Sorry, Mitt. We're still not that into you.

[pamela]

I'm starting to think the Romney "victory" extravaganza is a largely male phenomenon. I have honestly not spoken to a single woman today who was hyperventilating about the "Romney win." Every woman I spoke to thought he looked smug and nasty and they were not taken in by his lies. Quite the opposite, in fact. Women seem particularly turned off by the lies.

I don't want to turn this into "male bashing" but I have seen a lot of leftist guys today peeing their pants about last night. I guess it's a guy thing. Romney was the alpha in the debate and in man-world that translates to a huge win. It makes me sad to see this, but not scared. Romney always had the male vote locked up. He needed to win over the females last night and I think we'll see he did just the opposite.

So, sorry Mitt, but in female-world, smirking liars are a dime a dozen. We dumped one of those four years ago and we're not anxious to take up with another. I bet when the dust settles, and the pundits catch their breath, we'll see your poll numbers go down even further amongst women. We're just not that into you and no amount of smirking, alpha preening is going to change that.

[ohheckyeah]

1. And given women make up the majority of the population

and the voting population, the women will most likely have the last word.

In 2004, 60.1% of women and 56.3% of men voted.
That's 67.3 million women and 58.5 million men - a difference of 8.8 million.
In 2000, 56.2% of women and 53.1% of men voted.
That's 59.3 million women and 51.5 million men - a difference of 7.8 million.

[pamela]

2. Very good point.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I think today's hyperbole is largely male-driven. The media is still predominantly male and I genuinely think they were all worked up about the performance because they are impressed by that sore of preening. Women? Not so much. Even the female pundits seemed to be tempering their responses a lot more than the males. They went along with the media frenzy but they seemed to have a bad taste in their mouths. I think Romney is really repulsive to most women and that's a death knell.

Romney reminds me of those guys who ask you out and can't believe you turn them down. It's hard to explain to them that, yes, you may be good-looking or successful or have other qualities that women are supposed to drool over but you turn my stomach.

[ohheckyeah]

3. Let's get out the

liberal female vote and kick some conservative male ass!

[seabeyond]

4. my husband sat thru it all. he is voting obama. BUT... he was really in the camp that romney won.

Last edited Fri Oct 5, 2012, 02:11 PM - Edit history (1)

yesterday at lunch he still had romney at a win and expectation of obama for confrontation. my 17 yr old son was around so i was telling him obama not confrontational (like hubby is nonconfrontational), all the lies, how do you address and argue, angry black man and cant go there, address the people not spend time on lies, big bird, disrespect for moderator, how can lies be a win.

yet still.... hubby agreed with it all but romney won. by last night, watching colbert and stewart, he finally got it. romney really did lose. but, it took a whole day processing and seeing the big bird, lies repeatedly to get to the point seeing it as a loss.

that is not normal for hubby. so there was a bigger factor that held him in the romney win category.

[pamela]

5. That's interesting. Thanks for sharing that.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was the men yesterday who we're hyperventilating about the "Romney win" while women were genuinely feeling kind of perplexed about the reaction. I think men are really into sports analogies and see the debates in that context. If a man watches a fight and one side fights ugly but wins, that's still a win. They flock to the winner and high five them while the women are in the other guy's corner feeling pretty repulsed by the whole thing.

There were times yesterday when I felt like I was in a Solomon Ashe conformity experiment. I just didn't see what everyone else said they saw. There was no brilliant plan or snappy zinger that will be replayed for years to come. Obama didn't make a huge gaffe and actually got off some of the best lines. He looked tired but that's just a reminder to me that he's not a man of leisure like Romney. Romney's preening and smugness leave me cold and that was on full display. Plus, I hate a fucking liar, so there is that.

It was interesting hearing your husband's reaction. Watching MSNBC last night, I was really struck by how macho the analysis was. All these guys, Matthews, Schultz, hell, even Ron Reagan, we're all worked up like they were discussing a prize fight. Very loud and aggressive. Women were more like, "Meh, I'm not all that impressed."

[treestar]

15. Me neither I came on the board and was surprised

at all the melting down about it - I just didn't see it that way. I didn't correlate it to being female, but yeah, I dislike domineering men and the whole dick-waving thing. So Rmoney came off badly to me.

[mrs_p]

6. my hubby too

He hasn't gotten it yet as he actually HATES politics and TV and most especially political TV (which, is my fave). He is way left of Obama so would never have given Romney his vote, but nonetheless, he thought Obama looked weak by not calling out the lies.

Interesting, as he (the one who wanted Obama to react) is super non-confrontational and I (the one who didn't) am the one more prone to challenging people.

[seabeyond]

7. i clarified my post. same in our house. i am way

confrontational, surprise. and hubby not, and has never needed to be. this works well for him.

it is interesting though, huh.

and the thing is, hubby probably would not have been if on the stage either. but, people tend to like, respect, value that in him, like.... obama.

[Lucy Goosey]

8. Interesting - this fits with my reaction vs my boyfriend's

Boyfriend has been talking about how Mitt clearly "dominated" and "owned" Obama, and isn't convinced (as I am) that a lot of people thought Mitt came accross as an ass. It hadn't occurred to me that this might be a male/female thing, but it makes sense.

[pamela]

12. male/female thing

I'm glad people are taking my post in the spirit it was intended. I don't usually talk about things in terms like male vs female and even kind of bristle when others do it. But this really struck me yesterday. There seems to be a huge gender gap on this issue. I really wouldn't be surprised if Obama gets a bump in the polls out of this.

[Jennicut]

9. It is kind of amusing how different the male and female reactions were

on CNN's undecideds dials-testing. The squiggly lines for the men generally went high for Romney attacks but not usually for women. For Obama, the women went higher when talking about healthcare, etc.

Remember, Romney leads with men in polling and Obama leads in women for a reason.

As a woman, Romney REALLY bothers me with his rudeness.

[phleshdef]

10. I'm a guy and I thought Mitt just dicked his way through it.

I give more points to candidates that know how to behave themselves, know how to treat people and have their facts straight. If the debate was "who can be the biggest dickhead contest", then Mitt won that by a longshot and that seems to be the contest everyone is talking about. But the contest for who actually won on substance, that one is all President Obama and I don't give a shit if I'm in the minority on that or not.

[pamela]

13. Actually, my husband said pretty much what you said.

It's funny because he kind of blows my theory. He's a NASCAR watching, football-loving guy who tends to get caught up in the team aspect of politics so I expected him to be really bummed about "team Democrat" yesterday. He was surprised when everyone was saying Romney won. He said exactly what you said about Romney just looking like a dick.

[phleshdef]

18. Hehe, maybe we both just had good mothers.

[Michigan Alum]

20. My boyfriend thought he was a total dickhead

He kept on shouting what an a-hole at the tv.

[pamela]

21. Hey, welcome to DU!

Invite your boyfriend if he isn't already a member. Nice to meet you.

[Michigan Alum]

22. Thanks!

I actually was a member back in 2000 or 2001 but haven't been on for about a year. I actually forgot my name and it was something like Kerry is my prez - which is out of date. Glad to be back.

[Arugula Latte]

11. We as women experience a disproportionate amount of being talked over in our lives.

I know that when I'm in a group conversation it's not uncommon for some man to start talking over me (or another woman who is talking), just cut me off, and then the group's attention turns to the man, who of course just plows ahead because obviously his thoughts are so much more important than a female's. Happens All.The.Time. Romney is exactly the type of rude asshole who would do that. Women are sick of it.

[pamela]

14. Yeah, I REALLY hate that.

I really try to be honest in my appraisal of politicians. I ask myself if I would like that person if he were a Dem. With Romney, it's an easy "no." He definitely comes across as a rude asshole.

[tarheelsunc]

16. I still think Romney won the debate, but Obama will win and is winning the aftermath game

Sadly, stating facts and outlying your plan don't win debates, stupid thinks like how you stand, showing leadership of the debate, and "zingers" do. But none of those things will help Romney now, and in fact they are helping Obama as he is turning the zingers like "Big Bird" around on him and the campaign and fact checkers are pointing out all the BS Romney was spewing.

[Jack Rabbit]

17. This short male has little use for "alphas"

Call me resentful, but being singled out as something of a lesser because I had less body mass had gotten old by the time I was in second grade. While most treated me fairly, the alpha males of the schoolyard were the jack asses who tried to get me to bend to their wills by showing me a doubled up fist or excluding me from the game altogether. There were always the occasional one who didn't need any provocation to slap me around. When caught by a responsible figure of authority, then it was "But I didn't do nuttin'." Fucking liars.

Excuse me, but the alpha males of the world aren't automatically worthy of respect. I'm sure some of those punks grew up to be drug kingpins and others banksters.

Mitt Romney, both in his demeanor and his biography, reminds of the worst of them. I'm sure that gay kid to whom he took a pair of scissors wasn't the first kid he bullied. As CEO of Bain Capital, he simply adapted his inner bully to symbolically push around the other kids, except the other kids are now the working people whose jobs he sent to China. Instead of threatening his victims with a pair of scissors, he threatens them with law suits. Oh, yes, and he demonstrated in spades Wednesday night, he's a fucking liar.

[CatWoman]

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