Democratic strategist on Romney: pessimist about economy, but ‘he gets up and he recovers’

On Early Start Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen predicts that while Romney’s pessimistic views on the economy could hurt him in the general election, he is capable of recovering. Rosen also believes that women will play an important role in this election due to the contraception debate.

Rosen says, “Going head to head with Mitt Romney for the next several months would actually be fairly good for President Obama because Mitt Romney is going to talk down this economy. He is a pessimist about it. He doesn’t really have any answers that are new and I think the American people wouldn’t like that the longer it went on. And I think that President Obama could handle that conversation and debate really well.”

When asked by CNN anchor Zoraida Sambolin about how the primary process could affect Romney’s general election campaign, Rosen responds: “Democrats these days love to talk about how weak Mitt Romney is as a candidate and he is, in my view. But what we have to remember is that every time he gets counted out… He has an organization. He has a smart campaign team. He gets up and he recovers… There is nothing better in a long term campaign than somebody who can recover and win.”

On female voters, Rosen continues, “Not a lot of discussion about women in this campaign… until all of the sudden we find ways to discriminate against women in their health coverage, yet again. You ever notice how when men have medical issues they are medical, but when women have medical issues, they are somehow always political… Republicans have actually woken women up with this crazy conversation about contraception.”

Early Start with Ashleigh Banfield & Zoraida Sambolin airs week mornings from 5-7am ET on CNN.