Rosen probably meant well when she criticized Mrs. Romney, but said it quite badly. There is a fairly sharp divide between people (men and women, stay-at-homes and corner-office types, etc) who have sufficient wealth, health care, peer approval and support, etc to deal with the difficulties of life in a proactive fashion and those who lack enough of the tools and resources and, thus, spend their lives reacting to crises, e.g., facing bankruptcy because they didn't have an adequate health insurance plan, then failing to get a job because of the poor credit rating from the bankruptcy, etc, etc, etc.
No matter how much effort Mrs. Romney may have exerted in tending her children, preparing meals, etc, I'll wager she's never kept the baby's milk on a windowsill because the fridge is broken, has never crouched behind the sofa with the kids to keep the bill collector from seeing them through the window, or never found herself buying a loaf of day-old bread and a jar of generic peanut butter because it's the 28th of the month and she has only $4 for food.
Cornell West and Tavis Smiley have written a book
The Rich and the Rest of Us about this divide. (Before the usual gang of apologists bother posting that Blacks deserve being poor because they have poor work habits and hoodies, West and Smiley point out that this problem is widespread in White communities as well). According to West and Smiley, almost half of all Americans are
touched by poverty. Not in poverty, but touched by it. Thus, parents thinking their retirement reasonably secured, find it threatened when they take a second mortgage on their home to pay for chemo for their grandson with leukemia (Again, before commenting that such people can go to emergency rooms, try getting chemo there).
Mrs. Romney seems a decent sort, certainly more human than Mr. Romney. I think she should not be subject to criticism (spouses really should be off limits). Ms. Rosen should put a sock in it.
