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Ann Romney joins Twitter, defends herself in first dispatch

Ann Romney joins Twitter

Ann Romney joins Twitter
By Jillian Eugenios

Update 4/12 at 2 p.m. ET:

“My

career choice was to be a mother,” Ann Romney said late Thursday morning, addressing the controversy she waded into Wednesday

with her first-ever tweet. “I think all of us need to know that we need to respect choices that women make. Other women make

other choices to have a career and a raise family, which Hilary Rosen has done herself. I respect that. That’s

wonderful.”

Ann kicked off the discussion with Martha MacCallum on Fox News by mentioning that Hilary Rosen, the

Democratic strategist who said she has “never worked a day in her life” should’ve come to her house when “those five boys

were causing so much trouble. It wasn’t so easy.”

 

Rosen has since apologized in

a statement.

MacCallum mentioned a tweet from one of those sons, Josh Romney, who waded into the controversy

yesterday by tweeting that his mom is smart and hardworking, and could’ve done anything but chose to stay home and raise

him.

She went on to mention that Mitt has told her on many occasions that her job has always been more important than

his. “He would say, ‘My job is temporary. These things come and go but your job is a forever job that will bring forever

happiness.’”

 

One of Rosen’s criticisms of the Romney campaign is that Mitt Romney gets his information

about women and their struggles with the economy from his wife alone. Ann said this wasn’t the case, and that Mitt “listens

to a lot of different women…You should see how many women he listens to, and that’s what I love about Mitt. He has so many

women in his circle.”

“Look, I know what it’s like to struggle,” Ann said in response to criticism that she can’t

relate to women who don’t have a choice in whether to work or not. “If maybe I haven’t struggled as much as some people

have, I can tell you and promise you that I’ve had struggles in my life. I would love to have people understand that Mitt and

I have compassion for people who are struggling and that’s why we’re running.” Mrs. Romney has often discussed her struggles

with breast cancer and multiple sclerosis in public, and has said that if she becomes first lady she will work towards

finding a cure for breast cancer.

Mrs. Romney went on to say that she was happy that the controversy has spurred

discussion. She said, “I’m grateful for this opportunity to let women know that this is a very important

election.”

Original post:
Ann Romney joined Twitter Wednesday (handle: @AnnDRomney) and used her

very first tweet to take a stand.

Romney responded to criticism lobbed against her that she is unqualified to speak

about economic issues facing American women because she has “never worked a day in her life.”

The comment came from

Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, who spoke on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” yesterday. She said, “Guess what, (Mitt

Romney’s) 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.”

Ann Romney responded with her new Twitter account, which

describes her as “Mom of five boys. Grandmother of 16. Out campaigning for @MittRomney. #Mitt2012.” She tweeted, “I made a

choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.”

 

Within two hours of establishing

the account (which has since been verified by Twitter), she had garnered over 5,000 followers. By Thursday morning, she had

more than 14,000.

Later Thursday, Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) tweeted a response to the controversy:

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