Now that he has the nomination in his pocket, Mitt Romney is moving his pieces around on the chess board and he decided to lead with his Queen. Ann Romney is a huge asset for the Romney campaign. She's smart and an excellent ad lib speaker. So, he's been bringing her around on his speeches and using her to show that Republicans don't hate women.
Democratic strategists know that Ann is an asset, and they need to neutralize her early on. So, Hillary Rosen, a Democratic strategist, went onto CNN and complained that Romney was using Ann to show that he knows about the economic situations of women. Rosen went on to say that Ann couldn't possibly know anything about work, because she was a stay at home mom who never worked a day in her life.
It was a pretty tone deaf statement. The Obama campaign quickly distanced themselves from her. Rosen apologizes, sort of, well not really. She said that rich people couldn't talk about the plight of working class people. Well, the Obamas are pretty wealthy now. Can they talk about poverty? Can white people talk about Trayvon Martin? Can American women worry about girls in Aftghanistan?
Actually, Rosen's comment is not really worthy of debate. It was clearly an off-the-cuff remark and all the right people have told her to shut up. I am more interested in how political wives are used in campaigns.
UPDATE: My leftie friends on Twitter are digging a bigger and bigger hole for themselves. By defending Rosen, they are alienating a lot of women and actually making the Romney campaign look good. The Obama campaign had the good sense to stay away from this nonsense. See more more from the Washington Post.