination, before a cheering crowd. In the ad, he bitterly denounces Hillary for having no real-life experience running a business, or a government, or anything at all in contrast to himself, a successful businessman who ran a state and operated the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games. His theme is change (the Olympic Games were tainted by scandal before Romney took over), and he positions himself as an agent of change, in contrast to Hillary, who is not only portrayed as powerless, but immature. He says that the United States can't afford Hillary undertaking an "internship" in which she will have to learn the Presidency.