Hilary Rosen, a partner at the public relations firm SKDKnickerbocker, said Ann Romney "has never actually worked a day in her life" in response to a question about the "war on women" during a Wednesday Anderson Cooper panel:
ANDERSON COOPER: To the Romney campaign’s point, they say they’re focusing on the economy, and that’s what women say they overwhelmingly care about right now in poll after poll. And whether it’s a typical pattern or not, women are seeing jobs come back much more slowly than men are. Is there anything really wrong then, on reaching out to women on an issue that they care about, on the economy?
HILARY ROSEN: Well, first, can we just get rid of this word, "war on women"? The Obama campaign does not use it, President Obama does not use it—this is something that the Republicans are accusing people of using, but they’re actually the ones spreading it. With respect to economic issues, I think actually that Mitt Romney’s right, that ultimately, women care more about the economic well-being of their families and the like. But he doesn’t connect on that issue either. What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country saying, "Well, my wife tells me what women really care about are economic issues." And, "When I listen to my wife, that’s what I’m hearing." Guess what? His wife has never actually worked a day in her life. She’s never really dealt with the 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—why we worry about their future. So I think it’s, yes, it’s about these positions, and yes there will be a war of words about the positions, but there’s something much more fundamental about Mitt Romney—he just 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.