I like and admire Juan Williams. He's generally a class act and one of the more intellectually honest commentators the Left has to offer. But this analysis of Ann Romney's home-run speech last night is just deplorable:
Juan casually declares that Mrs. Romney doesn't understand other people's "struggles" because she's a "very rich woman." First of all, this commentary is cut from the same ugly cloth as Hilary Rosen and Bill Maher's infamous -- and ineffective -- attacks on Ann Romney back in April. Americans will recoil at political pundits using a candidate's earned wealth to denigrate and dismiss his wife. Secondly, does Juan realize that he's opining on a breast cancer survivor who is still fighting multiple sclerosis? Ann Romney very briefly touched on her health battles during her convention address but didn't linger on the topic. Perhaps Juan missed that passage because he was preoccupied with sneering at her "corporate" affluence. I can't help but think that if Mrs. Romney were married to a Democrat, her years-long struggle against two terrible illnesses would be universally hailed as evidence of her courage and strength -- and rightfully so. Alas, she's married to a well-off Republican, so it's taken for granted that she can't possibly relate to other people's hardships, and is far too corporate to be authentic. Whining about media double standards is useless, but the two sets of rules are as obvious as they are galling.