Classic. Political. Diversion.

Welcome to what could be an interesting blog post, or the beginning of a hailstorm for me.

Part 1- The ‘incident’

On Wednesday of last week, a CNN political analyst named Hilary Rosen made a comment about Ann Romney (GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney’s wife).  The sound bite that was played over and over was as follows:

Hilary Rosen:  “…guess what, his wife has actually never worked a day in her life.” (1)

                Following those comments (if my math is right) about 2 hours later, Ann Romney responded to Rosen via twitter:

                “I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys.  Believe me, it was hard work”(2)

                The media exploded in the way that only the media can the following day.  Republicans denounced the comment.  Democrats denounced the comment.  A guy in Norway denounced the comment (I’m sure one did….).  The next night, Hilary Rosen went back onto AC360, clarifying her comments.  

                Anderson Cooper: “On the specific things that you said, do you stand by it, saying that Ann Romney hasn’t worked?” 

                Hilary Rosen: “You know, being a stay-at-home mom is a lot of work it’s work inside the home, not outside the home.  She is lucky though, that she had choice, and she referred to that herself.  I admire the way that she talks about her own life.  Many women do not have the choice or the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom.  We have to go and work, and support out children, and like Bay (3) has written  in her pretty meaningful book, many many women are single Moms, doing the same thing…”

The next day, Mitt Romney spoke at an NRA convention in St. Louis (ironically, a city that has a sad and terrible reputation for their gun violence) and unexpectedly <cough-cough> called his wife up to the stage with him.  “There’s one more person I’d like to introduce.  This is a hero of mine.  I happen to believe that all Moms are working Moms, and if you have five sons, your work is never done.  My sweetheart, Ann Romney.”  She then spoke briefly, praising working Moms.  (4)

So there in a nutshell, is the controversy.  The evil liberal media woman is a terrible person, because she doesn't respect Mothers.

Something I’ve said over and over again, is that when you hear what a person has said, you must keep three specific things in mind when making a judgment about the comments.  First, the information the person (and everyone) had at the moment that they made the comment.  Secondly, the context of the comments made, and lastly, what the comments were, in full.  Missing one of those criteria will almost always give you a false impression of the event.  In this controversy, the last two make a huge impact, and luck for us, they are intermingled.  

                The context of the discussion that was going on concerned economics. Polls showed that economic issues where the ones that women were the most concerned about, and also about  reaching out to women on issues of the economy.  Rosen opened that there was not a “War on Women”, and that the only ones using that term were Republicans.  She then said the following line (For those that want to fact check, I’ve provided a LINK (5) so you can follow along):

“With respect to economic issues, I think actually that Mitt Romney is right, that ultimately, women care more about the economic well-being of their families and the like. But there's -- but he doesn't connect on that issue either. What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country saying, "Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues. And when I listen to my wife, that's what I'm hearing."  Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and how do we -- why we worry about their future.  So I think it's -- yes, it's about these positions and, yes, I think there will be a war of words about the positions, but there's something much more fundamental about Mitt Romney. Because he seems so old-fashioned when it comes to women. And I think that comes across. And I think that that's going to hurt him over the long term. He just doesn't really see us as equal.”(6)

                Kind of changes things, when you know what they were talking about, and read the full context, huh?

Part 2 – What do you think, Mitt?

                I’d like to do something that has never been done before.  Are you sitting down?  I want to point out where Mitt Romney…   flip-flopped.  Oh yes!  I’m serious! <rolls eyes>   I take you to January 4^th, where in Manchester New Hampshire, Senator John McCain gave his endorsement of Mitt Romney.  I’m going to type out a transcript of the portion where I’ll perform this ah-MAZing feat, but feel free to click HERE and follow along.

               Minute marker 40:10
            (Responding to a question about welfare and unemployment) 

Romney: “… I also like the idea that people who are receiving assistance, welfare assistance, have the responsibility of working.  In my state, we made good progress in that regard, following the days of the Welfare Reform Act but then when I was Governor, 85% of the people on a form of welfare assistance in my state, had no work requirement, and I wanted to increase the work requirement.  I said, for instance, that even if you had a child two years of age – you need to go to work.  And people said ‘that’s heartless’, and I said no no, I’m willing to spend more for daycare, to allow those parents to go back to work.  It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity, of work, and get people back into the workforce.” (7)

               

                Fast forward to last week when Mitt Romney now defends stay-at-home Moms, saying as he did in the NRA speech “I happen to believe that all Moms are working Moms.”  Apparently, that isn’t the case.  See, if you are a poor mother, of a child that is as young as two, and need assistance from the state, then working in the workforce is good, for you because the dignity.  However for others, such as his wife, staying at home is being a “working mom”. 

Part 3 – The round up.

               

                Get this fake BS out of my face. 

                Polls all over this country are showing that women are concerned about economic issues.  Mitt, you don’t need your wife to tell you that, in fact I know you have a team of advisors telling you that the economy is important, and the way that I know that is that from day one in your campaign launch, you spoke about how President Obama made the economy worse (newsflash – he didn’t).  What Rosen was saying, and I think it’s obsessively clear, is that your barometer on the issues of economics, and how women feel about that, should not be your wife.  You are worth a quarter of a billion dollars, Mr. Romney!  Do you think the conversation your wife is having about the economy is remotely close to the conversation going on around kitchen tables tonight on the economy?   Read Rosen’s comment again : Rosen : “Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and how do we -- why we worry about their future.”

                Imagine three situations.  The first is a single mother of 3, working 40 hours a week at a minimum wage job, where she asks for as much overtime as she can get.  She does this not because she loves the work, but because the bills and rent and grocery money fights in a zero sum game.   – The amount of money she has to spend in a grocery store is directly tied to the amount of her electric bill.  If the electric bill is $5 less than it was last month, then she can buy $5 more of food to feed her kids.   Imagine another mom that is a middle class stay-at-home mom.  Her husband makes $40,000 per year, and she stays at home raising her three kids.  She doesn’t have to live hand to mouth as much anymore, because she clips coupons, and buys food in bulk.  The $40,000 is the same brought in, if both she and her husband were working $20,000 a year jobs, which would easily put her in the same financial bracket as the Mom in the first situation.   She tends to the kids, cooks, cleans, makes sure they brush their teeth, and is worried about the college fund.  Now, imagine a woman that has 5 kids, in a family that has never needed to clip coupons, has multiple homes, multiple cars, and lives in a family worth…Millions. 

                Now, in all three of those, the mothers are hard at work all the time.  I was raised by a stay-at-home mom for years, and that certainly couldn’t have been easy.  All three Moms are trying to make their children into the best adults that they can, but as the economic situation improves, that burden becomes less and less burdensome.  No one has said that Moms don’t work hard.  No one has said that raising 5 kids was easy on Ann Romney.  The point that Rosen was making was that if Ann Romney has never had a job (workforce job) nor the need for a job, in her entire life, then she can’t understand the economic hardships such as the daily struggle to providing food, providing clothing, and preparing a child for the future.  She has never faced the economic worry of the previous two women, where a sale on skim milk brings a small sigh of relief. 

                Mitt Romney himself -just three months ago- wasn’t singing the tune “all Moms are working Moms” when he wanted to put the ones in need of assistance back into the workforce.  He preferred to put the kids in daycare, so that those Moms could go and become “working Moms” and generate a products, which translate to tax revenue (and help pay for your welfare).   Where was his love and support then?  Oh, I forgot it wasn’t politically convenient at that time to defend a woman.
 

                I’d like to point out one more thing, which I’m sure the political heads reading this picked up on.  (I like to teach the “science” behind campaigns.)  Do not think, for a moment, that Ann Romney’s tweet was a knee jerk reaction, or that the comment was so heinous that it demanded a response.  That was her first tweet, it was a few hours after the comment, and it was the perfect fake outrage media cycle to introduce her to this general election.  Understanding the mentality of a Presidential election campaign is to know that media relations leaps of that magnitude are agreed upon.  Only the flukes slip by.  This was not a fluke.  There was a rapid meeting that came to the conclusion that this would be beneficial to the Romney 2012 campaign. 

               

                The sad part of this little fake outrage, is this – In the beginning, when Anderson Cooper asked Hilary Rosen the question, he outlined the polls saying that women were concerned about the economy.  That was his question, and the context of Rosen’s response.  Now look at the past week.  Where did that issue get addressed? 

                Classic. Political. Diversion. 

-Greg

               

               

(1)  CNN- Anderson Cooper 360, Wed April 11^th 2012. http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/11/the-candidates-war-for-women/
(2) Twitter feed @ AnnDRomney Wed. April 11^th 2012 https://twitter.com/#!/anndromney
(3) Bay Buchanan: Bay and her Boys : Unexpected Lessons I Learned as a (Single) Mom
(4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tinph1gbU0  I only mention the first five minutes of his speech)
(5) Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_BRWBUVhyc
(6) Text lifted from : http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/apr/13/context-hilary-rosens-comment-ann-romney-never-wor/
(7) C-Span feed of endorsement, Jan 2^nd, 2012  http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/303512-1