It’s a difficult messaging environment Mitt Romney’s campaign has to navigate right now, even when they feel like they’ve got an actual rejoinder for the withering fire they’ve been taking over issues pertinent to women. Today, the Washington Post reports:
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s (R) camp pounced Thursday on Hilary Rosen’s comments about stay-at-home mothers, arguing that the Democratic operative’s comments are reflective of the broader views of the White House and that Rosen was not “freelancing” when she made the comment.
Top Obama campaign officials denounced Rosen’s remarks late Wednesday and have noted that Rosen – who said in a CNN interview Wednesday that Ann Romney “has actually never worked a day in her life” – is not an official campaign surrogate.
But that hasn’t stopped the Romney camp from seizing on Rosen’s remarks as well as on her connections to the White House and the Democratic National Committee…
There’s no question that as soon as this highly regrettable statement from Hilary Rosen of consultant firm SKD Knickerbocker was uttered, and especially after Ann Romney responded with what you’d have to describe as class, the Romney campaign was going to go for broke trying to stick it to Barack Obama personally. And it’s easy to understand why: from support for sweeping “personhood” abortion bans to his campaign’s latest flub on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, Romney’s campaign is reeling from a statistically undeniable and growing loss of support from women. To whatever extent Ms. Rosen can be tied to Obama, these insulting remarks about stay-at-home moms are a help to Romney’s campaign. With that in mind, it makes very good sense that Obama’s real campaign was quick to condemn these remarks.
And that leads us to a word about overreach:
[Rep. Cynthia] Lummis contended that Rosen’s remarks “are reflective of the message that the political machine within the White House intends to put out.”
She also claimed that Rosen is a “paid spokesperson” for the White House, even though, as Democrats have noted, Rosen is a consultant who advises the Democratic National Committee.
“Clearly they’re using surrogate women – including Hilary Rosen, who is a paid spokesperson – to deliver messages about Republicans that the president does not want to deliver himself for fear of the backlash,” Lummis said.
If there are any of you out there who seriously believe that the Obama campaign wanted somebody disparaging Ann Romney’s career as a stay-at-home mom on national television at the exact moment the “War on Women” meme is severely damaging Mitt Romney’s campaign…well, if you believe that you need your head examined. It’s patently absurd. It’s so absurd, in fact, that we would advise the Romney campaign to dial their outrage back–to a level that still allows them to capitalize, but doesn’t take it so far over the top that nobody buys it.
And if Romney’s campaign wants to truly move the needle on his so-far disastrous relations with women voters, he’s going to need some gaffes like this from the actual Obama campaign. A message to Foster Friess that he should keep his switch of support to Romney following Rick Santorum’s withdrawal on the down-low probably wouldn’t hurt either.
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You’d think Hilary Rosen was running for President herself.
How dumb do they think we women are?
nevermind. Don’t answer that.
Her consultant firm works for the President. They’re running from her, but she’s been tied to Obama from the beginning.
You had such a blast over Etch a Sketches, but Romney didn’t say that either. Fair is fair.
So much for the so-called “war on women!”
and his disgusting remarks, the only thing you get from the GOP is either collective shoulder shrugs or reflective “but…but..what about that one time when your side something too!” Limbaugh has infinitley more clout than Rosen does, yet the GOP shrieked about how unfair it was to tag their party with his assholery. Typical GOP, always rife with obscene hypocrisy.
You’re trying to elevate her to be some kind of Liberal spokes-person with a popular following, like a mirror image Rush Limbaugh. That’s nuts.
One random person saying one random thing, is not the same as the entire Republican Party attacking women’s equal pay and health care needs.
Well, fair is fair then.
Here was the Romney campaign’s retort:
http://www.businessinsider.com…
Where did you get that information?
This is exactly what I’m talking about with your ilk.
Hilary Rosen does not have a “consultant firm that works for Obama”.
Either you made that up out of thin air, or you’re repeating a falsehood that someone else put out.
Show me where you got this, not just some red lackey saying it, I’ll retract this.
that Ann Romney has a bigger staff as a private citizen than Michelle Obama has as the first lady.
She is more qualified right now to handle a domestic staff than Mitt is to run the country.
No doubt Republicans will immediately stop bitching about the size of the first lady’s staff if Ann ever gets elected to the position.
I’m good for it, I swear.
*runs out to buy powerball ticket
CAuse that would be just about the biggest, bad-ass, political guts move I’ve ever heard of.
But Hilary Rosen hasn’t been helpful to the President.
She’s certainly entitled to her opinion, but she should be careful about expressing her opinions as her own, rather than speaking as a “Democratic Strategist.”
This whole thing pissed me off. Raising kids, no matter how many, no matter whether they’re sons or daughters, no matter whether they’re LDS or not, is a full-time job.
Rosen should work so hard some day.
But I think, AGOP, this is a bit of an overstatement. This hardly changes the actions of the republican crusaders across the nation.
Rosen should tern in her “Democratic Strategist” creds.
but Rosen is a mom, for what it’s worth.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
Nothing Ms. Rosen said wasn’t accurate.
If the reds want to make this about “involving the family in politics”, they lose on that as well.
Remember ’08?
Hours of local stooges Caplis, Boyles, the 710am schmucks and the full weight of the conservative media machine attacking Mrs. Obama as the “angry black woman, ashamed of America”.
The DNC needs to get on this, and now. Hard!
This is the type of opportunity that comes around once in an election cycle. Clips of paid snipes like Caplis, drooling down their shirts, denigrating the Democratic Nominee’s wife in the most racist terms possible.
Go ahead GOP, keep digging.
a life of being the pampered wife of a multimillionaire.
No word yet from her on whether women have a right to choose their own destinies with their bodies.
it just ain’t good.
AZ just set back the women’s movement back (literally) by declaring pregnancy begins a whole two weeks before conception thereby limiting when and how a woman may seek a medical abortion. Old Madame McPointy Finger herself just signed it into law. http://motherjones.com/mojo/20…
And that’s not even the saddest part about the law.
How can you be pregnant before you are pregnant?
But I have to say…the water weight I’m carrying right now from my pre-pregnant-maybe-future-pregnancy is killing me (but thankfully to the foresight of Jan Brewer, not my preconceived-yet fetus. badumdum!)
Essentially, what they are trying to do is ban the post 20 week abortion (which only happens in less than 2% of cases… but who cares because this is important stuff! Not like the silly economy) and then they are using a bit of legislative trickery to redefine medical terminology because Doctors will estimate your due date and conception from the date of your last period which is typically 2 weeks before conception (even though medically speaking you can get pregnant anytime before or after that)i.e., “Let’s use the old wives trick to manipulate medical science because science is stoopid anyways! yay!!”
That’s good.!
See, according to the new GOP talking point:
So in order to fix this economic mess they have created, they decided to start pushing all that legislation that forces, guilts and shames women into being pregnant against their will. TADA!! Millions of new moms means millions of new jobs, right?
We’re gonna need more sperm donors. Can I get paid for that?
And I thought they were goping to stick with….
Inartfully stated, but Rosen isn’t wrong.
Romney and the rest of the GOP are so clearly our of touch with women and the working class that they need to get all the miles out of this gaffe that they possibly can. So far the only thing which they could counteract Obama’s expertly executed message of the GOP’s attack on women with was a bunch of lame bullshit about women and job losses (while failing to mention that most of those female job losses come from sectors that the GOP salivates to eliminate like education and government which have a higher propensity to hire women)
So while waging a war on our uteri and ability to think for ourselves or, God forbid, fuck for pleasure, they get to revel in the fact that they can falsely paint Obama as anti-woman because some person who isn’t officially affiliated with the White House had the audacity to speak the truth.
Ann Romney, like her husband, doesn’t have a clue. She’s never had to worry about a roof over her kids head, she’s never had to miss a soccer game because of a job, or had to drop her babies off with strangers so she could pay for food, she’s never had to tell her kids “No” to lessons, sports, trips, toys, clothes because they couldn’t afford it. I’m not saying raising 5 kids is easy or that being a stay at home mom is not a job and everyone who took offense at that interpretation was just, but anyone with a brain can admit that it is enormously easier when you have the wealth equivilant to several African nations at your disposal. Comparatively speaking, to even liken her parenting experiences with the average woman, let alone those who are single mothers, is outrageous and disingenuous at best.
And on a side note: I would love to hear what the GOP has to say about all those attacks on Michelle Obama. I mean, now that we are living in a post-Fluke debate where Limbaugh’s words are excusable because once Bill Maher said something too and somehow that was all Obama’s fault and you can’t attack us for something that was said when your side said something too once blah blah blah kindergartner justification mentality….yeah I won’t hold my breath.
Very well said shrubHugger.
Unfortunately, that’s not what she said. I wish she had said what you said.
It’s when you say something true that it becomes a giant political faux-paux(?)
“was with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) from 1987 to 2003 and served first as President and then chairman and chief executive from 1994 to 2003”
NOW she’s evil though? Was she evil when she took the job helping the President?
WAS
way before she was hanging out with BO.
The RIAA is evil
Hilary is evil.
That the right is taking a poorly worded but absolutely correct statement by a CNN political analyst, not connected to any campaign in any way, shape or form, and push it this far is indicative of how desperate you are.
Yeah, it was an error, because it was too blunt and pointed, and the Administration reacted instantaneously to distance themselves from it, but you’re being factually dishonest when you try to link Ms. Rosen to the campaign, White House, or its’ Superpac.
When you try to make a point using false information, you expose yourself as less than credible……..or honest.
And as an angry conservative.
So many things for the angry conservative to be grumpy about. One day it’s “this ain’t the country I remember”, a black guy’s in the White House, the next day your car bumper gets dented backing out of your garage elevator. (Obama’s fault).
What’s an angry conservative to do?
It’s what he gets paid to do. He’s giggling all the way to the bank, just like his masters.
You sir lie with the incredible stupidity of your kind.
Provide some facts about the matter or shut the fuck up.
I hope he’s got a good story for the Secret Service.
http://www.latimes.com/news/po…
Sick fucker. I hope for Obama’s sake nobody takes him seriously.
I suspect she regretted them immediately. Many progressives, myself included, called her out on it. She apologized. Time to move on.
BTW, the Republicans helping us with the march planning were unphased by it. They knew it was a stupid slip.
Hilary is an evil person.
She’s a stay-at-home mom, fine.
What does a stay-at-home mom with a multi-multi-millionaire husband actually do?
How many maids, gardeners and nannys does she have?
Does she go to the grocery store herself, or does she send one of the little people?
I think it is pretty clear that she was talking about a “paying” job and chose her words inartfully. She said “economic issues” right after her slip up but it was the cliche that bit her in the ass.
She is a professional. She is not supposed to say stupid shit.
davebarnes keeps insisting that she is evil…but it looks like bait to me. 🙂
The poor over-worked multimillionaire housewife with multiple houses and an army of house staff to manage is complaining about how people don’t respect her work. Which Cadillac will she drive today and when will Jeeves pick up the little ones from school?
Oh My God. These people are fools to trot the little rich bitch to complain about how tough it is to get the car out of the elevator and then have the chutzpa to say that she knows what working women need.
She acts as petty and entitled as he does.
Our side should be better than that.
last tome I was here ( I know.. I don’t visit enough to even count) you were on some Republican sabbatical. Have you returned to the dark side?
but you try play the cards you’re dealt.
What do YOU call someone who marries for money and lives the pampered life of a multimillionaires wife and then wants to be recognized as an authority on womens career choices?
BTW: I don’t buy the “better” argument. Everyone who posts on this website has mental issues. Rules here say it is adult political commentary and trotting out Marie as their expert on womens choices makes it all fair game.
Freakin brilliant.
“Marry rich dahling and then if it doesn’t work out, you will always have alimony.”
And this is their go to person on womens career choices. Anyone really believe Ms Antoinette spends her time feverishly mopping the floors of all her upscale properties and homes? Me either.