and that was hillary rosen accidentally speaking her mind. conservatives immediately went after rosen as did several prominent democrats from loggins and mecina. i guess i am the only one who knows who loggins and mecina is. her comments were wrong and the family should be off limits. she should apologize. interesting looking gentleman. rosen tried to clarify what she meant because he should stop saying that she, his wife, is his guide to women's economic problems. she doesn't have any. isn't it obvious, hash tag 1234* i love the hash tags. and then anne romney herself tweeted for the first time saying, "i made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. believe me. it was hard work" and then there was a lame attempt at bonding by the sheepish rosen. and anne romney, welcome to twitter. you will find it exhilarating and an often unforgiving place. puke. finally thursday they say, i know my words were poorly chosen. i apologize to anne romney and anybody else offended. let's declare peace in this phony war and go baying to focusing on the subst

romney may have gotten a little help from hillary rosen. who is she, a washington political consultant who advises the democratic national committee. rosen has created a firestorm after these comments on ann romney last night. >> 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. his wife has never worked a day in her life. she has never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing. >> nbc news senior political editor mark murray joins me now. and mark, this is an amazing phenomenon with hillary rosen because it shows the power of the twitter sphere and social media. it spread like wildfire. hillary rosen, who no one knew who she was, was trending nationally for a moment last night. talk about this and its impact. this is a real boost for mitt romney here. he can sort of portray the elite democratic limousine liberals out of touch with real work

i don't know hilary rosen, i know three personally, women named hilary rosen and i'm not sure that those represent the person we're talking about necessarily, so i really can't comment on a number of those and i'm not sure that's accurate. >> it sounded a little insulting, don't you think? >> i don't know any other hilary rosens, but jay must. so -- you know, it's politics. it is what it is. >> it's politics one thing for the republicans to be slamming you. obviously that's politics, but for all these democrats that you worked so closely with them over the years to quickly -- >> you know, i think that the modern-day campaign and the swiftness of the charges and the countercharges and the intensity of it is enormously frightening for a campaign professionals and for consultants and candidates alike. you know, everybody's words are parsed so carefully, and you know, i've clearly been on the other side where i've jumped on people's misstatements. so i'm not claiming victim here. so i -- when people go for the corner and their respective corners, i understand it. it's not personal. i hope mr

hillary rosen was right on target. lillian writes from colorado as a disabled mother of three with a husband in his second year of being unemployed, i don't have two cents to offer in this discussion and i don't expect any politician's wife to noaa real american women are going through or have to put up with during these unsettling times diane writes, i bet mrs. romney had mads, nannies and other paid help. raising children is a big job. i raised four. it is much, much easier when you have the money to hire help and have the choice whether to work outside the home or not. mrs. romney had this option. many women have no choice but to do both, raise their kids and work outside the home. sfet lana in california, she is half right which passes to are truth in high-steak politics. working as a mother and raising kids is a task not to be discounted. although hillary rose's doesn't rise to the shame on you. it is dishonorable mention. god knows how many staff that mrs. romney knows what the average woman goes through on a dai

here is what he said. >> hillary rosen, i know three personally women named hillary rosen. so i'm not sure that those represent the person we're talking about necessarily. so i really can't comment on a number of visits. >> i don't know any other hillary rosen but jay must. you know, it's politics. [ laughter ] >> bret: hillary rosen on the logs apparently met with obama. some hillary rosen five of those times. >> let's say there was a third of those times. clearly she has met with him. in business with the former white house communications director anita dunn. she has been advicing the democratic national committee. the game today has been the romney team has tried to make her seem like president obama's top advisor and democrats and some of the media made it seem like she has never had anything to do with the president of the democratic national committee. the reason that there is this fighting, romney is down depending on the poll, eight to 12 points. eight to 12-point gender gap. big deal. if you look historically, republicans, women, majority of women voters in 1980-19

rosen went to the white house 35 times. guess how many times david petraeus has been to the white house? >> greg: three times? >> dana: nine. >> bob: no question that hillary rose than showed up is the same one. but remember, petraeus has only been the c.i.a. director for -- >> kimberly: but why did carney make comments like that? he's a shapeless amoeba. he says things -- >> dana: in the first segment you mentioned it's not a big story. if the president of the united states feels he has to comment on it or is asked about in a local interview he is doing, it's riz on the the level of a pretty big deal. >> bob: for the day, it is. >> kimberly: the president is making comments. do you agree that he said that? good move. he's watching "the five." >> bob: what you are not going to get is more women to vote for the republicans than democrats. it's simple as that. >> eric: michelle obama goes home and says hey, barack, get out there and straight then out now. >> bob: i don't know. what dis your wife tell you when you go home? >>

here is what he said. >> hillary rosen, i know three personally women named hillary rosen. so i'm not sure that those present the person we're talking about necessarily. so i really can't comment on a number of visits. >> i don't know any other hillary rosen but jay must. you know, it's politics. [ laughter ] >> bret: hillary rosen on the logs apparently met with obama. some hillary rosen five of those times. >> let's say there was a third of those times. clearly she has met with him. in business with the former white house communications director anita dunn. she has been advicing the democratic national committee. the game today has been the romney team has tried to make her seem like president obama's top advisor and democrats and some of the media made it seem like she has never had anything to do with the president of the democratic national committee. the reason that there is this fighting, romney is down depending on the poll, eight to 12 points. eight to 12-point gender gap. big deal. if you look historically, republicans, women, majority of women voters in 1980-1984

and hilary rosen knows that, i know that. i think the important thing here is that the policies that mitt romney has desperately been trying to distract attention away from his policy of support for the blunt rubio amendment which would have allowed bosses to decide for their female employees what kinds of access who health care they could get, the fact that his campaign couldn't the other day come out in the support and say whether or not he would have signed the lily leadbetter fair pay acting into law if he were president or vetoed it in the fact that he supports tax policy that would make it much harder for women to be able to balance work and family and make ends meet. they are desperately trying to deflect attention away from that. it the fact that be mitt romney opposes the buffett rule and thinks it's okay and this would be important for women because so many women work for men who make far more than them. the buff fell rule says if you make more than $1 million, then you should pay a higher tax rate than your secreta

name them, jay. >> hillary rosen, hillary rosen and hillary rosen. >> who are they and what are their relationships? hillary rosen did one thing, awoke sleeping giant and bob will dis disagree but a conservative base, mitt romney, i'm not in love. once she took a shot at ann romney, she raised five boys, m.s., breast cancer, every conservative female not sure about the romneys are sure they'll vote for them. >> i'm surprised the president did go that far and not ask her to turn it down from a 9 to a 7. >> first of all, sleeping giant's been awoken by hillary rosen? i doubt it. leaving that aside, what's important is the reason they responded quickly is part of the campaign strategy is to keep romney over as sort of the antiwoman candidate. and romney knows he's way behind on the gender gap. he came out after it was clear he was the nominee and that was his position. this came at an inopportune time. one thing, the advantage they've had is the gender gap. a lot of conservative women will come out and they're not going to vote for obama but i think what obama did was yeah, got rid of he

that is so much more insulting to women voters that anything hilary rosen said. there's a reason that mitt romney has lost the women's vote in every general election that he's ever run. sometimes very substantially. he was creamed by ted kennedy in 1994. and it's because when women get a look at his economic policies, because social issues weren't really an issue in those earlier races because he was still pro choice, they recoil. >> in this case, michelle bernard, i think the social issues are a factor. and my view is, this is a part and parcel of the brand of the gop at present. >> absolutely. >> a couple things i wrote notes about, the whole vaginal probe in virginia issue, the comments on contraception. he said he wants to defund planned parenthood and overturn roe versus wade. those are all matters of substance that are going to affect women. >> absolutely. the reason they are so important and he probably even more important today than they were during the 2008 election, is that they deal with issues of personal liberty that nine out of ten women absolutely

so all of a sudden political turmoil, rosen-get a. anne even started up a twitter account to deal with this. she said i made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. believe me it was hard work. we'll debate that in a second. and then here comes the internet, it exploded. 1500% increase in discussions about stay-at-home moms on twitter, 38,000% increase from the mention of ann romney. and those numbers brought to us by our partners at kripson exgone. and now what is going to happen from the republicans? full back peddle trying to get out of there. here is the strategy for obama's election. i could not disagree with hilary rosen anymore strongly. her comments were wrong, and families should be off limits. she should apologize! axelrod, let me go to axelrod here. also disappointed in hilary rosen's comments about ann romney. back peddle back pedal. and here is jay carney. >> first of all i haven't seen the records, i don't know that hilary rosen -- i know three personally named hilary rosen, so i'm not sure that those represent the pe

so all of a sudden political turmoil, rosen-get a. anne even started up a twitter account to deal with this. she said i made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. believe me it was hard work. we'll debate that in a second. and then here comes the internet it exploded. 1500% increase in discussions about stay-at-home moms on twitter, 38,000% increase from the mention of ann romney. and those numbers brought to us by our partners at kripson exgone. and now what is going to happen from the republicans? full back peddle trying to get out of there. here is the strategy for obama's election. i could not disagree with hilary rosen anymore strongly. her comments were wrong, and families should be off limits. she should apologize! axelrod, let me go to axelrod here. also disappointed in hilary rosen's comments about ann romney. back peddle back pedal. and here is jay carney. >> first of all i haven't seen the records, i don't know that hilary rosen -- i know three personally named hilary rosen, so i'm not sure that those represent the per

contributor hilary rosen on this program last night. the twittersphere erupted after hilary said this about mitt romney's wife last night. >> what you have is mitt romney running around the country saying, well, my wife tells me that 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 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 -- and why do we worry about their future. >> ann romney herself was one of the first to respond on twitter at 10:18 p.m. she fired off what was apparently her first-ever swetw, saying, i made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. believe me, it was hard work. this morning, mrs. romney had more to say on fox news. >> my career choice was to be a mother, and i think all of us need to know that we need to respect choices that women make. othe

i hate to throw hilary rosen under the bus. it has puzzled me that the republicans get all of the poor people to believe that they are all going to be mlk mlk -- millionaires. >> yeah, all right. 58 minutes after the hour back with more fridays with fugelsang on the "stephanie miller show." ♪ >>> welcome back to the "stephanie miller show." once you start talking momny wars -- >> do we have celebrity stats coming up too? >> yeah. >> and marcus bachmann is still practicing ex-gay therapy. >> fabulous. >> he is going to keep doing it until it work. so lots to get to in the meantime real news with jacki schechner in the current news center. >> good morning, everyone. we'll start with news of new york mayor cory booker who ran into a burning building last night to save a woman. he got home from a tv appearance, and noticed the building next door to his was on fire. a member of his security team saved two women on the ground floor a little bit earlier. booker was taken to the hospital and treated and released. booker is getting lo

rosen did apologize. today first lady michelle obama tweeted, "every mother works hard and every woman deserves to be respected." just hours later, president obama weighed in. >> there is no tougher job than being a mom. and when i think about what michelle's had to do, when i think about my own mom, a single mother raising me and my sister, that's work. so anybody who would argue otherwise, i think, probably needs to re-think their statement. more broadly, i don't have a lot of patience for commentary about the spouses of political candidates. >> well, over the past 24 hours, both the white house and the democratic national committee have been distancing themselves from rosen, a veteran democratic strategist. they told cnn she has no official role in the white house or the dnc. meantime, the romney campaign has tried to link rosen's comments directly to the white house. in an e-mail to supporters, they called rosen an obama adviser. the campaign's website also issued call for support for ann. part of the

hillary rosen is not john boehner. she has a lot of friends in the obama white house. >> she is my friend. look, i said several minutes ago that we have an obligation to speak out. hillary herself has acknowledged that her -- that she misspoke and said something that she regretted saying in the way she said it. i accept that. >> let's move on to the economy. the president has been helping and telling the american people he thinks things are finally going to start to get pet ter. you have a couple of encouraging months. last month's job report, only 120,000 jobs created. the government tells us new claims jumped up to 380,000 last week. abc washington post poll numbers. who do you trust to better handle the economy. romfy is slightly ahead of the president for who would you trust to handle the economy? you know how these campaigns work. there is a psychology to the economy. george h.w. bush learned it in 1992. when the statistics were starting to get better. people didn't believe it. how long do you have to turn around

that's hillary rosen. that ann romney as a woman who stayed at home and raised her five boys, she never had worked a day in her life. well, since then, the president of the united states has denounced it. he said it was ill advised. what's going to be curious, though, is whether or not the president actually apologizes to ann romney as he did to sandra fluke. you think that's going to happen? >> no, it's not going to happen under any conditions although we see the entire democratic party apparatus in full crisis mode responding to this saying we're for motherhood and apple pie now. listen, we have nothing to do with this woman. somehow, she used to be a democratic strategist who has been to the white house 30 times but now we really don't know her and i don't know what she's talking about. >> she's under a bus somewhere. >> i don't know her at all. >> hillary rosen has apparently been to the white house many, many more times. three times as often as leon panetta, the defense secretary but here is how this

i don't know that hillary rosen, i know three personally, named hillary rosen. i'm not sure that those represent the person we're talking about. necessarily. so i really can't comment on the number of visits and i'm not sure that is accurate. >> how about the degree of this particular hillary rosen's -- >> i don't know how many times she's been here the she is not, she is a democratic strategist. she's a cnn contributor. as far as i know, and, i, i don't know how to assess her overall relationship with people here in the white house but i do not, i have not seen her here very frequently. >> do you expect that relationship to continue at whatever level it is? >> again, i don't know what the relationship is. let's focus on what the issue here is. this is a, when it comes to, what this administration has done for women, it begins with the president signing of the lilly lead better free pay act. it continues with the emphasis on the need to put teachers back in the classroom. it continues with a variety of programs including our opposition to the ryan republican bud

rosen says -- okay, there's rosen. rosen says mrs. romney is unqualified to advise her husband on the economy because she, quote, never worked a day in her life. now rosen has since apologized for the remark, but what does the controversy mean for the campaign on both sides? joining us now, radio talk show host monica crowley and former communications director for senator jon corzine, julie rah begin sky. both are fox news contributors. monica, to you first. a u.s. president never says anything that hasn't been sort of calculated and vetted in advance, that's usually the case. so for the president to make this statement that he thought her remarks were ill-advised, clearly it seems the campaign sees some damage control necessary. >> oh, absolutely. and, in fact, his top two campaign advise, david axlerod and jim messina, both fled into twitter almost immediately to tweet their, quote, disappointment with her comments, and later on in the day the president himself weighed in. they're in maximum damage control was they know the damage t

rosen apologized, and an issue that wasn't an issue yesterday is a big one today. we begin our coverage tonight with nbc's andrea mitchell in washington. >> only 24 hours ago, mitt romney was surrounding himself by women and has always leaned heavily on his wife, ann. trying to narrow a gender gap that has become a virtual canyon during the contentious primaries. then romney was handed a political gift wrapped up in a bright pink bow when a prominent democratic strategist and cnn commentator not working for the white house argued that ann romney cannot relate to actual women. >> his wife has never worked a day in her life. she's never 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 why do we worry about their future? >> with lightning speed, her remarks about stay-at-home moms exploded on twitter. the romney campaign called it a kill ann strategy. obama adviser david axelrod tweeted, also disappointed in hillary rosen's comments about ann romney.

what did rosen say that sparked the uproar? >> 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'm hearing. guess what, his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. she's actually never really dealt with the kind 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 -- why we worry about their future. >> and today, ann romney firing back. >> my career choice was to be a mother. and 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 raise family, which i think hillary rosen has actually done herself. i respect that. that's wonderful. but, you know, there are other people that have a choice. we have to respect women in all those choices that they make. i will tell you that mitt said to me more tim

jimmy, jimmy, put rosen's quote up on and the crawl right now. put it up there all of the time. that is nice. that is not enough. now, play the quote on a loop. play it on a loop. >> his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. his wife has actually nef worked a day in her life. >> now, add the beat on it. >> his wife has actually nef worked a day in her life. >> lost in the firestorm were the deeper eshissues that many female voters care about. and mitt romney has a long way to go after the bruising image against women, and michelle bernard is the director of public policy for women, and michelle goldman is a contributor to the "daily beast." thank you, ladies, for being here, and the comments were so incendiary that today mitt romney introduced his wife where but at the nra convention and then both romneys talked about, not surprisingly the subject of motherhood. listen to what was saidm. >> i happen to believe that all moms are working moms, and if you have five sons, why, your work is never over. >> let me give a shout out to all moms that are working, and by the wa

rosen has since apologized to ann romney, profusely. do we have that clip? no? then what do we have? ♪ >> oh. we have to give a "way too early" shout-out to new jersey super man, newark mayor cory booker who entered a burning home rescuing his neighborer from a house fire. booker was returning from a tv interview last night to find the neighbor's home in flames. the mayor reportedly rushed through the building to reach the woman on a second floor bedroom. at one point the mayor thought he would have to escape the heavy flames by jumping from the window. after carrying the woman to safety, he was treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation and second degree burns on his hands. the woman is in stable condition. assuring everyone of his condition, booker tweeted this last night. thanks to all who are concerned. just suffering smoke inhalation, we got the woman out of the house. we are both out of the hospital. i will be okay. another tweet early this morning, thanks, everyone, my injuries were relatively minor. thanks to detective alex rodriguez who helped get a

hilary rosen -- you are right. no formal role with the campaign. she was so far off message that the next day -- >> nobody could find a basis for those statistics. there is a basis for this statistic, however. an ab c-"washington post" palm poll found a 19%- gender gap of women favoring obama over romney. he is forced farther to the right, having to re-litigating abortion and contraception. >> does this help close the gap? >> i think so. moving beyond a primary where he was contested by a cultural conservative, like rick santorum, and romney did either fill obliged to or out of conviction or terrell's respond and start to discuss these matters -- make no mistake about this -- in 2004, among married voters with children, george w. bush beat john kerry it -- only 28% of them in the electorate -- by 19%. john kerry, among other married voters without -- that is an important constituency to galvanize and turned out if you are a republican. >> let's talk about the campaign ads and rick santorum. >> miracle after merrill. -- miracle after miracle. >> wha

and that's what rosen was talking about. she ask not facing the workplace every day or negotiate the workplace every day -- >> rude did you see michele bachmann on meet the press. she said women understand the economic realities better than her husbands because they buy the gas and groceries. ann romney has never filled her car with gas or shopped for grocery in her life. >> yes, what you are getting is that class's perspective on it and that's not what you form your economic policy based on that. and bachmann added on by the price of dealing with banking. what the hell? how many working-class people deal with the price of banking? >> except for the atm fee. 2 bucks! >> i saw the sound bite of hilary and the cookies all weekend long -- is that what we're back too? >> yeah, just get over it. get over it. i know so many parents that would love to be stay at home parents. they would nothing more from their lives to be able to take care of their kids. either you cut back drastically on the expenses you have and live a pretty spa