^^^ No and no.
I'm actually quite baffled by this "binder-gate" thing. I heard him say it, but I interpreted it in exactly the way it was intended - these women's groups coming to Romney with three-ring-binders full of names and resumes of women who would be qualified to work on his cabinet. Within 90 seconds the gutter was crowded with all kinds of weirdness over that one small statement. Does anyone REALLY think Mr. Mormon meant anything else by that use of words?
I'm not a big fan of either of these two guys but this whole over-reaction seems a bit infantile. It sounded like an episode of Beavis and Butthead, "huh..huh huh...he said BINDER! huh huh...huh huh"...
Well, there are a couple of things.
First as I already mentioned, how did Romney go through his whole career without meeting one woman qualified to be on his cabinet? Why did he need "binders full of women"? Didn't he know any? Didn't he hire or mentor any bright young women during his illustrious business career? Even just one?Apparently not. How many of us don't know one woman qualified in our field? That's bizarre, and telling (IMHO).
Second, as has been made clear since the debate, Romney did not reach out to anyone.
“I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks?’” Romney added. “And they brought us whole binders full of women.”
Romney’s story isn’t entirely accurate.
Those “binders full of women” actually came from a coalition called Massachusetts Government Appointments Project, or MassGAP, that had formed in August 2002 to address the shortage of women in high-ranking government positions. They had started assembling groups of applicants, taking several months to reach out to women’s organizations around the state and preparing to present potential hires to whichever candidate won the election.
So that part of his story, his heroic outreach to disenfranchised women, was a lie. He had nothing to do with it.
And also, the final numbers speak for themselves:
"Midway through his four-year term, 42 percent of his 33 new appointments were women, according to a study done by the UMass Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy using some of the data collected by MassGAP.
But over the next two years, women made up only 25 percent of the 64 new appointments Romney made. By the end of his term, the number of women in high-ranking positions was slightly lower than it was before Romney took office."
So women actually lost ground during his term as Governor.
Source:
http://www.boston.com/politicalinte...ly-accurate/jrKRRGSIPqjvuKX8dgq6gL/story.html
The gender gap is certainly an important dynamic in this election, and Romney did himself no favors.
Lastly, the internet meme...well, that's what the internet does. Takes silly things and blows them up. The fact that it caught on so quick and so big says something resonated there (in a negative way). It was at best clumsy, and at worst, indicative of how little thought he gives to the subject.
. That one is priceless.
Thanks!
