The Obama campaign has a new ad that’s getting a lot of attention from both Democrats and Republicans. Lena Dunham—the never shy creator, writer, and star of HBO’s Girls—tells us about her first time…voting, that is.
In an appeal to both women and the youth vote, Dunham explains, “My first time voting was amazing. It was this line in the sand. Before I was a girl, now I was a woman.” Just hours after it posted, both Lena Dunham and #MyFirstTime were trending on Twitter with both supporters and naysayers weighing in.
The Nation’s Ari Melber called the ad a “sexy, controversial and hip pitch.” But Fox News commentator Monica Crowley tweeted, “1 of the many sick things about this degrading Lena Dunham ‘lose your virginity to Barack’ ad? The Left thinks it’s ’empowering’ to women.”
With just a few days before Election day, both campaigns are still vying for the women vote. Today, on the campaign trail, Mitt Romney ignored questions about his support for Richard Mourdock, the Indiana Senate candidate who said on Tuesday that pregnancies from rape are “something God intended to happen.”
Meanwhile, President Obama used the Mourdock story to speak directly to women voters during his campaign stops today. President Obama said:
As we saw again this week, I don’t think any politician in Washington—most of whom are male—should be making health care decisions for women. Women can make those decisions themselves. I don’t think your boss or your insurance company should be making those decisions. Women should be making their own health care decisions. That’s why the health care law we passed put those choices in your hands—that’s where it belongs and that’s where it will stay as long as I am President of the United States.
Joy Fowlin