What could possibly move Ann Romney to start using Twitter? How about an attack on her credentials as a "working" mom?It all began last night on Anderson Cooper's night time when liberal strategist Hilary Rosen criticized Mitt Romney for leaning on his wife,
Ann, when it comes to women's economic issues. Romney
has previously said that he knows that the issue woman care most about
is the economy, because his wife told him so. Rosen,
who was formerly the head of the of the hated music lobby group
the Recording Industry Association of America, criticized that approach
by saying that "His wife has actually never worked a day in her life."
That comment opened the door for the Romney camp, which leapt into a lightning fast counter-attack mode that included getting Ann Romney herself to fire off her first (and so far, only) tweet.
Others supporters quickly piled on Rosen accusing her — and by
extension President Obama — of attacking stay-at-home moms.
The President's advisers quickly tried to distance themselves from Rosen, even though she doesn't work for (and hasn't even given money to) the campaign. Ann Romney's son leapt to her defense. Rosen herself, quickly took to .. not to apologize, but to clarify and then reiterate her complaints.
The entire episode is interesting not for the arguments it raises,
but for the ones it obscures. First, it played out with remarkable
speed. Rosen's rebuttal to the rebuttal was online barely an hour after
Cooper's show went off the air. The Romney campaign's response was so
quick and so overwhelming that this mini-news cycle was over before
most people knew it happened.
It also immediately drowned out the more substantive point that the
discussion was meant to be covering, which was the real economic issues
facing women. Romney began the day by hammering on his claim that 92
percent of jobs lost during Obama's presidency belonged to women — a dubious statistic that
Cooper began his show by attempting to take apart. But also one built
on a truth: that women are struggling in this economy too. While going
after Rosen will surely please conservative women, it undercuts the
Romney campaign's effort to win over all women, a struggle outlined in at least two major media stories yesterday.
Finally, as more than a few people have pointed out, the one thing
that doesn't help women is to have them arguing with each other over
who works harder. In this case, it's possible that both Rosen and Ann
Romney are right. (Being a stay-at-home is a real job and the fact that
Romney could chosen to stay home
and raise kids is a fortunate one. But neither one qualifies or
disqualifies someone from having an informed opinion about something.)
Their debate about what work really means distracts from actual policy
issues, like the Lilly Led better Act or Wisconsin's equal pay law. Those are two things that, unlike an op-ed, will actually affect real women.
Both sides have now muddied the term "War on Women" so much as to
make it almost useless. Instead of fighting over which side is hurting
women more, maybe they should talk about who is going to help them the
most.