The prevailing wind on the left is blowing against mothers who stay at home to raise their children.
Maher was discussing the controversy surrounding Democratic strategist Rosen’s remark last week that GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney’s wife has “never worked a day in her life” on his HBO show “Real Time” Friday night, describing the uproar as “stupid” and “non-consequential.”
“But what she meant to say, I think, was that Ann Romney has never gotten her ass out of the house to work,” he joked. “No one is denying that being a mother is a tough job, I remember that I was a handful. OK, but there is a big difference in being a mother, and that tough job, and getting your ass out of the door at 7 a.m. when it’s cold, having to deal with the boss, being in a workplace, where even if you’re unhappy you can’t show it for 8 hours.”
The old “what he/she/I meant to say” defense. What Rosen actually said was that Ann Romney, mother of five, cancer survivor and MS sufferer, “never worked a day in her life.”
The commentator and comedian has been a public supporter of Obama, donating $1 million to the super-PAC supporting the president’s reelection. Republicans have slammed Maher for earlier comments and called on Obama to reject his political donation.
So that’s four figures on the Democrat left inveighing against stay at home moms: Hillary Clinton in 1992, and Hilary Rosen, NOW president Terry O’Neill and Bill Maher now. Through this latest round, the most the president could lift himself to do is offer half-hearted praise for Ann Romney and not even name Hilary Rosen when obliquely criticizing what she said. Obama can’t afford for this story to stay in the headlines, yet can’t afford to alienate his base by distancing himself from Bill Maher. And Obama’s own comment about stay at home motherhood being a “luxury” gave away his own attitude anyway. Obama agrees on the essentials with Bill Maher and Hilary Rosen.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, as they say.
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