[h/t Scarce. Video of entire speech can be viewed here with Romney's remarks starting at the 19 min. mark.]

Memo to Ann Romney: Please just stop. You aren't fooling anyone, and telling a bunch of people at the Prescott Bush Awards Dinner that your conversation with all those peons alongside the road where your husband campaigns is a sure-fire predictor of his election is arrogant and cynical.

Via ABC News:

“The kindness and sweetest of all is that so many women that I’ve never met before and may never see ever again in my life tell me how much they care for me and how much they are praying for me,” Romney said at a GOP fundraiser and awards ceremony here. “And I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that because the days are long and the road is hard, the trials are there and I never know when I have this little gray cloud that’s over my head when it’s going to start raining on me again and I do need those prayers, but I honestly feel like we are there for a purpose.”

Clearly trying to confront the gender gap her husband is facing head on, Romney said it’s the economy that women on the trail tell her they are concerned with: “Their husbands’ jobs, their jobs, their children’s jobs.”
Dressed in a pink sweater, she admitted the campaign can be “emotional draining” when she watches her husband being “maligned at times” or “being misrepresented at times.”

Although she said campaigning “doesn’t come naturally” to her she got an enthusiastic reception and painted an empathetic portrait of her husband just one day before Connecticut Republicans cast their primary vote.

Yeah, because Etch-a-Sketch empathy is so real.

And this:

“I know what it’s like to wake up early in the morning and get them off to school; I know what it’s like to be up in the middle of the night when they are sick; and I know what it’s like to struggle and to have those concerns that all mothers have,” Romney said. “So we are grateful for the response that we got from that and appreciative of recognizing that women have choices in life and some choices are not all the same, but we value everyone’s choice that they make in their profession.

“Sometimes like [sic] isn’t easy for any of us,” she said.

Hey Ann, I've got a question for you. When your kids were sick, could you take them to the doctor? If they got hurt, could you take them to a hospital without worrying? Do any of your kids have a chronic disease they were diagnosed with at age 21? Were they told that it was too damn bad they were that unfortunate, but there would be no insurance coverage for them? Were they, Ann?

Did you ever wonder how you'd afford the medication your children needed to keep them healthy and living a productive life? Did you ever count the days until January 1, 2014 when there would finally be a light at the end of the tunnel and a path forward for them to finally be independent AND healthy?

No. I didn't think so. So spare me the fluffy, lofty proclamations that you feel my pain while you and your husband are out there cheering for kids like mine to be screwed for their entire lives while you "repeal Obamacare." Just spare me that, and just stop with the phony concern.

The Prescott Bush Awards Dinner held at the Marriott was a $250-a-plate fundraiser and attendees who paid $5,000 got an opportunity to meet with Romney. The Connecticut Republican primary is Tuesday.

At least she was speaking to an empathetic audience. I'm sure they could feel her pain a whole lot more than she can feel ours.