Appearing on NBC's Sunday web-based feature Press Pass [1], South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley tore apart the media obsession with the contraception debate: "The
media thinks that women only care about contraception, that's not true.
They care about contraception, and education, and health care, and
jobs, and the economy."
Haley leveled the criticism after Meet the Press host David Gregory
grilled her on the "gender gap" in Republican support being an obstacle
to Mitt Romney defeating President Obama in November. Haley took Gregory
to task for the question: "I find it comical that the news media wants
to continue to talk about a gender gap, and so I'll challenge you to ask
a man about the gender gap as well."
Appearing on ABC's The View [2] on April 3, Haley made similar charges against the media as left-wing co-host Joy Behar pushed the contraception issue:
Women don't care about contraception. They care about jobs and the economy and raising their families and all those things....that’s not the only thing they care about. The media wants to talk about contraception....while we care about contraception, let's be clear, all we're saying is we don't want government to mandate when we have to have it and when we don't. We want to be able make that decision. We don't need government making that decision for us.
After his initial premise was shot down, Gregory decided to promote
another supposed problem for the GOP: "Do you think that Governor Romney
faces head winds now against an incumbent who is polling better, who's
getting up above 50% in his approval, which is an important measure for
an incumbent president, and with – with more optimism about the
improvement of the economy. Does that make it tougher for Governor
Romney?"
The Real Clear Politics average of polls [3]
has Obama's approval rating at 48.3%, with only one poll in the last
month showing the President above the 50% mark. In addition, Gregory
taped the conversation with Haley prior to the disappointing jobs
numbers that came out on Friday.
Haley countered Gregory's assertions: "You know, I think that President
Obama is doing what he has to do. Which is create what he can do to
kind of distract and say what he needs to." Gregory feigned ignorance:
"What's the distraction he's creating?"
Haley replied: "I saw a speech and it was, you know, here came a
candidate about hope and change, and what I saw was a president showing
doom and gloom, 'And if we go this way, you know, the country will be in
trouble,' and all of that."
Gregory fretted: "You called him a bully, even."
Haley stood by her description of the President:
Absolutely, the way he treated the Supreme Court was unbelievable. You know, the way he treated South Carolina and Boeing with the National Labor Relations Board. I mean there was no other word that can come to mind but that. You know, when you tell a great American company they can't create jobs, I don't know what you say. When you tell a third part of the – of, you know, our branches, we've got three branches, you're telling one of them what to do, you can't do that.
Here is a transcript of the exchange aired on April 8:
(...)
DAVID GREGORY: What about women? What about all this talk about the
gender gap? If you had an opportunity to sit down – and maybe you have,
maybe you will – with Governor Romney and say, "Hey, Governor, this is –
these are some of things you can do, I think, to close that gender
gap." What would those things be?
NIKKI HALEY: Well, first, I have to tell you, I find it comical th
at
the news media wants to continue to talk about a gender gap, and so
I'll challenge you to ask a man about the gender gap as well. But the
second thing is, look, Governor Romney's got to do some work, just like
President Obama does. When you're a candidate, you don't go to the
people that support you, you go to the people you need to get. And so,
what I would say to Governor Romney is he needs to reach out to the
women, he needs to talk to them about the issues they care about. The
media thinks that women only care about contraception, that's not true.
They care about contraception, and education, and health care, and jobs,
and the economy. They're very thoughtful and very smart in their
process. He needs to get in front of them and do that.
GREGORY: Do you think that Governor Romney faces head winds now against
an incumbent who is polling better, who's getting up above 50% in his
approval, which is an important measure for an incumbent president, and
with – with more optimism about the improvement of the economy. Does
that make it tougher for Governor Romney?
HALEY: You know, I think that President Obama is doing what he has to
do. Which is create what he can do to kind of distract and say what he
needs to. I think what Governor Romney needs to do-
GREGORY: What's the distraction he's creating?
HALEY: You know, I mean, it's like I saw a speech and it was, you know,
here came a candidate about hope and change, and what I saw was a
president showing doom and gloom, "And if we go this way, you know, the
country will be in trouble," and all of that.
GREGORY: You called him a bully, even.
HALEY: Absolutely, the way he treated the Supreme Court was
unbelievable. You know, the way he treated South Carolina and Boeing
with the National Labor Relations Board. I mean there was no other word
that can come to mind but that. You know, when you tell a great American
company they can't create jobs, I don't know what you say. When you
tell a third part of the – of, you know, our branches, we've got three
branches, you're telling one of them what to do, you can't do that. And
so, I think that, you know, he's going to do what he needs to do.
What Governor Romney needs to do is totally stay focused on his
[Obama's] record. This is a man who lost our credit rating. This is a
man who's incurred more debt in his three years than President Bush did
in eight. This is a man who we can go and say that he said that the
unemployment wouldn't get above 8% if we took the stimulus and it didn't
happen. This is a man where we haven't seen a balanced budget. So, you
know, he's got to deal with his own record, I think the only thing he
can do is talk about something else. I think the smart thing for
Governor Romney to do is talk about his record.
(...)
-- Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here [4] to follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.