US Senator Scott Brown and Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, have taken half the population for a ride in the way-back machine. Having lost ground with women after the brouhaha over contraceptives coverage earlier this year (shockingly, a lot of women believed birth control ceased to be a hot-button issue decades ago), our state’s two most prominent Republicans have been trying to win them over. But their attempts to establish their lady bona-fides have been ham-handed. And singularly unconvincing.