At a minimum, Romney’s campaign was able to change the narrative for 24 hours and try to erode some of the large deficit it is facing against President Barack Obama with women voters. White House press secretary Jay Carney was peppered with questions about the flap at a news briefing. And it knocked Team Obama off message on the sixth anniversary of the signing of Romney’s Massachusetts health-care law, a date it had hoped to highlight to great effect.

It also prompted conservatives to rally behind an all-but-assured GOP nominee about whom they continue to have misgivings.

Nonetheless, while Rosen’s remark was careless — and, for many, condescending in tone and framework — it was yet another episode in a season of outrage, real or hyped, that has dominated this cycle. Rosen herself alluded to that in her statement, saying, “Let’s declare peace in this phony war and go back to focus on the substance.”