Fundraising Tops On Candidates' Agendas Ahead Of Primaries
By: Gabriella Schwarz, CNN
Updated: April 16, 2012
Washington (CNN) -- Fresh into second quarter fundraising, both President Barack Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney will make the rounds this week in hopes of puffing up their coffers.
The president is scheduled to campaign in Michigan, while his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, will be in Washington, D.C., Tennessee and Pennsylvania. Vice President Joe Biden will host events in Washington, D.C., Arizona and California.
Romney, too, will attempt to bring in money through events in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Ann Romney is scheduled to host a birthday-themed fundraiser in New York on Tuesday, one day after she and her husband sit down for a joint interview with ABC News in Boston. It's set to air Monday night.
Earlier in the day, Mitt Romney will be at Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play Tampa Bay. He will address the Tri-State Tea Party Caucus in Philadelphia Monday night.
The appearances come ahead of next week's primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island -- the first since April 3.
On Sunday, both parties continued jockeying to position themselves as more deserving of the female vote, a battle that took on new life last week after a Democratic strategist questioned Ann Romney's validity in giving her husband advice on economic issues affecting women.
The criticism from Hilary Rosen, also a CNN contributor, rekindled the national conversation on whether Republicans or Democrats are better equipped to improve economic conditions for women and gave Republicans a line of attack against Democrats. Polls show a majority of female voters favor Obama over Romney.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended the Obama administration's record on job creation and accused Romney of leveling "ridiculous" accusations against the president's policies. He specifically pointed to Romney's claim that 92.3% of jobs lost in the country were among women.
"It's a ridiculous and deeply misleading look at the economy," Geithner said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Remember, the recession and the crisis started at the beginning of 2008 before the president took office. It caused a huge amount of damage to men, to women, to families. And the damage lasted for a time, and you're still seeing the scars of that."
The 92.3% figure was batted back and forth to jab Obama in the latest skirmish. Although the number is correct, when including non-farm-employed women from January 2009 -- when Obama took office -- to March 2012, women have gained 863,000 jobs since February 2010. The percentage also does not reflect that men constituted a much larger chunk of the job-loss pie in the year leading up to Obama's inauguration.
Geithner stressed the downturn "hurt everybody" and unsurprisingly rallied behind the president's proposals, including the "Buffett Rule," which he said is part of a comprehensive plan that will continue to improve the country's economic outlook.
But Romney backers, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, argued that the former Massachusetts governor is armed with proposals that will not only court female voters, but also turn the economy around.
McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, predicted Romney would win the female vote, despite the gender gap in current polling.
"I do believe that Ann Romney was right when she said the women she talks to and the women I talk to, traveling around my state, are interested in jobs and the economy," McCain said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "There's no doubt that a lot of women have been hurt very badly in this recession. And jobs and the economy is their No. 1 priority."
A recent poll from ABC News/Washington Post showed Obama leading Romney among women, 57% to 38%, despite his single-digit lead among all voters over the former Massachusetts governor in a hypothetical general-election matchup.
Ann Romney, a mother of five, came to her own defense and the defense of her husband on Thursday after Rosen questioned her qualifications for advising her husband, given she had "never worked a day in her life." Rosen later apologized for her comments, but not before igniting a firestorm.
Rodgers, who was one of the women dispatched by the Romney campaign to capitalize on Rosen's comment last week, told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley that her candidate's policies will "help women succeed in this country and all people in this country succeed."
"President Obama's policies are the ones that are failing, Americans failing women," she added on CNN's "State of the Union."
The back-and-forth over female support is the latest Twitter- and cable-fed controversy to show the general election between Romney and Obama is already under way.
On CNN's "State of the Union," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus would not yet characterize Romney as the "presumptive nominee" out of respect for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who remain in the race. However, Romney's significant advantages on all fronts make it highly likely he will face Obama for the presidency, he said.
The president is scheduled to campaign in Michigan, while his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, will be in Washington, D.C., Tennessee and Pennsylvania. Vice President Joe Biden will host events in Washington, D.C., Arizona and California.
Romney, too, will attempt to bring in money through events in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Ann Romney is scheduled to host a birthday-themed fundraiser in New York on Tuesday, one day after she and her husband sit down for a joint interview with ABC News in Boston. It's set to air Monday night.
Earlier in the day, Mitt Romney will be at Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play Tampa Bay. He will address the Tri-State Tea Party Caucus in Philadelphia Monday night.
The appearances come ahead of next week's primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island -- the first since April 3.
On Sunday, both parties continued jockeying to position themselves as more deserving of the female vote, a battle that took on new life last week after a Democratic strategist questioned Ann Romney's validity in giving her husband advice on economic issues affecting women.
The criticism from Hilary Rosen, also a CNN contributor, rekindled the national conversation on whether Republicans or Democrats are better equipped to improve economic conditions for women and gave Republicans a line of attack against Democrats. Polls show a majority of female voters favor Obama over Romney.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended the Obama administration's record on job creation and accused Romney of leveling "ridiculous" accusations against the president's policies. He specifically pointed to Romney's claim that 92.3% of jobs lost in the country were among women.
"It's a ridiculous and deeply misleading look at the economy," Geithner said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Remember, the recession and the crisis started at the beginning of 2008 before the president took office. It caused a huge amount of damage to men, to women, to families. And the damage lasted for a time, and you're still seeing the scars of that."
The 92.3% figure was batted back and forth to jab Obama in the latest skirmish. Although the number is correct, when including non-farm-employed women from January 2009 -- when Obama took office -- to March 2012, women have gained 863,000 jobs since February 2010. The percentage also does not reflect that men constituted a much larger chunk of the job-loss pie in the year leading up to Obama's inauguration.
Geithner stressed the downturn "hurt everybody" and unsurprisingly rallied behind the president's proposals, including the "Buffett Rule," which he said is part of a comprehensive plan that will continue to improve the country's economic outlook.
But Romney backers, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, argued that the former Massachusetts governor is armed with proposals that will not only court female voters, but also turn the economy around.
McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, predicted Romney would win the female vote, despite the gender gap in current polling.
"I do believe that Ann Romney was right when she said the women she talks to and the women I talk to, traveling around my state, are interested in jobs and the economy," McCain said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "There's no doubt that a lot of women have been hurt very badly in this recession. And jobs and the economy is their No. 1 priority."
A recent poll from ABC News/Washington Post showed Obama leading Romney among women, 57% to 38%, despite his single-digit lead among all voters over the former Massachusetts governor in a hypothetical general-election matchup.
Ann Romney, a mother of five, came to her own defense and the defense of her husband on Thursday after Rosen questioned her qualifications for advising her husband, given she had "never worked a day in her life." Rosen later apologized for her comments, but not before igniting a firestorm.
Rodgers, who was one of the women dispatched by the Romney campaign to capitalize on Rosen's comment last week, told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley that her candidate's policies will "help women succeed in this country and all people in this country succeed."
"President Obama's policies are the ones that are failing, Americans failing women," she added on CNN's "State of the Union."
The back-and-forth over female support is the latest Twitter- and cable-fed controversy to show the general election between Romney and Obama is already under way.
On CNN's "State of the Union," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus would not yet characterize Romney as the "presumptive nominee" out of respect for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who remain in the race. However, Romney's significant advantages on all fronts make it highly likely he will face Obama for the presidency, he said.
