President Obama, in a last-ditch effort to secure votes for Democrats ahead of the November midterm elections, assailed Republicans for their approach to women’s issues, urging conservatives to approve equal-pay measures, an increase in the minimum wage and more generous paid time off.
“We have to do better, because women deserve better,” Obama said at Rhode Island College in Providence.
“The idea that my daughters wouldn’t have the same opportunities as somebody’s sons,” Obama added, “that’s unacceptable.”
“Moms and dads deserve a great place to drop their kids off every day that doesn’t cost them an arm and a leg,” he said to widespread applause.
Such lines are a familiar message for the president, who has calculated that a pitch tailored to female voters is among the most effective ways to get out the base in a low-turnout election year.
Conservatives counter that Obama’s depictions of GOP policies as something out of the “Mad Men” era are nothing more than politics.
The president held the economic event in Rhode Island in between stumping primarily for Democratic governors in blue-leaning states.
Obama has kept a low profile on the campaign trail this year, hoping not to bring down vulnerable Senate Democrats, but is seen as politically beneficial in the Northeast and other regions that overwhelmingly supported him in 2008 and 2012.
Though Obama promoted recent economic gains, he tried to account for the pessimistic mood that still exists throughout the country.
“Millions of Americans don’t yet feel the benefits of a growing economy where it matters most — that’s in their lives,” Obama said. “This isn’t just the hangover from the Great Recession. Some of this has to deal with trends that date back 20, 30 years.”
