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Obama denounces criticism of Ann Romney
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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, hug during a victory rally in Schaumburg, Ill.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
The White House — and President Barack Obama himself — rushed into a damage-control campaign Thursday to blunt the impact of a Democratic consultant’s suggestion that Ann Romney isn’t qualified to discuss the economy because she “hasn’t worked a day in her life.”
“It was the wrong thing to say,” Obama declared, standing up for Republican rival Mitt Romney’s wife with Democrats suddenly on the defensive over women’s issues for the first time this election year.
Obama, in an interview with WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio, also called the “ill-advised statement” by consultant Hilary Rosen “not something that I subscribe to.”
“Moreover, my general rule is you don’t talk about the spouses of elected officials because they have a really tough job. They’re out there supporting their husband or wife who has chosen to serve in the public eye. I think they’re off-limits.”
Earlier, in an interview with Cedar Rapids, Iowa, TV station KCRG, the president said, “There’s no tougher job than being a mom,” and cited the efforts of his wife, Michelle, and his own mother, a single woman with two children.
“That’s work,” he said. “So, anybody who would argue otherwise probably needs to rethink their statement.”
The president’s remarks were his answer to Rosen’s comments and the Twitter war they ignited. The mere fact that he weighed in on the uproar left no doubt that Democrats want to leave nothing to chance in their effort to keep female voters in the party fold. Women, who are the majority of voters in presidential election years, lean heavily Democratic, and polls show Obama has a commanding lead among this group so far this year in battleground states.
The backlash to Rosen’s comments was bipartisan, brutal and swift, crackling across Twitter, cable television and old-fashioned telephone lines.