'Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it?' Ann Romney hits back at her husband's Republican 'chattering class' critics

Ann Romney has rounded on critics of her husband who have been branding his campaign a failure and predicting a victory for President Barack Obama in November's election.

'Stop it!' she said in an interview with Radio Iowa. 'This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring.

'This is hard and, you know, it’s an important thing that we’re doing right now and it’s an important election and it is time for all Americans to realise how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt’s qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.'

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'You want to try it? Get in the ring': Ann Romney, pictured on the campaign trail in Milwaukee, has criticized her husband's critics

Romney was panned in the press and by some Republicans for his accusation that Obama's 'disgraceful' first response to the attacks on US missions in Cairo and Benghazi was to 'sympathise' with the perpetrators.

There was even more public hand-wringing by Republicans after secret tapes emerged of Romney at a May fundraiser in Florida telling donors that 47 per cent of Americans didn't pay federal income tax and were 'victims' sure to vote for Obama.

Peggy Noonan, a former Reagan speech writer, wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the Romney campaign was 'incompetent' and 'an intervention' was needed.

'It’s not big, it’s not brave, it’s not thoughtfully tackling great issues,' she wrote. 'It’s always been too small for the moment. All the activists, party supporters and big donors should be pushing for change.'

On Friday, she went even further. 'The Romney campaign has to get turned around. This week I called it incompetent, but only because I was being polite. I really meant "rolling calamity".'

Bill Kristol, editor of the 'Weekly Standard' and a former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, wrote: 'It remains important for the country that Romney wins in November (unless he chooses to step down and we get the Ryan-Rubio ticket we deserve!).

'But that shouldn’t blind us to the fact that Romney’s comments, like those of Obama four years ago, are stupid and arrogant.

He added: 'Has there been a presidential race in modern times featuring two candidates who have done so little over their lifetimes for our country, and who have so little substance to say about the future of our country?'

Mrs Romney dismissed the criticism and said she ignored it. 'It’s nonsense and the chattering class…you hear it and then you just let it go right by,” she told Radio Iowa. “…Honestly, at this point, I’m not surprised by anything.'

United front: Anne Romney says she has all the confidence in the world in her husband's ability, decisiveness, leadership skills and understanding of the economy

Her husband, she said, was not short of advice from people, including at the 'rope line' where people gather to meet the candidate after events.

'We call the rope line now the advice line because everyone cares and everyone wants to help and everyone wants to just give their piece, a little piece of advice.

'So I feel like my best advice is just to bring peace and calm to him and just trust in him and just say, "I know you can do it", but not to give him any advice because it gets too overwhelming.”

The would-be First Lady said that her husband would be looking to her in the audience during the three presidential debates in October.

'In all the past debates, he would find me in the audience and after each question, he’d look at me ’cause it was like, "Did I do O.K. Ann? Was that O.K.?" And I love that because he cares so much.

'I mean, we have such a good relationship and we have such a strong marriage and I know that he measures himself and how he’s doing by my face and how I think he’s doing, so I know in these next debates it’s going to be very important for me to be sitting in that audience.'

Audio: Ann Romney defends Mitt against Republicans



