Ann Romney Defends Her Role As Stay Home Mom

Ann Romney is firing back at a Democratic strategist who suggested Wednesday that she has no credibility to speak out on issues concerning women in the workplace because she’s never worked.

Taking to Twitter for the first time, the wife of the presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney declared that her choice to stay home and raise her children over pursuing a career was just as tough, if not tougher, than working at a paid job.

“I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work,” Ann Romney said in response to comments made by Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen.

Romney’s Twitter defense immediately drew more than 5,200 responses, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times, including a number of President Barack Obama’s campaign officials and other Democrats who challenged Rosen’s statement.

See Rosen's comments here:



“I could not disagree with Hilary Rosen any more strongly,” Obama campaign manager Jim Messina wrote in a tweet. “Her comments were wrong and family should be off-limits. She should apologize.”

David Axelrod, Obama’s top political strategist, also weighed in via Twitter, according to the Lost Angeles Times. “Also disappointed in Hilary Rosen’s comments about Ann Romney. They were inappropriate and offensive.”

Rosen made her comments during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday as the Obama and Romney campaigns were trading insults over whose policies would help women in the workplace more. Ann Romney has spoken frequently on the campaign trail in support of her husband’s policies, and the candidate sometimes refers to her as his expert on women’s issues.

“Guess what, his wife has actually never worked a day in her life,” Rosen said during the interview. “She’s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and why do we worry about their future.”

Rosen, who is not involved in the Obama re-election effort, added that Mitt Romney “seems so old-fashioned when it comes to women, and I think that comes across, and I think that’s going to hurt him over the long term. He just doesn’t really see us as equal.”

Rosen refused to back off her comments. But apparently in a tweet directed at Ann Romney, she wrote late Wednesday, “Please know, I admire you. But your husband shouldn’t say you are his expert on women and the economy.”