Thank you, Hilary Rosen. Until you unwittingly spit in the face of women who chose the career path that you and I didn't, I had no idea who Ann Romney was or how much I like her.
If you thought by belittling another woman for the life choice she made that you could drive other women to vote Democratic, you blew it. You turned into a kind of reverse Sarah Palin.
But I want to thank you.
Seeing the wife of the GOP presidential front-runner on Fox News Thursday defend her decision to be a stay-at-home mom so she could raise her five sons, well ... I virtually jumped up from my desk, fist-pumped and whooped and cheered like a groupie. Ann Romney wasn't apologetic. She wasn't self-demeaning. She was a strong, self-confident woman who had made a choice in her life and that was that. Take it or leave it.
Now, I've got to be honest. I don't think what Hilary Rosen said Wednesday on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" is the most outrageous thing I've ever heard. Far from it. But it gave me pause to think more deeply about the choices women make in their lives, how they handle them, and why -- nearly 50 years later -- feminism is still a pervasive part of my consciousness.
Here's what went wrong for Democratic political strategist Rosen. Talking about the difficulties of women in a continued difficult economy, Rosen told Cooper this: "Guess what, (Mitt Romneys) wife has actually never worked a day in her life." It's a comment that received bipartisan criticism, as well as criticism from the Obama campaign staff and top Democratic strategists.
Rosen apologized fairly soon thereafter. But not before she fanned the flames: "This isn't about whether Ann Romney or I or other women of means can afford to make a choice to stay home and raise kids. Most women in America, let's face it, don't have that choice. And that's the piece I'm not hearing from the Romney camp. Instead, everybody's attacking me, that's fine, attack me. But that does not erase his woeful record on this issue."
It was not just sanctimonious, condescending and out-and-out wrong for Rosen to assert that Romney, who had her hands full with a houseful of kids, has "never worked a day in her life." Raising children is a ton of work. And forgive me for saying, but I'd assign the job she was doing more value than, say, lobbying for the music industry or helping BP with its crisis communications -- two of the biggees on Rosen's resume.
Interestingly, Obama advisers chose Rosen to take on Ann Romney. They feared Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz would be too shrill for the job. They were probably right. They just had no idea their alternative plan was going to backfire louder than a 1971 Datsun.
This is almost a personal story for me. I had five stepsons and two stepdaughters and guess what? They pretty much raised themselves. I was out there like Rosen, I was working and "dealing with economic issues," Hilary Rosen-style. That meant I brought money home, it didn't mean I had a better understanding of economic issues or my children than Ann Romney -- or my own mother, who didn't work outside the home a day in her married life.
Fifty years ago, Ann Romney's life would have made her just a regular woman. As Jackie Kennedy's and other first ladies' did in their day -- until Hillary Clinton came along.
Today, Romney is somehow an anomaly. She is someone who lives in a way that the dominant culture regards with a hostile disdain. The really impressive part is that she's chosen to live as she does and whether she becomes a first lady or returns to "civilian life," she's comfortable in her own skin. She has chosen to live that way.
Thanks, Hilary Rosen, for the minor dust-up. For a lot of us, I think, you got our attention. We know and appreciate Ann Romney now.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
