More on Mitt

The more Mitt Romney speaks about horses and "sport," the more he bothers me.  This time he talked with Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation about Ann Romney's horse Rafalca, who's headed for Olympics competition.  Commenting on his wife's relationship with horses particularly in light of her MS diagnosis, he then undercut himself by saying, "I joke that I'm going to send her to Betty Ford for addiction to horses."

I bristled when I read that remark and again when I replayed the interview online.  Joking about addiction is not a joke.  Invoking Betty Ford as a joke is not funny.  And minimizing his wife's love of horses is demeaning.

Is this guy tone deaf?  I don't know many people who haven't lived with or known someone intimately who's suffered from addiction.  I don't know many people who wouldn't salute Betty Ford for her bravery in addressing chemical dependency and for founding the clinic that bears her name.  And I don't know many people who would dismiss women as easily as Mitt Romney does.

We've come a long way in the last 40 years, American women, that is.  In fact, we celebrate this week the 40th anniversary of Title IX.  Romney's rhetoric alone sets us back.  What might his policies do?  We can't afford to elect him to the highest office in our land.