After stumbling badly in the first day of the general election campaign, the Mitt Romney campaign is seeking to regroup by making a mountain out of what Democrats say is a molehill: the attack on Ann Romney’s choice to stay home and raise children by a Democratic CNN contributor Wednesday night.
Welcome to Hilary Rosengate.
As part of a panel on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” Rosen questioned whether Ann Romney was qualified to be talking about women’s economic issues since she’s “never worked a day in her life.” This launched a late-night Twitter offensive by Team Romney and a swift condemnation of Rosen’s remarks from Team Obama.
The Obama campaign’s rebuke came swifter and stronger than the Romney campaign’s response to Rush Limbaugh’s attacks on Sandra Fluke. At the time, Romney didn’t join other Republicans calling on Limbaugh to apologize, opening him up to accusations that Romney was afraid to take on a powerful GOP voice.
After a day in which they were knocked off course from their message on women and the economy, the Romney campaign was eager to push back Thursday, sensing Rosen’s remarks finally gave them the upper hand on an issue polling has shown to give Democrats an enormous edge among the female electorate. The Romney campaign hopes to make Rosen “a household name.”
On a day where Mitt has no scheduled campaign events, Ann (and Rosen) will be the public face of Team Romney. Ann has scheduled a Fox News interview for Thursday morning, where she’s expected to address the Rosen story and the Romney campaign organized a conference call with female surrogates to take place soon after.
The Romney campaign is also pushing hard to associate Rosen — an unaffiliated Democratic strategist — with Obama’s campaign. Several times Wednesday night, the Romney campaign referred to Rosen as an “Obama adviser” — she is not. Romney spokesperson Eric Fehrnstrom, for example, made the false connection on Twitter Wednesday night:
Obama adviser Hilary Rosen goes on #CNN to debut their new “kill Ann” strategy, and in the process insults hard-working moms.
— Eric Fehrnstrom (@EricFehrn) April 12, 2012
Spokesman Ryan Williams made the same connection.
Undeterred by reports pointing out that Rosen does not work for the campaign, Team Romney kept pushing the connection, noting the several visits Rosen has made to the White House. The Romney campaign was still touting a link between Rosen and Obama Thursday morning, and by implication, insinuated that Rosen was somehow speaking on behalf of the campaign. Fehrnstrom tweeted: “A clueless Hilary Rosen on #CNN refuses to back off her comments attacking Ann Romney. Will DNC/Obama sever ties?”
The DNC clarified that Rosen, who works with DNC-affiliated strategist Anita Dunn, is not connected with the DNC. On Twitter, Obama’s top operatives, Jim Messina and David Axelrod, both condemned Rosen’s comments.
“I could not disagree with Hilary Rosen any more strongly,” tweeted Obama campaign manager Messina Wednesday night. “Her comments were wrong and family should be off limits. She should apologize.”
Axelrod wrote, “Also Disappointed in Hilary Rosen’s comments about Ann Romney. They were inappropriate and offensive.”
For her part, Rosen said she wasn’t trying to attack women who don’t work outside the home.
“This really isn’t about stay-at-home moms versus working moms. It’s about women in general. I love stay-at-home moms,” she told CNN Thursday. “This isn’t about whether Ann Romney or I or other women of some means can afford to make a choice to stay home and raise kids. Most women in America, let’s face it, don’t have that choice.”
There are several problems the Rosen story theoretically helps Romney with:
⢠Rally The Base: Romney won the primaries, but only by dropping millions in negative ads on the many, many candidates conservatives and evangelicals seem to prefer to him. With the general election under way, Romney needs to shore up the base as quickly as he can so he can move on to the business of reaching out to the center. Conservatives were likely to rally around Romney anyway — they want to beat President Obama, after all — but Rosen’s TV appearance has sped that process along.
Michelle Malkin, who’s been critical of Romney, tweeted Thursday night:
By attacking @AnnDRomney, @hilaryr managed to do what hadn’t been poss. before tonight: Uniting the Right behind Romney. Heckuva job, Hil.
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) April 12, 2012
Malkin, like other conservative women, denounced Rosen Thursday morning.
⢠Give Republicans An Opening Romney has been playing defense when it comes to women, and he hasn’t been doing it very well. On Wednesday, his campaign was unable to give evidence for its claim that Obama is “waging war on women.” With a handy sound bite thrown in their laps, the GOP thinks it can turn things around.
“President Obama and his fellow Democrats have spent yet another week making patently false accusations about a contrived ‘war on women.’ With each passing day, their hypocrisy becomes more and more outrageous. This desperate attempt to distract voters from their record of failure is not only cynical but also insulting to women across America,” said RNC Co-Chair Sharon Day. “And now Democrats are attacking women who make a choice to stay at home and raise a family.”
