Hilary Rosen flap a "win in every regard" for GOP, says Nicolle Wallace

Fox News

Until Thursday, it had been a pretty good week for the Obama campaign.

In the newly-declared battle to frame the general election, the president seemed to be winning. His "Buffett Rule" proposal - designed in part to define presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney as seeking to protect low tax rates for the one percent - was dominating the political news cycle. Meanwhile, the Romney camp was scrambling to find some way to win over women amid polls that showed Romney trailing the president by double-digits among female voters.

Then, on Wednesday, a gift from Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen: A criticism of Ann Romney, a stay-at-home mom, as someone who "has actually never worked a day in her life" and thus isn't qualified to advise her husband on women's issues.

It was the perfect opening for the Romney campaign - a chance not only to appeal to women but to shift the focus from the Buffett Rule. And the campaign pounced. Ann Romney joined Twitter to state that raising five sons was "hard work." Romney senior adviser quickly Eric Fehrnstrom pushed the issue on his Twitter account.

The Obama campaign tried to contain the damage, with Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod deeming Rosen's comments "inappropriate and offensive" and campaign manager Jim Messina calling them "wrong." By the following day, the president and first lady, along with the vice president, were all criticizing the comments. But it was too late: The story was dominating the headlines by Thursday -- helped by the Romney campaign, which sought to tie Rosen's comments to "Obama's Women Problem" -- and prompting an embattled Rosen to apologize in order to try to keep the controversy from dominating another 24-hour news cycle.

For the record, Rosen isn't actually linked to the Obama campaign - despite suggestions otherwise by Romney's surrogates. But that didn't really matter: The fact that there is a D attached to her name was enough to shift the conversation from the Obama camp's preferred topic - fairness in the tax code - to a dustup that could help Romney win back some of the women that may have been lost during the debate over contraception that flared up during the GOP primary.

"The Romney campaign has handled this brilliantly and kudos to them," said Nicolle Wallace, a former adviser to John McCain and George W. Bush.

Wallace said "Ann Romney was able to connect in an instant to every woman in the country, with every woman in the country" by defending her decision to raise five boys.

"It's a win in every regard for the Republicans," she added.

Wallace also criticized Democrats for having "been so willing and so quick to throw one of their own under the bus." She said the party has "handled this in a disgraceful manner," putting forth a series of "mobish men" on cable news networks to denounce Rosen.

As someone who has "enjoyed the view from under the bus myself," Wallace expressed sympathy for Rosen for the heat she took from people in her own party over what Wallace called an "unfortunate phrase." It's worth noting here that Rosen made clear almost immediately after the comment that she was supportive of stay-at-home moms - but that didn't stop her fellow Democrats, including the president, from denouncing her comments with little to no qualification.

Will Rosen's gaffe ultimately help Romney improve his standing with women? Not necessarily, says Dan Schnur, Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and former communications director for John McCain. But they do provide an opening.

"In the long run, one comment by an unaffiliated political consultant probably doesn't make much difference, but Rosen's comments have given the Romney campaign an opportunity to engage in the debate over women's support in a way that hadn't been available to them before," he said. "If Mitt Romney had stood up in a vacuum and said he valued the work that stay at home moms do, nobody would have cared."

[divided_we_fall]

Ann Romney has privilege written all over her forehead. I can't stand the woman. She is overly defensive and couldn't be more detached from the average American woman. How much was her horse worth, you know the one in the Olympics? I don't want some over-privileged, never-worked-a-day-in-her-life first-lady representing hard working American women. But I will say I feel horrible the damn republican party is using Romney as a scapegoat for their shortcomings. Wake up. Your party's progressive days are over.

[Peggy_Hayes]

Oh! Forgot to add on my last post.

Etch A Sketch

2012

[Peggy_Hayes]

Goggle Peggy Hayes.

This story simply underscores how out of touch Willard is from the most of America.

"So Mitt Romney came to her apartment in the city of Somerville [in Massachusetts], and he delivers this message to her...The church does not want you to keep this baby; the church thinks it would be better if your soon-to-be-born son would grow up in a family with two parents, so we think you should give the child up for adoption. And Peggie Hayes' first reaction is that she must have misheard something because she can't believe what he's asking her to do. But he continues, according to her, and in fact goes so far as to threaten her with excommunication..."

Read More about Peggy Hayes....

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/19/145449506/who-exactly-is-the-real-romney

And meet the Real Willard...

http://blog.stanleyyelnats.com/2010/12/18/the-real-mitt-romney.aspx

[ajk_cbsnews]

Yep, that gaff will certainly make me vote for Willard! BS!

[earlysaid]

Right wing lies and propaganda does you no good jgg. Romney is so rich that he is worth 57,000 a day. It is Romney and the congressional GOP who have hurt their chances with women voters. They have attacked Planned Parenthood, birth control, fair wages for women, decent health care for families and have stubbornly and with contempt harmed the people of America to spite the President and Democrats. They have shown they put politics above the people and will always only work for the Koch brothers and the most selfish and deceitful ilk of the GOP.

[earlysaid]

President Obama and his wife know what it means to stuggle and work to succeed. Romney was always wealthy and is now worth $57,000 dollars a day. How many people want someone so wealthy and removed from real middle class lives in the Whitehouse, and in charge of our government as that? As for Ann and Mitt Romney they have been blessed in every way possible. If she has not worked a day in her life in a job to earn money that is a fact. It won't affect President Obama regardless of what Hilary Rosen said. It is the GOP that is doing everything they can to rile up women to never vote for them again.

[yengirl]

Hmmmmm. I wonder how many "middle class" families have a pair $540 French designer sneakers to walk the dog? Or how many "middle class" families can afford a $2000 sun dress or several fun filled vacations every year? Enough with the Obamas being so onboard with the "middle class" crap. They do not have the slightest clue what it is like to live every single day in the "real middle class." All we do is work, work, work and be taxed taxed taxed!!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/michelle-obama-wears-silv_n_193138.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2079588/From-2-000-dress-1-000-skirt-Michelle-Obamas-lavish-Hawaii-wardrobe-revealed.html

[Heckofaman]

Obama's Chicago machine is filled with rich elites like Hilary Rosen who have never experienced life in middle America, yet they believe that they are on earth to save us from ourselves.

Well Ms Rosen and Ms Obama, please express your arrogant opinions in private and leave the rest of us be.

We don't need a King and Queen and their court jesters lecturing hard working Americans like Mitt and Anne Romney.

[mercury3424]

Don't forget to add Mitt and Ann Romney to your list of "rich elites...who have never experienced life in middle America."

[mick7744]

The GOP sees it as a "win" whenever there is something bad to report about the US economy...which the Bush/Cheney gang trashed in the first place

They SHOULD be allowed to go around high-fiving each other when that happens...

After all...the treasonous, anti-American, obstructionist SOBs work hard enough to bring such things about...

In order to scare voters into returning them to "POWER" (where the REAL money is)

[Heckofaman]

Oh Micky pleeese...Obamanomic's socialist policies have failed here as it has in Old Europe.

Treason is a strong charge even for a rabid democrat, perhaps you should consider the term "loyal opposition"...which is the Constitutional responsibility of Republicans when they see the executive branch using excessive force against innocent citizens.

[earlysaid]

Your ugly comments don't have truth in them jgg. President Obama is the one working to help this country. It is the GOP in our government working to obstruct job creation, tax fairness, saving Medicare and helping people recover after eight years of GOP wreck and ruin. Everything you say is coming from the liars and you are one of them.

[mikethep]

Obama is reducing our once-great nation to a poor, begging slum.

Instead of promoting what America's strength - producing wealth by individual initiative and achievement - he is going around the world apologizing for our (his) arrogance and begging for help to cover his ineptitude.

[TimeToEvolve]

There is no such thing as a "GOP win". Everything to do with that failed and obsolete party is a loss for all of America. They don't just hate women, they hate the poor, American workers, minorities and gays. Again and again they prove it in public.