Ann Romney attack

[Paul Pless]

So how many household servants do the Romneys have, anyway?

Does it matter?

[ccmanuals]

Let's get something straight. She is NOT a Presidential advisor or a member of the campaign to re-elect. She is a Demoratic strategist who was asked to comment on CNN regarding Romney's economic plan.

Now, why is the GOP camp all over this? That shoulld be pretty evident. Look at the polls.

[ljb5]

Does it matter?

It depends on if the Republicans are in a mood to criticize "the elite" or praise them as our betters.

These things can change on a day-to-day basis.

[Keith Wilson]

Does it matter?

No, not at all, except as it bears on the imitation outrage about Ms. Rosen's remarks. It would be interesting to know anyway, just another thing that makes him look more like Richie Rich. None of this stuff matters, really. All political kabuki theater.

[ccmanuals]

Apparently Ms Rosen has visited the White House 34 times. What do you suppose she was doing there?

you tell me. you did the research or would you like me to do it for you?

Interesting side note is that you could not tell me anyone who visited the WH during the 8 years of the Bush administration becuase those records were deemed Secret.

[ljb5]

Probably fewer than Kerry.

Apparently now it matters.

[Gerarddm]

Much ado about nothing. Obama answered it very well.

Nowhere near as important ( to the overall outcome of the general election ) as the Etch-A-Sketch imbroglio.

[wardd]

"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft, where we are hard, cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand." *

F. Scott Fitzgerald,* "The Rich Boy" (1926),




Ann Romney’s prostrations to the contrary, she was born into great wealth, and has continued in that state ever since.
Raising a family is considerably easier if one has staff and servants to call upon, and if one does not have to consider income short-falls.

+2000

[wardd]

I agree. It was a poor choice of words. Careless and offensive. I supported my wife for several years as a stay-at-home parent. I even served as the stay-at-home for a while when I was layed off. Work? It sure as heck IS work. And it's important, valuable, work - very beneficial, developmentally, to a young child.

But to pretend that an attack on stay-at-home parents was really the thrust of Rosen's comments (rather than a mistaken impression arising from an unfortunate and sloppy choice of words)... is disingenuous. She was really attempting to make a point about AR's qualifications to serve as Mitt's primary advisor on women's issues.

Rosen should have apologized for the impression she created that she was attacking the worth of being a primary parent. She does not need to apologize for the actual intent of her comments.

i didn't hear it as an attack on ann but an attack on mitt for saying ann is who he gets his female input from

[wardd]

the thing about this rosen flap is that in the long run it will be detrimental to mitt because the sound bite is that mitt and ann are rich enough that she didn't need to work a day in her life

personally i hope this silliness is like the energizer rabbit and keeps going and going and going

[LeeG]

Seems reasonable that his wife is his most important advisor on women's issues, just as Harold Hamm would be his main advisor on energy issues.
They represent interests close to him.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...176790396.html


Mitt Romney is turning to one of the nation's newest oil titans for advice, a sign that a new crop of energy barons is emerging on the national scene.

Mr. Romney, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said that Harold Hamm, founder and chief executive of Continental Resources Inc., will serve as chairman of Mr. Romney's Energy Policy Advisory Group.

Mr. Hamm will help assemble a team to develop "comprehensive national energy policy," according to a statement from Mr. Romney.

Mr. Hamm, who has criticized President Obama's decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, may be the biggest beneficiary of surging U.S. oil and gas exploration.

Continental holds more than 901,000 acres in the oil-rich Bakken area of North Dakota and Montana. His 72% ownership of Continental is worth more than $12 billion, almost all of it generated in just the past three years.

[SaltyBoatr]

Apparently Ms Rosen has visited the White House 34 times. What do you suppose she was doing there?

Jeff Gannon, gay escort, visited the White House 200 times. What do you suppose he was doing there?

My point is that it is wrong to paint Obama with anything that a 'strategist' says. If you do so, then accept the other side of the coin, where Rush Limbaugh can speak for Romney.

[SaltyBoatr]

the Etch-A-Sketch imbroglio.

Actually, with Santorum gone, this is the start of the Etch-A-Sketch shaking. Romney needs to repair the extremist damage to his reputation about Women's issues. The Romney camp attack on the woman named Hillary Rosen, (ironic isn't it), is an Etch-A-Sketch shake.

[Paul Pless]

Jeff Gannon, gay escort, visited the White House 200 times. What do you suppose he was doing there?

My point is that it is wrong to paint Obama with anything that a 'strategist' says. If you do so, then accept the other side of the coin, where Rush Limbaugh can speak for Romney.

Sell it man!

I'm still confused how one gets the title 'Democratic Strategist'. Could you help me out with that???

[wardd]

Sell it man!

I'm still confused how one gets the title 'Democratic Strategist'. Could you help me out with that???

who called her that?

ask them

[SaltyBoatr]

I'm still confused how one gets the title 'Democratic Strategist'. Could you help me out with that???

Roger Ailes grants that title. Haven't you noticed you are getting played?

[Paul Pless]

Roger Ailes grants that title. Haven't you noticed you are getting played?

I have indeed noticed that 'distort, attack, repeat' has been a common mode for you since you left the forum and returned with a sock puppet login. . .

[SaltyBoatr]

I have indeed noticed that 'distort, attack, repeat' has been a common mode for you since you left the forum and returned with a sock puppet login. . .

Funny. I answered your question truthfully. You didn't like my answer, and attack me instead. Tell us then: Who granted the title "Democratic Strategist" to Hillary Rosen?

[delecta]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...FHDT_blog.html

Who is Hillary Rosen?

[Paul Pless]

You didn't like my answer, and attack me instead.

Nothing I said is untrue.

[bobbys]

Actually, with Santorum gone, this is the start of the Etch-A-Sketch shaking. Romney needs to repair the extremist damage to his reputation about Women's issues. The Romney camp attack on the woman named Hillary Rosen, (ironic isn't it), is an Etch-A-Sketch shake.

.

Is that like when Poland attacked Germany?

[bobbys]

Jeff Gannon, gay escort, visited the White House 200 times. What do you suppose he was doing there?

My point is that it is wrong to paint Obama with anything that a 'strategist' says. If you do so, then accept the other side of the coin, where Rush Limbaugh can speak for Romney.

.

Rush has not endorsed a Candidate.

[wardd]

.

Rush has not endorsed a Candidate.

i bet he not endorses obama more than mitt

[Tall Boy]

Tell us then: Who granted the title "Democratic Strategist" to Hillary Rosen?

Dunno who gave her the title but, that's what was flashing across the bottom of the screen while she was on TV gushing on about Mrs. Obama being the new uber mom in 2008..........

[TANSTAF1]

I think this was a deliberate attempt to discredit Ann Romney and to diminish any potential contribution to the campaign, but it has seriously backfired. It has done more to arouse enthusiasm for Romney than anything Mitt has done to date. Mitt is now again beating Obama in likely voter polls and I bet this gives him another bounce.

[wardd]

remember the sond bite is" ann never held a job "

[delecta]

remember the sond bite is" ann never held a job "

My wife, a cancer survivor that is raising two children <5 and 7> with my help, would kick your a$$ if you told her she doesn't have a job and never worked a day in her life.

The funny part is that she was an advertising account executive working in Manhattan, worked in the World Trade Center at one point and considers that job vacation compared to raising two young boys.

My Mom raised 6 children, three meals a day, laundry, home work, sports and a husband.

You keep picking on Mrs Romney, people that know aren't listening.

[bobbys]

remember the sond bite is" ann never held a job "

.

Remember this crowd is only to willing to send out a Strategist to make a comment then throw her under the bus,

Small price to pay to have the soundbite out there as you said.

Going by the doubling. down by the libs here i would venture to say it was planned..

They tested the reaction then retreated.

[Meli]

Why don't you just admit that Rosen said some stupid stuff? Do you really think that I am offended that a woman who raised a family is said to have never worked a day in her life because of Fox news?

Rosen is an idiot at best. I may be on the same side as her politically, but she's still an idiot that said some really indefensible crap.

Oh for crying out loud.
There's work and work. I was a stay at home mum with admittedly only two kids (one disabled) but a regular house full of other peoples kids. AKA kids little friends.
Pretty good income prolly top 20%.
No home help, no nanny.. OH WOE
I would not dare to presume to equate my experience as a stay at home mum with 99% of women.
I had fun, time for hobbies.

Hillary rosen was perfectly correct.

[TANSTAF1]

I agree that most rich, stay at home moms cannot fully relate to many women. However, I think Ann Romney is the exception that proves the rule. Being in Australia I am not sure how much of a chance you will get to hear her direct and unfiltered. Perhaps with so much on youtube, you will. Here's a link to one for a start:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLQfyyNxFUc

I think the Obama campaign fears her which is why they tried this. My view is that it backfired big time, but I guess time will tell.

My wife sacrificed her career to raise our kids until they were of a certain age and she did a great job that was important and tough to do. Even when older she taught so her work schedule would mesh with theirs.

BTW: Just to correct some wrong information: Ann Romney did not have cooks, maids, or nannies despite having to deal with breast cancer and MS.

[Keith Wilson]

I think the Obama campaign fears her which is why they tried this.

If you think this was planned, you must believe campaigns are organized to an almost superhuman degree of precision. Someone very peripherally connected with the administration blurted out in the wrong words by mistake; Had she said the same thing using the politically correct expression "she has never worked outside the home", there would be no fuss at all. Her substantive point is perfectly legitimate. I have no idea if it's true or not; I don't know Ann Romney, and it's of very minimal importance one way or another..

The manufactured outrage around this is an example of Carl Rove' trademark jujitsu - attack one's opponent where one is weakest. The Republicans have a serious problem with female voters. The gender gap in polls between Obama and Romney right now is HUGE. Republicans advocate policies that case real harm to women, they tend to support courses of action women strongly disagree with, and there's a substantial fraction of the right wing whose attitude toward women seems to be stuck in 1957, if not 1885 (see Fluke, Sandra). This latest flap distracts attention from that, and allows lazy journalists who want to sound wise and evenhanded to set up the standard false equivalence - well, yes the Republicans want to make abortion illegal, restrict access to birth control, shut down Planned Parenthood, repeal equal pay laws (see Walker, Scott), etc, etc . . but Hillary Rosen said something inconsiderate about Ann Romney, so they're both the same.

Keep watching, you'll see this tactic again and again. It won't work; people are getting wise to it, but it's the best they've got on this issue.

Ann Romney did not have cooks, maids, or nannies despite having to deal with breast cancer and MS.

Source, please? You tell me he's worth $250 million and they don't have household staff? This seems to me very unlikely. I sure would if I had that much money. I don't like cleaning the bathroom.

[TANSTAF1]

If you think this was planned, you must believe campaigns are organized to an almost superhuman degree of precision. Someone very peripherally connected with the administration blurted out in the wrong words by mistake; Had she said the same thing using the politically correct expression "she has never worked outside the home", there would be no fuss at all. Her subatantive point is perfectly legitimate. I have no idea if it's true or not; I don't know Ann Romney, and it's of very minimal importance one way or another..

Rosen works with former White House communications director Anita Dunn at the D.C.-based strategic-communications consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker. That’s the same company that promoted the anti-Palin smear movie Game Change and that represented liberal Georgetown Law student activist and manufactured War on Women poster woman Sandra Fluke. The DNC pays that firm big, big bucks and Rosen is an advisor to DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.


Rosen has visited the White House at least 35 times which included direct meetings with President Obama (5); White House senior adviser and consigliere Valerie Jarrett; senior adviser David Axelrod; senior adviser now 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina, etc. That's 6 times as many visits as Vice-president Biden and 3 times as many as Gen David Petreous over the same time frame. More than twice as many as Energy Secretary Chu. Four times as many as Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

Source, please? You tell me he's worth $250 million and they don't have household staff? This seems to me very unlikely. I sure would if I had that much money. I don't like cleaning the bathroom.

You may not like the source, but Eric is fully read into Republican politics:

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/04/13/elitism/

Nonetheless, there were people like Joan Walsh of the far left rag Salon. She thought it perfectly okay to pronounce on Hardball yesterday that of course working women have it harder than stay at home moms. Of course they do you women battling breast cancer and suffering from MS while raising five boys without nannies and cooks and maids contrary to what the left has been claiming is, was, and forever more shall be the case with Ann Romney. Never mind that Mitt and Ann Romney gave away their inherited fortune to build their own lives and fortune.

[Mrleft8]

Who?

[TANSTAF1]

Who?

Are you wondering who Erick Erickson is? Amusingly he works with Hillary Rosen on CNN, but I only know this because he says so as I almost never watch CNN, so others here may be more familiar than I on this.

[Y Bar Ranch]

Bobbys, now you know that Team Obama have nothing but the highest respect for womyns


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/wash...a-favreau.html

[S.V. Airlie]

I think FDR referred to Eleanor R as his advisor, confidant, and his eyes and ears. What was her experience except having a good brain? Dealing with the thousand out of work when buying apples was a treat? She was from privilege What experience did she have? Perhaps raising kids surrounded by nannys makes her equipt to be called what FDR referred to her as. She didn't have to make the money stretch. She was, I'm sure, worried about the economy too although being a Roosevelt, she never had to work either.Well, I've loved all of the posts. A good laugh at least

[Mrleft8]

Are you wondering who Erick Erickson is? Amusingly he works with Hillary Rosen on CNN, but I only know this because he says so as I almost never watch CNN, so others here may be more familiar than I on this.

No. I was asking "Who?" as in Hillary Rosen. Never heard of her before this. Is she somebody important?

[David G]

TAN - I have no evidence whether the Romney's have domestic staff or not. After your redstate reference... I still don't. What I have is assertions on the right that they don't, and assertions on the left that they (with that sort of money and that many large houses) almost certainly do and did. I'm inclined to believe the tale of them living in a cheap apartment during the school years (with no staff, and not a lot of extra money). But what about the rest of their life?

I've not been familiar with your Erick, but am not impressed with his column, and am not inclined to put a great deal of stock into the un-buttressed assertions of someone who writes this sort of disingenuous piece. Rather than deal with the actual point that H. Rosen was making - that Ann Romney's life has not prepared her to be the primary adviser to a president on women's issues, and that Mitt is a fool to place her in that position - he, instead, creates a bunch of 'straw-man' arguments which he then does a lackluster job of demolishing.

Have you got any more definitive source for your assertion?

[wardd]

.

Remember this crowd is only to willing to send out a Strategist to make a comment then throw her under the bus,

Small price to pay to have the soundbite out there as you said.

Going by the doubling. down by the libs here i would venture to say it was planned..

They tested the reaction then retreated.

you don't really know who hillery is do you?


you got me, i was in on the planning, were you in on planning when rush called fluk a slut?

[TANSTAF1]

TAN - I have no evidence whether the Romney's have domestic staff or not. After your redstate reference... I still don't. What I have is assertions on the right that they don't, and assertions on the left that they (with that sort of money and that many large houses) almost certainly do and did. I'm inclined to believe the tale of them living in a cheap apartment during the school years (with no staff, and not a lot of extra money). But what about the rest of their life?

I've not been familiar with your Erick, but am not impressed with his column, and am not inclined to put a great deal of stock into the un-buttressed assertions of someone who writes this sort of disingenuous piece. Rather than deal with the actual point that H. Rosen was making - that Ann Romney's life has not prepared her to be the primary adviser to a president on women's issues, and that Mitt is a fool to place her in that position - he, instead, creates a bunch of 'straw-man' arguments which he then does a lackluster job of demolishing.

Have you got any more definitive source for your assertion?

I tend to agree with you that most rich people have such staff, however the Romneys seem to be very family oriented and religious so this assumption does not readily apply.

I did query someone who lives in Macon and knows Erick personally and well as to whether he would really know if the Romneys had such staff or not, as I do know they had hired a lawn company that used illegals so I was in doubt even after reading his column.

At the risk of re-raising questions as to whether I graduated from high school again, I will say I did some web research and only found assertions and nothing definitive. I did not exhaustively search as it was simply not worth it to me to know that. I am not a Romney supporter (even if he is the nominee). I was simply not willing to take a liberal assumption as fact.

Also, perhaps amusingly I agree with Hillary's point. Ann may have the intelligence and the empathy to understand the many women with whom she has spoken on the campaign trail for the last year and to relate that accurately to Mitt, however she has only been speaking with nominal Romney supporters so her view is only a sub-section of all women. I think most women Romney supporters think she understands them well.

I do not have a lot of respect for any of Romney's advisers.

[wardd]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1228843.html

[S.V. Airlie]

Wardd, how many friggin' servants do you think Eleanor Roosevelt had during the depression? She was involved with a lot of issues regarding unemployment, no experience there, woman's right, not that she ever worked.The economy, not that she had to worry about money. Not really any experience there.Her husband still called her his eyes and ears, confidant, maybe even advisor. This whole thread is really funny.

[wardd]

Wardd, how many friggin' servants do you think Eleanor Roosevelt had during the depression? She was involved with a lot of issues regarding unemployment, no experience there, woman's right, not that she ever worked.The economy, not that she had to worry about money. Not really any experience there.Her husband still called her his eyes and ears, confidant, maybe even advisor. This whole thread is really funny.

wasn't that like over 60 years ago?

do try to keep up

[S.V. Airlie]

So what? Wasn't there a depression too?

[wardd]

So what? Wasn't there a depression too?

is there a depression now?

not for the romneys anyway, after all ann doesn't have to work

[TANSTAF1]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1228843.html

Thank you ward. When googling I tend not to open Huffington hits as I do not view them as a reliable source.

$20,000 for four homes for maids (if in fact maids are what the wages reported in the income tax were for (the category includes

housekeepers, baby-sitters, personal assistants and other house-related tasks)

) does not seem like much. At $20/hour that's about 250 hours a year per house and even less if the rate per hour is higher. As the article states it's possible they hired a cleaning service rather than individuals.

[S.V. Airlie]

There could have been one but as usual, you are resorting to deflection. I doubt that anyone, for the most part, during the depression made many neg. comments about her being privileged by having servants various, house, butlers etc.If they did, it was under their breaths Only you libs look for an opportunity to criticize Anne Romney for her past. Typical though and I ain't surprised in the least. mI would be surprised if a friggin' liberal didn't go after her.

[wardd]

There could have been one but as usual, you are resorting to deflection. I doubt that anyone, for the most part, during the depression made many neg. comments about her being privileged by having servants various, house, butlers etc.If they did, it was under their breaths Only you libs look for an opportunity to criticize Anne Romney for her past. Typical though and I ain't surprised in the least. mI would be surprised if a friggin' liberal didn't go after her.

you libs?

i thought it was only one person that made that factual statement

and she is not with any political organization, but a paid talking head for cnn

[Mrleft8]

Eleanor Roosevelt?
Good god! Why don't we just dredge up Eleanor of Aquitaine!.....
There's absolutely no relevance between Eleanor Roosevelt and Anne Romney.

[S.V. Airlie]

One spokesperson. One mouth representing the masses.I doubt that warrd knows who that is Doug..Remember, KISS!