Multiple Mitt Romney has been squirming to extricate himself from the disastrous effects of the Republican War on Women. To that end, he has tried to take advantage of a poorly worded statement by Hillary Rosen. Romney says that stay-at-home moms are working women, and I agree. However which Mitt says that? As always, there is another Mitt that says the exact opposite.
In case it wasn’t already clear that last week’s controversy over stay at home moms was entirely manufactured, this should put the question to bed.
Romney and allies cried that Democrats had declared “war on moms” after a Democratic strategist said Romney’s wife hadn’t worked a day in her life. Romney’s camp said this meant Democrats don’t value stay at home moms and motherhood, while they believe that women who stay home are doing real work.
But for every Romney action, there is an equal and opposite Romney reaction, and this morning, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes dug up a video of Romney from just January in which the Republican presidential candidate said he wanted to require women who receive welfare to work outside the home, even if their children are very young. He told a New Hampshire audience:
“I wanted to increase the work requirement,” said Romney. “I said, for instance, that even if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that’s heartless.’ And I said, ‘No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.”
Watch it:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
But this is worse than hypocritical because there is a clear difference here — women who receive welfare benefits, the ones Romney wants to force to work, are poor, while Romney’s wife is very wealthy. And this exactly the point CNN contributor Hillary Rosen was trying to make… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
Now that we have this in context, it appears clear that for Romney, stay-at-home moms are working women, as long as they are rich. The rest of the context here is that Romney said he considers Ann his advisor on women’s issues. I’m sure that Ann is very well versed in the issues important to the women of the 1%, but the needs she faces on a day-to-day basis have nothing in common with those of women who have to work outside the home. Bu picking her to be his advisor on women’s issues, Romney demonstrates just how oblivious he is to 99% of Americans.
13 Responses to “Which Mitt on Working Women?”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
However, the t-pubs will continue to live within their news vacuum where such inconsistencies are never noted. Mr. Etch-a-Sketch is so apt a name.
WELCOME BACK!!! STAY WELL.
Sadly, Marva, you’re right, but we need to educate the rest of America.
Good one, Nameless, and you predicted today’s cartoon.
Welcome back! We missed you! Edie
Thanks Edie.
Now now…. Willard is the best candidate ever. No matter what you like, Willard likes it too. The same goes for whatever you may not like.
He has just positioned himself firmly and irrecoverably on both sides of every issue.
We all know the RepublicanTs don’t need the “dignity” of working for a living.
That dignity is reserved for the poor and middle classes.
Ann Rmoney ≠ Every Woman
Ann Rmoney has had a priviledged life with all the domestic help she wanted or needed. And Rmoney’s comment ‘…but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.”…” is so lame. When I think of dignity, I think of women like my mother who is a hero to me.
My mother was forbidden to work by my father, forbidden to drive, and Lord knows what else. When I was 10 years old, he, my father, took off with another woman and her 4 kids. In the process, he lost his job for that moral failure (This was 1962). My mother, with no recent work experience but secretarial training, had to find a place to live with 2 growing kids, find a job and find a way to cope. And she did. She found a job as a secretary in a highschool, became the senior secretary, and then, without a teaching degree, started teaching typing and shorthand to grade 9 and 10 students. But she still had 2 kids to raise and was not receiving any spousal or child support. Shopping was done with friends after work on friday nights and then they dropped her home. She managed. Eventually she learned to drive and saved for a ’65 candyapple red VW bug which proudly sat in the garage. When an opportunity for more money came along, she changed employment. Eventually, my brother and I grew up and moved out. But mother did not stop there. She moved to BC for a fresh start and by the time she retired, she was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy County Registrar — meaning she signed search warrants, sat bail hearings, etc etc something that in her early life, she never dreamed that she could ever do. Not only did she do all that career stuff, but I think she raised two decent kids, even if I do say so myself. It wasn’t easy and she is far from perfect, but she demonstrated that female ‘can do’ attitude (by the way, it comes in a male version too for all the fathers that find themselves juggling work and child raising as a single parent!).
My mother and men and women like her are the ‘every woman’! Ann Rmoney could not hold a candle to these individuals!
There is no doubt that stay-at-home moms work hard. As a business manager, I have had women come back to work after maternity leave and say they they came back for a rest! But people balancing working in the home (mostly without any domestic help) with working outside the home are so awesome and demand the respect of all.
I think that the Republican/Teabaggers spin machine is hard at work trying to obfiscate the issue by bringing in Ann Rmoney. They appeal to the ‘low-effort’ thinking individuals of society. See the article at http://www.care2.com/news/member/775377582/3207514 (Conservative Politics, ‘Low-Effort’ Thinking Linked In New Study).
And that is where their millions in advertising etc are going. I wonder if the amateurish nature of the ads is just that, to take away from the perception of big money involvement and make them seem more down to earth?
Your mother seems more like “everywoman” than Ann RMoney to me too.
My Mom supplemented my Dad’s meager income by working on my Grandmother’s dairy farm. She did that until I was 16 and then went back to school so she could get a job in an office. Farming is very hard work.
I have nothing against Ann Romney, but there is no way she can relate to what your mom went through, and Mitt is even more oblivious than Ann.