Mr. Romney has a lot of catching up to do among women. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll has Mr. Obama up by 12 percentage points.
In this ad, the Romney campaign highlights economic statistics that, standing on their own, suggest that the economic picture for women is far worse than it is for men.
“That's what Obama's policies have done for women,†an announcer says, in a rebuttal to Mr. Obama's claims that Republicans have waged a “war on women.†As a chubby-cheeked baby girl plays in her mother's arms, the announcer says, “Welcome, daughter.â€
It is true, as the ad points out, that the poverty level among women, at 16.3 percent, is the highest in 17 years, according to the Census Bureau. But the unemployment rate for men is 8.3 percent; for women it is 7.8 percent. The ad also notes that more than 5.5 million women are unemployed, about a half-million more than when Mr. Obama took office. B ut the ad does not say that the number of unemployed women started to rise sharply in 2008, before he took office, and has come down from a peak of 6.4 million in 2010.
