By Brigitte L. Nacos
The news media and social networks blew up one sentence spoken by one political strategist into a major political controversy and handed the Romney campaign a convenient weapon to intensify their attacks on liberals and especially President Obama as the real enemies of mothers and wives and daughters in the “war on women” in America.
What happened? Hilary Rosen, a Democrat, political strategist and analyst for CNN, commented during a CNN program on the fact that Mitt Romney cannot connect with women, is clueless as to women’s concerns, and has of late told audiences that his wife Ann is better at articulating his real concern for women’s well-being.
Rosen’s statement was this: “His wife has actually never worked a day in her life,” she said. “She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids? How do we send them to school? And why we worry about their future.”
What is so offensive here? For starters, cable TV, other media outlets, and social media honed in on the first sentence, “His wife has actually never worked a day in her life.” That is a wonderful sound bite for media that strives on conflicts and clashes. In most instances, the rest of the “explosive” remark was omitted and thereby the whole context of the discussion.
There was no need for the president, his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, Ann Romney, the Romney campaign and supporters to defend stay-home moms as women with the most heavy and difficult workloads. The real issue here is whether women with the extraordinary financial means as enjoyed by Ann Romney have any idea about the struggles of ordinary women with modest or low incomes. Rosen’s criticism was not at all targeting all mothers who make the choice to stay home and raise their children. But it reminded us that many women do not have a choice, even if they would love to stay home, they need to work to put food on the table.
If a candidate defers publicly to his wife as the expert on women’s issues, especially economic ones, why would it be wrong to point out that Mrs. Romney, given the family’s wealth and plush life style, is as detached from average women (and men) as is her husband?
This morning, I saw a clip of Ann Romney’s response on FOX News. “I can tell you and promise you that I have had struggles in my life." Promise us? I am sure that Mrs. Romney like all mothers had her struggles with five active sons around. I am sure that she had and has her struggles with her illness. But she did not have the economic struggles and worries of so many mothers (and fathers) about the daily necessities of life, food, housing, health insurance, the education of their children.
In short, this is once again a case of much ado about nothing, media feeding frenzy and political opportunism at a time when the nation is faced with real and urgent domestic and foreign policy issues.
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