To say I was livid is an understatement when I first read that Democratic pundit Hilary Rosen had stated, that as a stay at home mom, Ann Romney had not actually worked for a living.

While I furiously read the article in the Washington Post, ready to to go after Hilary Rosen, what I realized was this is an age old source of contention between women that I have personally experienced.

While Hilary Rosen clarified her statement:

On Twitter, Rosen did not apologize, but wrote several tweets trying to explain her comments, saying her point was that Mitt Romney should stop saying on the campaign trail that Ann is his guide to the economic problems facing women because “she doesn’t have any.”

Rosen tweeted at Ann Romney, saying: “I am raising children too. But most young American women HAVE to BOTH earn a living AND raise children. You know that don’t u?” Later, Rosen tweeted again at Romney: “Please know, I admire you. But your husband shouldn’t say you are his expert on women and the economy.”

As a stay at home mom, I have felt this defensiveness by moms who stay at home and moms who work.  Each explaining why their “choice” is best.  But for many families, there is no choice, both parents must work.  However, I know mom’s who choose to work, they don’t want to be at home.

 

Here are some questions that I know exist.  What role model is a stay at home mom to her daughter?  Do we “lease” our children out to be raised by strangers?  I invite others to put up their own questions for debate.

Here is what I do know, women on women offense when it comes to work choices is a distraction from core issues in this country.   I know that I often feel as a stay at home mom, I feel like I am always explaining my “worth”.

61 Thoughts to “Is Mrs. Romney an expert on the economy?”

  1. Lets look at this statement from another point of view…she is rich. I don’t think it is a woman on woman issue….it is a middle class vs rich situation. Mitt also hasn’t had to do the same things that most men have to do daily.

    Let’s take Ann Romney or any other wealthy woman as a stay at home mom. Did she routinely have to play car pool or did the kids have a driver? Did she have to pack her kids’ lunches, do their laundry, cook, or clean? I am guessing not so much.

    I will let everyone finish snarling at me before I come back to the issue of middle class women. I am also going to throw out that I believe there is a difference between generations.

  2. SlowpokeRodriguez

    The left’s war on motherhood has to stop and stop right now.

  3. Morris Davis

    And the (ain’t-quite)-right war on science and sanity has got to stop. Rep (R-FL) Allen West is touted as a potential VP running mate for Romney. This week at a Florida townhall event a typical right-wing nut job asked how many of West’s fellow congressmen are “card-carrying Marxists or international socialists” to which West responded “I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party.” And these are the same people that get worked into a spit-flying lather ranting about how Obama is trying to divide people.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-democrats-are-commies-20120411,0,1232324.story

    1. I thought the clown parade was over! @ Moe

      War on science and sanity is continuing? More Pitchforks and torches?

      West is simply an insulting horse’s ass. Back in my day, calling someone a communist was a good way to get dragged out back and have the snot beaten out of you. Of course, that was a little too close to the McCarthy era. People lost jobs and careers over such an incidicous accusation.

  4. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Morris Davis :
    And the (ain’t-quite)-right war on science and sanity has got to stop. Rep (R-FL) Allen West is touted as a potential VP running mate for Romney. This week at a Florida townhall event a typical right-wing nut job asked how many of West’s fellow congressmen are “card-carrying Marxists or international socialists” to which West responded “I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party.” And these are the same people that get worked into a spit-flying lather ranting about how Obama is trying to divide people.
    http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-democrats-are-commies-20120411,0,1232324.story

    If it was all about changing the subject..you would win!

  5. Cato the Elder

    Col. West is probably low-balling that number, given the fact that the Democrat Party’s platform is indistinguishable from that of Communist Party USA.

  6. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Back in my day, calling someone a communist was a good way to get dragged out back and have the snot beaten out of you.

    Indeed, a time-honored political tradition of the left….especially in Chicago!!

    1. How would you know, whippersnapper! Typical punch and run. Its one of those kinds of punches like third graders on the playground pull.
      I seriously doubt that you would know much about it one way or the other. I lived no where around Chicago, not that it matters. Communist, Nazi, it doesn’t matter.

      McCarthy caused many people to lose their job and all chances of gainful employment. However, I am not going to hold that against all Republicans.

  7. Elena

    Maybe we could move into the 21st century boys (Cato and Slow)and leave the red scare where it belongs, 1950’s.

  8. marinm

    Does Rosen have an issue with women voting or owning property?

    Sometimes I think that women are their own worst enemy.

    1. Last time I looked, David Letterman wasn’t a woman.

      I couldn’t stand Sarah Palin, still can’t, and am not under any obligation to like someone disgusting because she and I have similar genitalia. Slowpoke, I am assuming that you and Obama have similar ‘parts.’ That sure doesn’t cast you in the same light as the President and you are under no obligation to like him because of those similarities.

      To suggest that I have to like Sarah Palin in order to be taken seriously about women’s issues is insulting and simply unacceptable.

      Marin, remedial reading 101–Rosen didn’t mention voting or owning property. I am assuming those were issues settled decades ago. Of course I assumed that about contraception, only to find out that religious nut jobs wanted to compromise that issue. Sometimes I think men think with the other head. wink wink.

  9. SlowpokeRodriguez

    marinm :
    Does Rosen have an issue with women voting or owning property?
    Sometimes I think that women are their own worst enemy.

    You definitely got that last part right. We’re supposed to listen to women perpetrate the most distgustingly vile attacks on Sarah Palin, then take them seriously about “women’s issues”.

  10. Censored bybvbl

    Oh dear, someone dissed the wingnuts’ darling Sarah Palin? Maybe instead of bitching about women being their own worst enemies, you boys could look at who shoulders most(not ALL for you non-readers) of the responsibility for keeping the household running, the kiddos fed and shuttled to school, the laundry done and groceries purchased – in addition to pursuing a career. The US doesn’t offer family friendly services as most developed countries do. The greedy right wing would rather women pursue slinging arrows at each other than provide adequate daycare, maternity (paternity) leave, or other services that are family friendly.

  11. SlowpokeRodriguez

    @Censored bybvbl
    You want free daycare, too? You already get a tax break for it.

  12. I happen to be one who agrees with Hilary Rosen. In the first place, she is simply stating her opinion. Secondly, she is not part of the Obama campaign.

    I think the Democrats are foolish to run all chicken-doo on this one. Ann Romney has no idea what its like to work your career and then go home to a second and third job. I do. I also had to figure out how to work my job and pay for the babysitter. Sometimes I had to find baby sitters at the last minute. If a kid needed to go to sports practice, I got to do the driving for set up a car pool. I also got to do the family grocery shopping and cook dinner.

    Did I mention that I had a his and ours blended family? Back in those days you got laughed at if you asked for child support from a woman. 2 + 2 puts you in a strange push me pull me bizarro world as far as kids go.

    However, the main difference wasn’t whether I worked or not. I didn’t really have a choice. Those were the days of super woman where you were expected to do it all. If you quit your job, someone else scooped it up. Because we had an extra set of kids with no income help, I had to work.

    I bet Ann Romney never had to carpool, clean, do laundry, cook, or worry about how she was going to make sure her child care money didn’t go for something else. She probably had to hire the domestic housekeepers and nannies and orchestrate all that. But she didn’t have to worry about how she was going to pay for it. That’s where having money makes all the difference in the world.

    Would I have done all that rat race I did if I had had enough money not do? Ha! Not in a million years. Does that mean women shouldn’t work? No. That has nothing to do with it.

    I certainly would not look to Ann Romney for inspiration as a working mother. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to have to raise 5 boys with or without help. Anyone who has raised 5 boys has earned her stripes at endurance. I don’t care how much money you have. 3 nearly did me in and one was 13 years older than the other one. I would absolutely give Ann Romeny credit on anything she had to say about parenting. You don’t raise 5 boys without some serious battle scars. That just has nothing to do with what Hilary Rosen said.

  13. Censored bybvbl

    @SlowpokeRodriguez

    Your tax break provides meager help to those least able to afford it. Two of my sisters divorced their husbands and raised their daughters without those deadbeats’ help. Both had professions which paid adequately but child care was still expensive. A tax break or credit does not cover the cost of child care as you no doubt know. The solution to many women’s ( and a few men’s) financial/economic problems would be the threat of jail for dead beat spouses.

    1. Even when I was raising my chaps, child care nearly put me in the poor house. I think it sucks up an even greater proportion of pay nowadays.

      All my grandchildren on this coast have been raised during the day by their dads.

  14. SlowpokeRodriguez

    @Censored bybvbl
    So you want free daycare?

  15. SlowpokeRodriguez

    @Censored bybvbl
    Btw, anytime there is a divorce, all parties going in HAVE to know that they’re screwed permanently and that lawyers are going to run away with everything.

    1. That’s a good reason not to marry in the first place. I won’t disagree there. Divorce also generally places one or both of the spouses at the pverty level, especially if there are several kids involved. However, lots of people find themselves in that situation.

  16. Censored bybvbl

    @SlowpokeRodriguez

    I think subsidies for childcare are appropriate in some circumstances for a limited time. If you want an educated workforce, you might want to subsidize students or people who need to retrain in order to get their course work finished more quickly. I’d also approve of graduated subsidies for full-time employees who need that support because their wages are low – at least until the kids are old enough to be home alone.

  17. SlowpokeRodriguez

    @Censored bybvbl
    You know we’re 16 Tril in the hole, right?

    1. In the long run its a lot less expensive to offset some of the child care cost than it is to pay people to sit on their asses.

      Not go to all Dumbledore on you but but give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man a fish and he eats for a lifetime.

      Having to support someone is more expensive than propping someone up temporarily.

  18. Censored bybvbl

    @SlowpokeRodriguez

    People are always selective for what they’re willing to go into debt. I didn’t like paying for a couple unfunded wars. You may not like social programs. We don’t always get to choose. I’m willing to pay more in taxes for some programs. Heck, if you have kiddos in PWC’s schools, I’m subsidizing them just as I’ve done for other folks for 35 years. (Being the oldest kiddo in a family, I felt that I’d raised enough kids by the time I graduated high school and didn’t want any. Luckily, my spouse feels the same way or we would probably be a couple of people throwing our money at divorce lawyers.) But I look at what’s good of society – and that’s having a public school system.

    Anyway, I think Ann Romney is as clueless as her husband about the impact of the economy on middle class families. It’s not because she’s basically a SAHM but because her wealth has shielded her from most people’s reality. (Her husband proclaims he’s a self-made man – he whose father opened doors for him even if he didn’t request that help. It’s the circle of friends and acquaintances that mattered.)

  19. What Hilary Rosen really said:

    “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 why do we worry about their future.”

    I am trying to find the part of what she said that wasn’t true. I think the issue is whether or not Mrs. Romney has had to work or not, not whether she should or not.

    Plenty of non working parents, both male and female have balanced the cost of child care vs. staying at home with their children. It isn’t just moms but also dads. I have 2 in my family that have jobs that are juxaposition in time to the moms so they can be the Mr. Moms. My hat is off to them.

    There are all sorts of considerations. Cost is one. Putting your kids in day care is another. There is also the idea that perhaps you can raise your kids better than someone else. finally, there is the trust of putting your kid with someone else.

    There will probably always be the working vs the non working mothers war. The working mothers catch the social stigma end of it probably worse than those who aren’t working mothers. I was treated like I was throwing my kids to the wolves by the stay at homes. when I did do stay at home, I felt like I wasn’t pulling my fair share of the load. My husband didn’t make me think that by I felt it just the same.

    Mitt Romney needs to quit tossing this one to his wife. He needs to field this one. Mrs. Romney can take on all the child raising issues she wants. I feel she is an expert. But the economics of working women? She is freaking clueless.

    Elena and I just don’t agree on this issue. We are a generation apart and we both handled this issue differently. I was also the first generation of working mothers. We thought we could do it all and had to be supermom. Each of us found out in our own way we weren’t and that Supermom is a myth.

  20. And other thing…I don’t think there is any right way. People should do what they are most comfortable with if they can afford it.

    The problem is, many people don’t have an option. Then it gets a bit dicier. That’s the part Mrs. Romney will never understand.

  21. Emma

    I’m fortunate enough to have a very flexible career that has allowed me to be home as much as possible, but my nest is almost empty. I think most women raising kids in this economy would LOVE to have it be a choice whether to work or not. Mrs. Romney seems slightly out of touch, given her vast financial advantage.

    That being said, Rosen’s statement was boneheaded and dripping with contempt. And she is a part-time advisor and member of the DNC. If what she said was no big deal, i don’t think David Axelrod would have fallen all over himself tweeting his condemnation of her words. And most especially after candidate Obama made such a big deal out of declaring his own wife off limits for criticism back in 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZHIVSI1Bh8

  22. @Censored bybvbl

    Funny how the silver spoon people always feel that they have done it all on their own.

    I would love to have been born as rich as Romney. I don’t begrudge him even. He doesn’t have to be poor to run for president. No one poor can even get elected.

  23. Censored bybvbl

    I think the entire issue is being blown up by Romney and the Republicans so that they can say, “See. We aren’t women-haters. We care about women. My wife tells me the economy is most important to women.”

    Sure the economy is important, but if you’re always barefoot and pregnant, you’re job opportunities and financial security are iffy. The micro-economy for you will suck.

  24. Elena

    The Earth has stopped spinning on its axis, Emma and I mostly agree.

    Rosen presented her first point in most inarticulate manner. Her follow up explanation is absolutely correct and I wish she had started there as opposed to saying Ann Romney never worked a day in her life.

    The real problem for Mitt is that he does not connect to the average woman, and I would add his wife probably does not either.

    France has an amazing child care system and maternity leave. Most women work in France and put their children in wonderful daycare subsidized by the government.

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92116914

  25. Elena

    Moon,
    I think we actually mostly agree! I just know I immediately felt defensive about moms who stay home don’t work. I figure if people pay for childcare then what I do for “free” is still work 😉

    1. I think raising kids is hard work…damn hard work, but it isn’t a career. Ann Romney implied that was a career.

      When some people say ” so and so hasn’t worked a day in their lives” is it implied that they do not work for pay, historically.

      What amazes me is why the Democrats allowed the Republicans to define this debate as a war on women. It isn’t. It is different choices.

      The year I took off I worked hard. I had a pre-schooler, a baby and my husband was recovering from serious surgery. But it wasn’t a career and I didn’t get a paycheck. I guess I feel I am just too old and worked too many miles to get dragged in. I had planned on taking off 2 years but I scurried back after a year because things had changed economically for us. It was my choice. Again, choices. Maybe it wouldn’t have been the right decision for someone else. It was for me.

      There is a flip side to the “guilt trip” that people get put on for having a career. It’s all behind me and my kids didn’t turn out any worse than anyone elses. I am fairly pleased with how they turned out. But doing it wasn’t without lots of gouging. I just don’t particularly care. You don’t after a certain point. If you are doing what you want to do, what other people think doesn’t matter.

      Hopefully the Democrats will get a little smarter. They got sucked in, in my opinion.

      If Romney wants his wife treaated as a civilian, then he needs to keep her cloistered. Actually she is a hard hitter and an asset to his campaign from what I can see. If she is managing an estate with servants, she probably does have some economic experience. I can’t imagine it would be easy to manage a staff. I would feel better if she had come out and addressed those issues.

      Let’s go back to Hillary Clinton, who told us she wasn’t going to stay home and bake cookies. Imagine in 1992 people expected her to just do that. UFB.

  26. punchak

    @Moon-howler
    Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle –
    I don’t really think you would have LOVED to be as
    rich as Romney. What would you have done with the money?
    Would you NOT have wanted to work?

    Of course, you would have made an excellent girl scout leader, I’m sure.
    That’s what I did for 6 years. The working mothers were delighted that
    the girls had a troop but, of course, because they worked, they just did
    not have the time to go along on a weekend camping trip.

    1. I would love to have the Romney’s money. Would I work? Hell if I know. I think I would probably define work differnt that I do now.

  27. George S. Harris

    @Moon-howler
    I’m with you Moon! It must be tough to be a millionaire’s wife–trying to figure out if it will be Berdoff-Goodman’s, Dior, Chanel or just what will I do today.

  28. kelly_3406

    It appears that stereotyping is on full display in this discussion. I found Ann Romney’s bio and it appears that she is not quite as sheltered as one might think. She is the director of Best Friends, which provides educational and service opportunities for inner city girls. She is a volunteer instructor for Mother Caroline Academy that serves middle-school girls from inner city Boston. She is also on the Board of United Way and was diagnosed with MS in 1998.

    I am not a big fan of the Romneys, but they do appear to be very generous with their time and money.

  29. Morris Davis

    George S. Harris :@Moon-howler I’m with you Moon! It must be tough to be a millionaire’s wife–trying to figure out if it will be Berdoff-Goodman’s, Dior, Chanel or just what will I do today.

    Or which of the Cadillacs to have the help bring down on the car elevator at the La Jolla mansion. That’s got to bejust like the moms that have to choose between food, rent or the power bill.

  30. @kelly_3406

    None of those things are careers. They are volunteer slots. Good for her for doing those things. Buyt they aren’t jobs like you or I would go to each day.

    As for having MS, yes she does have MS. It, also, isn’t a career.

    Unlike you, I do like Ann Romney. I just don’t think she is an economics expert. On the other hand, I don’t think she needs to be.

    The bottom line is, Hilary Rosen doesn’t speak for the Obama campaign.

  31. punchak

    Happened to catch Piers Morgan interviewing one of the Romney boys tonight.
    He looked Piers straight in the eyes and said that, by gosh, they didn’t have any help at home except for a woman who came once a week. Morgan told him that he found that very strange and asked the “boy” again. Oh, yes indeed, no help for the mom.

    He had a smile plasstered on the whole time. Anybody believe him?

  32. marinm

    Good for the President. He scored points in my book.

    “There is no tougher job than being a mom,” President Obama told a Cedar Rapids television station, mentioning his own wife and mother. He added, “I don’t have a lot of patience for commentary about the spouses of political candidates. My general view is those of us who are in the public life, we’re fair game. Our families are civilians.”

    Now, having said that I told my wife to get back in the kitchen and make me a pie. Daddy’s hungry!! 😉

  33. Hilary Rosen misspoke. You really don’t say that about anyone…that someone hasn’t worked a day in their life. It was meant to be dismissive.

    On the other hand, being a mother isn’t a career choice. Mrs. Romney and Hilary Rosen really need to have communication skills that reflect today’s times.

    As long as motherhood is described as a career choice, women will have a problem. Has anyone ever heard of fatherhood being a career choice? Didn’t think so.

    I get uncomfortable when what I thought were established practices still seem to be on a collision course, like contraception and working women.

    I thought I had long gotten over having to defend the fact that I didn’t throw my kids to the dogs. Now I am not so sure that fight is even over. It really should be.

  34. @punchak

    No, I don’t believe him for a minute. If she didn’t have help with 5 boys, being filthy rich, she is a fool. Just the 5 boys would do it for me.

  35. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Oh, I see the problem….the Romney’s drive Cadillacs. And they have more than one. Say, that reminds me: Debbie Wasserman-Shultz announced from her padded cell:
    “If it were up to the candidates for president on the Republican side, we would be driving foreign cars; they would have let the auto industry in America go down the tubes.”
    …..and when they occasionally let Shultz out of her cell to gather bugs for nutrition, she drives….an Infiniti!!! The Democratic Party is so cool! Unless of course you actually pay attention.

  36. Goodbye taxpayer money

    Hey Mama, is it true what they say,
    that Papa never worked a day in his life?
    And Mama, bad talk going around town
    saying that Papa had three outside children and another wife.
    And that ain’t right.
    HEARD SOME talk about Papa doing some store front preaching.
    Talking about saving souls and all the time leeching.
    Dealing in debt and stealing in the name of the Lord.

    Mama just hung her head and said,
    “Papa was a rolling stone, my son.
    Wherever he laid his hat was his home.
    (And when he died) All he left us was ALONE.”
    “Hey, Papa was a rolling stone.
    Wherever he laid his hat was his home.
    (And when he died) All he left us was ALONE.”

    So according to Moon’s definition of the phrase “never worked a day in their life” means Poppa just didn’t work for pay because he was rich and didn’t have to work? I always heard that song and thought that Poppa was a lazy SOB who stepped out on Momma. I don’t see that Poppa and Ann Romney have much in common.

    I am sure Rosen took her phrase from the Mommy Wars handbook and now regrets her choice of words. There are better ways to say that Ann was never a working middle class mom juggling kids and a job.

    Mormons typically value a wife’s industrious attitude and domestic work ethic. Farming kids out to a sitter, eating bon-bons and drinking champagne with lady friends at the country club would be highly frowned upon in the Mormon church. In fact Mormons typically don’t use outsiders to care for their children even if they are able to afford it. The closest most would come would be a relative or a teenaged Mormon girl coming over as a mother’s helper. Think of Italian mothers, even the wealthy ones didn’t use nannies or let someone else make their sauce because it would have been frowned upon.

  37. Emma

    “I thought I had long gotten over having to defend the fact that I didn’t throw my kids to the dogs. Now I am not so sure that fight is even over. It really should be.”@Moon-howler

    That fight will never be over, Moon, because it’s almost always women who perpetuate it.

  38. Blue

    @SlowpokeRodriguez

    With all credits for influence to the appropriately named Best Little Whorehouse in Texa;….

    Yesiree… anouncing a pointin out the Repub war on women is sure a fait complee. No need to look at accomplishments or failure you can’t you see. The defict is a growing and Ryan will cut your tea, health care, medicare and god forbid if your a teacher or a federal retireee. I voted once for hope and change but now even I can see that I still have that hope and need for change cause you keep wantin to take more of it from me. Now, Miss Hilary, I don’t know her, though I’ve heard the name, oh yes. Of course I’ve no close contact, so what she is doing I can only guess. And now, Miss Hilary, she’s a blemish on the face of this good town. I am taking certain steps here, someone somewhere’s gonna have to close her down.

    Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don’t-
    I’ve come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
    cut a little swathe and lead the people on.

  39. Elena

    George!

    Your energy must rebounding, that is wonderful! Keep the fiestiness comin’ 😉

  40. @Emma

    I don’t disagree that it is women who perpetuate it. Men reap the benefits and know to keep their mouths shut. I thought my husband was going to go into a state of depression when I retired. He tried his best to talk me out of it.

    Oddly enough, I went around for a year being ashamed of the fact that my lazy ass wasn’t at work. That’s how programmed I was. On the other end of it though, my kids were long since grown.

  41. @Blue

    I am not sure what you are trying to say. I hope you realize that the ‘war on women’ is a serious issue and will continue to hurt those who are doing it. Any attempt to restrict rights, especially reproductive rights of women will be challenged.

  42. @Goodbye taxpayer money

    It could also be laziness. It could be didn’t need to work. Or…news flash, it could be both.

    Mormons certainly don’t have a problem letting their girls go across the United States to become nannies. IN fact, those in the nanny hiring business prefer Mormon girls.

    But we digress. I don’t know how very wealthy Mormons live. All I know is how middle class ones live. I never thought the Romneys were strict Mormons but I feel certain the champaign would be frowned upon, unless Mormons have changed alot recently.

  43. Clinton S. Long

    You know what I think is odd? Everyone is judging Mrs. Romney because she drives a Cadillac and shops in expensive places.

    Well, since 3 of her kids were born before Mr. Romney joined Bain (as an employed consultant not as a wealthy principal) and one was born the first year after he joined Bain and the last a couple of years later, she probably had to juggle a great many economic challenges as she was raising her children. One does not automatically become rich the moment they are just starting out in business.

    They chose to have her become a stay-at-home mom, just as my wife and I did. I can assure you it wasn’t easy to live on one salary. My wife and I thought it was best as long as we could live day to day and she would not enter the workplace unless we absolutely had to. She never did even though it was hard.

    So, my point is that people shouldn’t judge the experience of one unless they recognize that their condition may have been vastly different than their condition is today.

    Sure, it was over 20 years ago for the experience but if one takes that attitude then no women over 40 is competent to understand economics facing young couples with kids.

    1. I think it is odd that you think everyone thinks that, Clinton. Good to see you but you might want to read back.

      Secondly, Mitt Romney was born wealthy. That still doesn’t mean anyone expects his wife to put on her gray business suit and go out the door to work.

  44. Clinton S. Long

    Sorry, but I have read all the way back and I see a lot of references to being wealthy when she was raising the boys, including your own comment about about “If she didn’t have help with 5 boys, being filthy rich, she is a fool.”

    I am not sure that is true that she was “filthy rich” at the time, which is all I was saying.

    Because someone might be “born wealthy” doesn’t mean that dad or mom share their wealth for everyday living. Mine didn’t even though they were much better off than I ever hope to be. I am not even sure if they paid for the educations–I know I paid for my own (even worked from age 14 to pay tuition to a private high school because I wanted to go there). It was how I was taught responsibility for my own path.

    1. @Clinton

      But did anyone say anything was wrong with being filty rich? It is simply an expression and I an not going to start weighing by words and walking on egg shells on my own blog.

      Let’s look at the reality….do you think Mrs. Romney went out and hopped on the lawn mower? Do you think she ironed her own clothers when she was in the governor’s mansion? What is it that you really want to say?

  45. Clinton S. Long

    By the way, this sure makes it sound like there was nothing but wealth in the Romney family–

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/opinion/brooks-the-wealth-issue.html

  46. Morris Davis

    Clinton S. Long :Sorry, but I have read all the way back and I see a lot of references to being wealthy when she was raising the boys, including your own comment about about “If she didn’t have help with 5 boys, being filthy rich, she is a fool.”
    I am not sure that is true that she was “filthy rich” at the time, which is all I was saying.
    Because someone might be “born wealthy” doesn’t mean that dad or mom share their wealth for everyday living. Mine didn’t even though they were much better off than I ever hope to be. I am not even sure if they paid for the educations–I know I paid for my own (even worked from age 14 to pay tuition to a private high school because I wanted to go there). It was how I was taught responsibility for my own path.

    By the time Mitt and Ann got married in 1969 George Romney was a multi-millionaire former CEO and former governor who had just run for president and was then serving as Nixon’s HUD Secretary. So to the extent other young mothers found themselves raising children and pondering budget decisions in the same family environment then there is a common understanding and empathy for what ordinary Americans face. Many families pause to consider whether they should splurge and buy a happy meal at McDonald’s when a very few wouldn’t have to think long about whether they could buy a chain of McDonald’s, and there is a difference in those perspectives.

  47. Elena

    Had Hilary Rosen said everything but “she has never worked a day in her life” we would not be discussing this topic. Everything Rosen stated after that was absolutely correct. I would add, that what she was really addressing was the discrepency in life experience for women that must work to support their children.

    The number one group of people in poverty are single mothers with children. The question is HOW is Mitt Romney going to help THOSE women. I don’t see any of his policies addressing those struggling moms and children. Ann Romney, just by virtue of being a woman, holds no authority over how to fix these problems, that is the point.

  48. Clinton S. Long

    Morris Davis :

    Clinton S. Long :Sorry, but I have read all the way back and I see a lot of references to being wealthy when she was raising the boys, including your own comment about about “If she didn’t have help with 5 boys, being filthy rich, she is a fool.”
    I am not sure that is true that she was “filthy rich” at the time, which is all I was saying.
    Because someone might be “born wealthy” doesn’t mean that dad or mom share their wealth for everyday living. Mine didn’t even though they were much better off than I ever hope to be. I am not even sure if they paid for the educations–I know I paid for my own (even worked from age 14 to pay tuition to a private high school because I wanted to go there). It was how I was taught responsibility for my own path.

    By the time Mitt and Ann got married in 1969 George Romney was a multi-millionaire former CEO and former governor who had just run for president and was then serving as Nixon’s HUD Secretary. So to the extent other young mothers found themselves raising children and pondering budget decisions in the same family environment then there is a common understanding and empathy for what ordinary Americans face. Many families pause to consider whether they should splurge and buy a happy meal at McDonald’s when a very few wouldn’t have to think long about whether they could buy a chain of McDonald’s, and there is a difference in those perspectives.

    And you know for a fact that George Romney, regardless of his situation helped them?

    I don’t.

    Not every parent does. They prefer to let the younger one be responsible for their own situation.

    He may have, but I don’t know that and I can’t make that assumption either.

  49. Clinton S. Long

    It is how responsibility is passed down from generation to generation.

    1. So is this dignity for everyone but the Romneys?

      My only gripe with any of it is that Mrs. Romeny didn’t address what was said. She turned it in to some slam against women who don’t work outside the home. That really isn’t what it is all about. Rosen’s point was about who should be advising Romney about the economic issues facing women today. Mrs. Romney really hasn’t been there.

      Any other discussions that flowed out of the original remarks was simply distractor. Too bad the Democrats fell for it. Mrs. Romney 1 Democrats 0.

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