This is mind blowing. As a condition of even talking to a female reporter, Shaun Boyd, Mitt Romney insisted today that she must not ask him about abortion or Todd Akin. Here’s the Denver Post:
Channel 4′s Shaun Boyd was offered a presidential candidate interview via satellite Thursday, however the offer came with a restriction: in offering the interview to the reporter in an important swing state, Mitt Romney’s campaign forbade her to ask about abortion or Todd Akin.
When has a candidate for the presidency ever stipulated to a press reporter what questions could or could not be asked in interview? This is not just insulting to this particular female reporter–who might have an obvious interest in asking Romney about the issues of rape, incest, and pregnancy in relation to abortion–it’s a dangerous precedent. When a citizen watches a news interview, there is a presumption that it is an agonistic exchange between a candidate and an unrestrained press, not a commercial; not an act of complicity with the candidate’s agenda (unless, of course, you’re watching the farce of a Fox “News” interview with, say, Paul Ryan).
And this is now a pattern with Mitt Romney. He won’t talk about his taxes. He won’t talk about what tax deductions he would eliminate. He won’t talk about his Mormonism. He won’t talk about his time as governor of Massachusetts or his tenure at Bain. He won’t talk about his life in the 1960s when he got out of going to Vietnam. He won’t talk about his gay-bashing of a fellow prep-school student. He won’t talk about abortion.
And he won’t talk about his overseas bank accounts.
How come?
He’s a hider and an old-school patriarchal sexist, isn’t he? Do you really want this man appointing the next two Supreme Court justices?
Prometheus Unbound 