Bill Maher: "I think Rosen meant that Ann Romney's never gotten her ass out of the house to work"

[Better Believe It]

Maher on Rosengate: "I Think What She Meant Was That Romney's Never Gotten Her A** Out of the House to Work"
By Lauren Kelley
April 14, 2012

On last night's episode of Real Time, Bill Maher took on Hilary Rosengate -- the ongoing saga over Rosen's comment that Ann Romney had "never worked a day in her life," Romney's subsequent baiting of stay at home moms, and the ensuing national discourse over what constitutes "work" for a mother. Everything about the kerfuffle is unfortunate.

Maher starts the conversation off by talking about candidate Romney's massive women voter problem -- his favorability rating among women is a scant 30%, compared to 47% for John McCain. "Why don't girls like Mitt Romney?" asks Maher, semi-sarcastically. The answer, of course, is that Romney supports rolling back women's and reproductive rights. For help understanding women's issues, he's turned to his wife.

Maher's panelists -- former Canadian PM Kim Campbell, Reagan-era budget director David Stockman, and conservative journalist Matthew Continetti -- discuss Romney's backwards views for a while before they get around to Rosengate. Quote Maher, "No one's denying that being a mother is a tough job...but there is a big difference between being a mother in that rough job, and getting your ass out the door at 7am when it's cold, having to deal with a boss, being unhappy at a workplace where even if you're unhappy you can't show it for 8 hours." Indeed, but even more important here is the class issue:

Ann Romney doesn't understand "work," as defined by lower income of American women, because she is not impacted the same way by the costs of healthcare, childcare, unpaid time spent on maternity leave, and food, to name just a few things.

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/880921/maher_on_rosengate%3A_%22i_think_what_she_meant_was_that_romney%27s_never_gotten_her_a%2A%2A_out_of_the_house_to_work%22/#paragraph3

[JohnnyRingo]

1. I wish Rosen used this as a clarification

...Instead of profusely apologizing.

She could have contrasted Ann Romney's life with that of 90% of women who are forced to work at least part time while they raise children, often with the help of grandparents.. Ann Romney is not devoted, she's privileged.

[Honeycombe8]

2. True! nt

[lunatica]

10. She did

I saw it on MSNBC but now I can't remember where. She apologized and then laid out what she said again. Everyone has ignored what she said right after she said Ann had never worked a day in her life.

[K Gardner]

12. ROFL.. how true ! nt

[eridani]

3. Romney never worked in her house either

Ordering servants around is not work.

[Better Believe It]

4. Very true. They have three houses. You need a big staff to do the housekeeping, gardening, etc.,

[DallasNE]

5. This Is A Classic Case Of Things Being Taken Out Of Context

Rosen actually clarified in her following sentence what she meant by that statement. The issue never was about whether women that choose to stay home and raise the children are working. Of course it is work. Rosen clarified that by saying that Ann Romney's background does not make her a good spokesperson for what women in the workplace face with balancing work outside the some with being a homemaker while balancing the budget. Living a life of priviledge with a housekeepper/nanny just isn't the same thing. I think we can all agree on that.

[lunatica]

11. What she said was totally ignored, but then how could the Romney campaign use it?

Don't you love election years?

[livingonearth]

6. You know you're a working parent when...

-you have to call your boss and beg for the day off because your kids are sick.

-you have to beg for an early out because the school has called that your kid is sick.

-you go to work dead tired because you've been up all night with a sick kid.

-you have to work instead of staying home with your kids because staying at home won't pay the bills.

-your parenting choices are limited by your income.


A lot of times it takes two incomes to live. It's not always a choice.

[LibDemAlways]

7. The whole thing was clumsy. Rosen should

never have said that Romney never worked. So much better if she had said Romney never worked for pay outside the home - because she didn't have to. Then she should have added that the vast majority of women are not so fortunate.

[JHB]

8. Clumsy is irrelevant here

This is a manufactured controversy, deliberately distorting what Rosen - a peripheral figure whose characterization as an 'advisor' is stretched past the breaking point - said in order to engage in a great display of hypocritical outrage. Anything to deflect attention to the constant higher-level stream of batshit spraying from Republicans.

[DallasNE]

13. Here Is The Full Quote

What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country saying, well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues, and when I listen to my wife, that's what I am hearing. Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life.

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 how do we worry - and why we worry about their future. I think, yes, it's about these positions and, yes, I think there will be a war of words about the positions.

She said what she should have said. Yes, her sentence to set up her main point (in bold) was poorly said but her main point was spot on.

[SemperEadem]

15. Rosen absolutely should have said what she did

because it is true. romney has never hauled her ass out of bed at the butt-crack of dawn to get her boys up, fed and off to school so she could go to work at her two crappy paying TAXABLE-INCOME jobs with no health benefits that she has to work or else the state swoops in and takes her children from her and charges her with neglect. And she fires back with the ultimate non sequitur "I chose motherhood"--well so did all of those working moms you have absolutely nothing in common with nor can you relate to their experience. The only thing she has in common with those moms is that she got pregnant, carried to term and delivered the child. That's where it begins and ends.

Even romney himself believes women "who chose motherhood" with children as young as 2 should be forced into the workplace if they want federal assistance.

what all of this squawking is about is the thugs, who are losing/have lost the independent and moderate repubican women voter, have found something to latch onto and suck hard on: a "Dem/Obama strategist" is "attacking motherhood", when in the same week, Pete Hoesktra said that the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is, and I quote: " a nuisance": http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=21923

Clumsy is watching the thugs fall over themselves trying to fool women into thinking that they're not waging war on them.

[LoisB]

9. A non issue

I don't know any woman who doesn't understand the difference between "working" at home having hired "help"; working at home with NO help; and working both outside and inside the home. No woman doesn't understand the difference between choosing to work outside the home and working outside the home because you HAVE NO CHOICE.

[harun]

14. Never underestimate the Corporate Media's attachment to any non-issue they can get their

hands on.

[GrandmaMom]

16. I've Done Both - Working Moms Not a Liberal/Conservative Issue

I don't appreciate the negative comments from either side on this issue. By and large, we all have choices and we have to take responsibility for the choices we make.

We all come with different likes, dislikes and skill sets. What works for one person might not work for another. But it makes no difference whether you're a single mom with kids or married with kids. You do what you have to do to make ends meet without whining and crying about it. It's no one else's responsibility to take care of you.

I've done both; and both are hard work. When I stayed at home when my kids were pre-schoolers we were BROKE, but boy my house was spotless and our clothes were ironed! I took care of everything so my husband could work a full and part-time job to support us. Working outside the home makes the days much longer, and the house only gets vacuumed on Saturday mornings. Neither one is less valuable than the other. It only matters that you are a good mom.

It is completely hypocritical to chastise Ann Romney, when in the last election, Sarah Palin was chastised for working with a young child.

[TBF]

17. Sarah Palin was not chastised for working with a young child -

although folks did remark on her tendency to parade the children in front of a camera.

The point is not that one is less valuable than the other (I have done it both ways as well), it is that Ann Romney is not one to relate to working class women when she is hiring those same women to take care of her house and children for her. At her income level "the choices we make" are much, much easier (and I know that from experience as well, living at a few different income levels).

[spanone]

18. it's a media fabrication, nothing more.