Objective observers can agree that President Obama's debate performance two weeks ago fell far short, but the setback featured one saving grace: there was no moment. Obama was off his game, but there wasn't a major, high-profile, embarrassing setback that could be replayed over and again.
By this measure, Mitt Romney's defeat last night was even worse, because he teed up all kinds of moments. He embarrassed himself on Benghazi; he was laughed at over the size of his pension; and of course he offered the political world the gift of "binders full of women."
The question was excellent: "In what new ways do you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?" It was an easy one for Obama -- he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law and has an excellent record when it comes to appointing women to key positions.
It's more of a problem for Romney, who refuses to even give an opinion on the Ledbetter law; who suggested last night that some women need to leave work early to "make dinner" for their kids; and who defended his record by saying he sought and received "binders full of women" when looking to fill his gubernatorial cabinet.
The ridicule is still going strong 12 hours later. It shows no signs of abating.
Let's quickly set the record straight.
First, Romney's story about seeking women applicants was a lie. Second, during Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, there were exactly zero women partners (not enough binders?). Third, during his one term as governor, he invalidated a half-dozen executive orders establishing affirmative action policies for women.
And this doesn't even touch on the fact that Romney won't endorse the pending Violence Against Women Act; Romney took the coward's way out when Limbaugh targeted Sandra Fluke; Romney has offered support for a "Personhood" measure that's so extreme it would ban some forms of birth control; Romney intends to destroy the Affordable Care Act, which would be a huge setback millions of women; and Romney's running mate has one of the worst voting records on women's issues in Congress.
BindersFullOfWomen.com, which American Bridge put together with blinding speed last night, has more.
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Obama did better this time. I wished he'd been this on-point for the first one.
Too many people are starving to believe that One-Debate Romney's flash-in-the-pan is who he'll be in office, which utterly defies what he's been and done since starting this substanceless campaign of his.
I think his comments regarding women fully illuminated the disdain he feels to those he thinks of as "the lesser sex". You could feel his anger towards Candy Crowley - I think he felt she didn't know her place. And, as the debate went on, his picture-perfect veneer was beginning to crack - he was so out of his comfort zone - what, with an African American President and a woman moderator challenging him!
Ha! You nailed it.
HEY GIRL..WANT TO BE BONDED TODAY??
HEY GIRL..ROMNEY GOT YOU IN A BIND TOSAY??
HEY GIRL..BORING ROMNEY WANTS TO PLAY JAMES BOND WITH YOU TODAY??
HEY GIRL..ROMNEY PAYING YOU TO BIND OK..EQUALLY?
a few seconds ago · Like
Romney is a shrewd business man. If he hired so many women in his state government and personal companies, maybe it was so he could save money and personally profit, and possibly balance the budget by paying them less. More money ends up in his pocket instead of in payroll for employees. Any wonder he doesn't support women's equal pay? He said he had to go search for qualified women..........really? Qualified women are that hard to find? He had binders to keep on hand when the affirmative action quota was low. Token suport, easy to see through.
PLEASE investigate if Romney paid the binder women rqually with the men!
Can someone do the research and find out how many women Romney hired at Bain and how many were partners during his years at the helm? Also, how is it possible he knew no qualified women when he took office in Massachusetts? Further, did it strike any one else as grossly paternalistic that the "big boss" let the little ladies who worked for him out early so that they could make dinner for their families.
There is no question that Obama won this debate hands down. I just want him to present a paper in the form of a speech (as he did on race in the last election) which would outline exactly how he is going to build on the successes of his term as concerns the economy. I know he thinks he is clear, but it always seems general. I want to hear about airports and bridges and science training for children. I need to be reminded that the hole we were in when he took office was bigger than anyone realized and so the stimulus just stopped a disaster and didn't provide as many jobs as planned. I need him to lead me through the argument in the way Bill Clinton would. He should use the fact that he is the president to find someway to give a great informative speech laying out his "plan" , and explaining what sacrifices I can expect to make and what rewards i can expect to receive, so I am left with no doubt as to his vision. I can't believe that just because Romney uses the word "plan" 25 times in a debate that people actually think he has one. His only plan is to say anything to get into office.
It's already been done. No women partners at Bain, no women in roles higher than secretary.
I'm just so glad the "fist in the face" came from a woman. Too bad it wasn't more than rhetorical.
I don't necessarily think the "binder full of women" was the noteworthy point here. What disturbed me about Romney's little story was the fact that "qualified candidates" had been vetted and they happened to lack a significant number of women, so Romney(or better, his administration) decides to go out and find female candidates. What happened to the "qualified candidates?" So if there weren't enough short people or people with red hair, do you go outside the qualification process and dig them up? Now, I have to point out that I AM a female and if I were selected as a candidate just because the employer wants to say they have more females in their employ than the next guy, I wouldn't want the job!! The question would be "Do you want me to join your organization because you believe I am the best person for the job, or just so you can politicize the fact that you have more women on your team?" If I was one of those qualified male candidates, I would be pretty irate that, having been identified as "qualified," now all of a sudden I'm not as qualified because I have a penis. Yea, okay, that makes sense!!!!
"sanityplease"
"the binder full of women" point was a great big look into Ms mind because it was full of lies-he did NOT go looking for it, it was offered before the election; and on his religious views.
Am glad you would remove yourself from the candidate list for any job you thought was using affirmative action so any of the unemployed women out there can take it. Because....you are useing the same assumption men have used for millenia. "If I was one of those qualified male candidates, I would be pretty irate that, having been identified as "qualified", now all of a sudden I'm not as qualified because I have a penis."
How the heck did all those peni get lined up with jobs before the thought that --hey women do this job also came up? It operates on the assumption that the jobs BELONG to men, and someone,-women, blacks, browns, disabled, is taking their rightful job away from them. Are we back to religious beliefs again?
you completely missed the point. The qualifications of an individual need to be the only consideration for selection. period. The fact that someone is male or female, black or white, Catholic or Muslim, etc, etc - should never be a consideration in choosing an employee--or a President. It has to do with selecting the most qualified candidate for the job. That's it. And religious beliefs never entered my comment or my point. You can ASSUME the doors of opportunity are closed to certain groups of people and comment as you do but I don't believe the doors are opened by affirmative action. Opportunity comes through education, training, life experience, social interaction. It doesn't come from being born male or female. I am proof of that. I worked in a male dominated field for 15 years in a high level positon--not because I am a female but because I did the job better than anyone else and came to that position from years of hard work, dedication to quality, and was raised with a strong work ethic. Being selected based on sex, race, religion or any codition other than qualification denigrates those qualifications and the work it took to gain them.
For the record, as a Dad, I sometimes have to leave work by a certain time to fix dinner for my son.
Mitt Romney continues to show d his disdain for other ethnic races, and more so for women. Romney came out with the intent on not showing President Obama respect when he decided not to follow the agreed upon terms of the debate, which states not to direct your question to your opponent.
There was I time weather you agreed or not you would show respect for the position of US President.
Romney continues to look down on People and think many of lower class than him. I do not agree with some of the thing our former Presidents did, but they will always have my respect for the office they tried to maintain and bring honor to. I am really scared of Mitt Romney and his Old way of thinking and the way disrespects other ethnic groups.
He never answered the question about equal pay for women. Romney hiring women for HIS cabinet does not address all the other women in the world that work very hard to help their husbands make a better life for their families in this over inflated world.
Mitt Romney continues to show d his disdain for other ethnic races, and more so for women. Romney came out with the intent on not showing President Obama respect when he decided not to follow the agreed upon terms of the debate, which states not to direct your question to your opponent.
There was I time weather you agreed or not you would show respect for the position of US President.
Romney continues to look down on People and think many of lower class than him. I do not agree with some of the thing our former Presidents did, but they will always have my respect for the office they tried to maintain and bring honor to. I am really scared of Mitt Romney and his Old way of thinking and the way disrespects other ethnic groups.
He never answered the question about equal pay for women. Romney hiring women for HIS cabinet does not address all the other women in the world that work very hard to help their husbands make a better life for their families in this over inflated world.
A year ago I saw an interview with Anne Romney where she's trying to explain the incident of the car trip to Canada and the SICK dog strapped to the roof of their car.
Anyway, Anne's giving this interview on TV and she's attemping to explain... "while Mitt and the boys were packing up the car, our dog got a hold of some lunch meat left on the counter and a couple of hours into our car trip, the dog got the runs and Mitt had to pull the car into a station where he had to hose everything down."
It struck me that she used the word, runs. Our dog got the runs, not our dog had an upset stomach or an intestinal episode? To say she's tacky or unrefined isn't the word...
Now, we have binders full of women!
I can't put my finger on it, but it's offensive the way they speak and God help us if those undecideds put these crazy people in the White House.
Isn't there a classic American stage play, "Cheaper by the Binder"?
Not sure if this is relevent or not, but on Big Love, they used to have a binder of women that the men would use to select a bride. -- Possible Mormon hold-over. Look, AZ is a large Mormon centered state. Polygamy is not legally practised here, but serial monogamy is... go to any community college and you will find divorced Mormon women, 5 kids in tow, going back to school after being divorced to hubby can remarry and have 5 more kids. It is a local joke the Phoenix East Valley, well not very funny, but every single woman out alone with 5 kids, is divorced.
If anyone thinks Mitt Romney is a 'modern' man -- just listen to Ann and you will see he very well isn't. He has FIVE SONS, it is a household of testosterone and since he 'checks in with Ann' about how women think and feel about his policies, it is pretty easy to see how lop-sided his viewpoint is. Whereas Obama has lived in households of women most of his life - he doesn't necesarily THINK like women do, but he probably UNDERSTANDS how women THINK.
Just sayin'
I'm told it is still happening-selecting a wife from a 3 ring binder. Have also heard the serial marriage is to get around polygamy laws. I could care less what your religion teaches you to think, just don't try to make me follow it.
By that I mean Romeny wants to shut down Planned Parenthood (which I used as a young woman of very poor parents to control my own life) because women should not be able to use a gov program to stop birthing kids. However mormons are very happy to use any gov program that supports all those kids--i.e. Women Infants & Children, and many more.
The choices R/R present are not random, goofy sound bites. They are carefully selected & we should know why.
I can't wait for the SNL portrayal of debate #2. Whee!
Breaking News: After Gov. Romney's fail in appealing to women in last night's debate, the campaign announced that Mitt will wear a dress, pearls, high heels, and perfect make-up at Monday's debate in Boca Raton.
"I am becoming one of you! I am Woman! Does this dress make me look fat?"
Never judge a woman until you have walked a mile in her pantyhose! Mitt Romney reminds most women of the first husband they divorced.
Buried in steaming piles of denigrating remarks about women in general, MittMitt also (almost as an aside) chose to share with all potential employers of women that if you hire women, you must make concessions to their very existence in the workplace. I would really like to see Rachel take apart that whole dissertation MittMitt did - I think only Rachel can really do justice to the word-by-word tear-down. How about it, Rachel, will you take this very minor challenge? Or have you already and are just waiting for the right time to let us in on your thoughts?
What does Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney have in common? Both Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney during their tenure as governors of Alaska and Massachusetts were mostly missing in action from their offices. They both were very seldom seen in their offices.
Is that the way Romney is going to govern as president?
Milo Minderbinder lives. Ah, there's the Catch!
Did "Binders full of women" make anyone else think of the scene from "Big Love" when Nicky found out that her father had put her in the "Joy Book" of young girls available for marriage? No? Just me?
Hollyween Costume Idea: Attach binders with pictures of women taped to the binders on to a piece of clothing and go as "Binders Full of Women".
All the right can discuss now is Candy Crowley. Whereas Romney told more lies this time than the last debate the right will not discuss Romney's comparison to Bush or that he didn't remember the Blunt Amendment or that he was "corrected" spouting FOX talking points about Obama calling Bengazi an "act of terror"...It is all Candy Crowley's fault...lol.
For myself I can't stand to even watch or listen to Romney because his character and his demeanor are just obnoxious and so condescending and deceptive. He's sickening and is such an embarrassment to this nation... his 'friends' are all business friends and even they cannot stand to be in his company for long because he so personality deficient.
So did anyone else notice when Rmoney started to answer the working women question he said I've learned a lot about this, then let out a big sigh, and proceded to talk and came up with the binder full of women nugget.
The sigh spoke volumes.
from the tumblr
http://www.staples.com/binders+full+of+women/directory_binders+full+of+women?
is great
I thought binders were something a woman wears under her dresses in the 1800's! What really bothers me is that Romney's deportment in his "profession" is to take on Bully-in-chief.