By the time Allahpundit included this clip in his QOTD post, DNC adviser and Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s attack on Ann Romney had already raised eyebrows.  By the time the clocks clicked past midnight, her remarks had become so infamous that Barack Obama’s campaign leaders had to go on Twitter to toss Rosen under the proverbial bus.  Rosen scoffed at the notion that a stay-at-home mom of five, who also happens to be battling MS and has survived cancer, has any insight into economic concerns of women in America:

Rosen later wrote a “clarification” at the Huffington Post expressing her admiration for Ann Romney’s “grit” in dealing with her illnesses, but the damage had already been done. Incredibly, Rosen later complained that Ann Romney “didn’t answer my follow up tweet to her! Which I thought was respectful and sincere.”  What was Rosen’s idea of “respectful and sincere”?  How about this: “I am raising children too. But u do know that most young american women have to earn a living AND raise their kids don’t u?”

Yeah, it’s Ann Romney’s fault for not replying to such a “respectful” riposte, huh?  Rosen’s the real victim here.

The Romney campaign blasted Rosen as an “Obama adviser” (she’s tied to the DNC, not the Obama campaign) and called this “their new ‘kill Ann’ strategy and in the process insul[t] hard-working moms.”  And that had Team Obama worried enough for a couple of heavy hitters to take to Twitter late last night to do damage control.  David Axelrod, Obama’s closest adviser, tweeted: “Also Disappointed in Hilary Rosen’s comments about Ann Romney. They were inappropriate and offensive.”  Jim Messina, who runs the Obama 2012 campaign, demanded an apology from Rosen: “I could not disagree with Hilary Rosen any more strongly. Her comments were wrong and family should be off limits. She should apologize.”

It’s too late for that; the mask has already slipped.  Rosen has delivered the Left’s honest opinion about women who choose to stay home to raise their children, and unless the DNC distances themselves from her, we can assume that’s the official Democratic Party position.  If Democrats wanted to see Republicans unite behind Mitt Romney, they picked the best possible strategy to make it happen by declaring war on Ann Romney and stay-at-home moms.

Update: Democrats were quick to insist that Rosen has no role at the White House, but Jim Geraghty reports that the rebuttal seems to be more of an issue of semantics:

White House visitor logs indicate that “Hilary Rosen” visited the White House thirty-five times.

Gen. David Petraeus, head of our efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the current CIA director, nine times.

Meanwhile, see if you can guess who said this in 2008?

“You know essentially, you’ve taken on sort of the most sympathetic person in the candidate’s realm, the wife, who is taking care of the children, supporting the husband, doing everything she can because she loves him … [it’s a] stupid strategy.”

You get three guesses, and the first two don’t count.