Guess What! Stay-at-home Moms DO Understand the Economy!

Hilary Rosen’s attack of Ann Romney on CNN Wednesday night was in a word, appalling.  Her apology lacked sincerity and smacked of a sort of ‘I’m still right about what I said.’  My wife is a stay at home mom and has been for almost our entire marriage.  We have seven children and we make many sacrifices by being a one income household.  In all our years of marriage, whenever I am asked if my wife works, my reply has been “harder than I do – she stays home with our children.”  Not once in 18 years have I ever heard anyone reply with the undertones I heard in Rosen’s apparent disdain of stay at home mothers.  Interestingly, Rosen was hired by the Democratic National Committee to coach unbridled speakers such as Debbie Wasserman-Shultz who are known for making faux pa’s while speaking in public. 

CNN brought Rosen back today for a chance to redeem herself.  She said (and I paraphrase) that she respects Ann Romney, and she might have had a choice to be a stay at home mom but some waitress in Nevada with two kids doesn’t have a choice to be a stay at home mom and the Romney-Ryan budget is cutting funding to her kid’s daycare.  I’d like to break that statement down a little bit.

First:  deflection.  She squarely and intentionally attacked Ann Romney in her first set of comments.  The spirit of her statement had nothing to do with the plight of women who can't be stay at home moms.  After the rest of the DNC and President Obama distanced themselves from her, she was left clawing at the air.  It was sort of like running out into Times Square naked and yelling – hey, look over there!  I think a real, heartfelt apology would have been a little more appropriate than throwing off on some hypothetical single mom waitress.

Second:  the choice to be a stay at home mom is a sacred decision to be made by moms without any sort of political or social pressure.  The Left repeatedly accuses the Right of waging “war on women.”  Taking a swipe at stay at home moms is…not an attack on women?  What was illustrated in Rosen’s tirade is the Left’s drive to attack anyone and anything that does not follow their ideology.  It seems to me they might have been a little bit misguided this time!  I think the proof of this is the amount of distance and disagreement from the mainstream Left. 

Third: what Romney-Ryan budget?  This administration has now gone over 1,000 days without a budget.  In its first two years it enjoyed full control of both the House and the Senate.  They got the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) passed.  The President has handed down several Executive Orders that could be considered an overstep of his executive authority.  But they never actually got around to passing an actual budget.  But somehow, Rosen’s hypothetical waitress is losing her childcare entitlement because of a Romney-Ryan budget.  Really?

The best set of comments I heard about Rosen came from President Obama.  He said “candidates' families should be off-limits in campaigns:"I don't have a lot of patience for commentary about the spouses of political candidates.”  I think I may have just found one of the few things Mr. Obama has said that I can agree with.

As always, your comments are welcomed!