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Mitt Romney’s Binders Full of Women is a Trapper Keeper Full of Lies
About those binders full of women that Romney asked for and staffed up with – it’s not true. Romney never asked for those binders. So, not only was the comment strikingly offensive in its insensitivity, but it was used as a get out of jail free card from a question about equal pay and it’s not true.
Furthermore, his record on employing women in the private sector doesn’t back up his claims from last night and a Romney adviser said today that the Republican presidential candidate would not have supported the Lilly Ledbetter Act. So much for binders full of women sufficing for being a champion of women’s rights.
Turns out, before Romney even took office, a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts got together in order to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. They put the binders full of women’s resumes together. They presented the binders to Romney when he took office.
But that didn’t stop Romney from telling a story last night in which White Knight Mitt Romney rode into the equal pay world with “binders full of women” and staffed up of his own accord.
CROWLEY: Governor Romney, pay equity for women?
ROMNEY: Thank you. An important topic, and one which I learned a great deal about, particularly as I was serving as governor of my state, because I had the chance to pull together a cabinet and all the applicants seemed to be men.
And I — and I went to my staff, and I said, “How come all the people for these jobs are — are all men.” They said, “Well, these are the people that have the qualifications.” And I said, “Well, gosh, can’t we — can’t we find some — some women that are also qualified?”
And — and so we — we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet.
I went to a number of women’s groups and said, “Can you help us find folks,” and they brought us whole binders full of women.
No, Romney did not go to the women’s groups and ask for help – they came to him with binders full of women’s resumes, proving the women were qualified for the many positions he would be appointing. It follows that most likely Romney also never said to his staff, “How come all the people for these jobs are — are all men.” And it further follows that even if he had, he should have known better than to refer to women candidates as “binders full of women” as if he were picking a mail order bride instead of looking at resumes.
The facts, according to The Phoenix, are that Romney did use the binders and appoint women but only to departments that he didn’t care about. None of the senior positions that he cared about went to women. And worse yet, the senior-level appointed positions held by women actually declined under Romney (and rose rapidly under the next governor).
Of course, Romney never actually answered the question about equal pay, which is an answer in and of itself. Last night, focus group women who were allegedly undecideds were saying that they liked what Romney had to say and that he had hired so many women, but they wanted to know if he would have supported the Lilly Ledbetter Act.
Obviously they don’t know Romney very well. When Romney launches into a personal anecdote, it’s a sign that he does not want to give a straight answer or discuss actual policy because he doesn’t think you’re going to like his position. Sometimes, he obscures his position with a shiny ball story about binders full of women that he takes full credit for.
In fact, last night Romney surrogates were using the binders full of women story to get Romney out of hot water yet again. They kept saying that it was more important to look at how he conducted himself than to talk about policy. But even if Romney had ordered up the binders full of women, how would that help a woman in another state? Hiring women doesn’t address the inequity in pay, either.
But additionally, a Romney adviser told the Huffington Post last night that Romney would not have signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act. He was “opposed to it at the time.”
“The governor would not repeal the Lilly Ledbetter Act,” said Gillespie, following Tuesday night’s presidential debate. “He was opposed to it at the time. He would not repeal it.”
Furthermore, Governor Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Act. The House Republican also voted four times to defund Planned Parenthood, which also happens to be a Romney pledge.
In case it’s still not clear where Mitt Romney stands on the matter, the Boston Globe fact-checked his record at Bain. “Romney, however, did not have a history of appointing women to high-level positions in the private sector. Romney did not have any women partners as CEO of Bain Capital during the 1980s and 1990s.” Yes, the field was dominated by men back then, but even today, just 4 of 49 managers in the buyout field at Bain are women.
Lilly Ledbetter was none too impressed with Romney last night. She issued a statement saying if Romney were really concerned about the women in this country, he’d take a stand against paycheck discrimination. Ms. Ledbetter said, “Mitt Romney’s solution on leveling the playing field tonight was to point out he once had a binder full of women applicants. That binder didn’t help me at Goodyear, and it’s not helping the women across this country, making 77 cents for every dollar a man gets.” She continued, “If Romney was truly concerned about women in this economy, he’d take a stand against paycheck discrimination. Instead, he has remained silent and refused to speak out for equal pay for women and their families. Simply put, Romney doesn’t get it.”
President Obama does get it. He said last night, “I just want to point out that when Governor Romney’s campaign was asked about the Lilly Ledbetter bill, whether he supported it, he said, ‘I’ll get back to you.’ And that’s not the kind of advocacy that women need in any economy.” Copy that, President Obama.
Mitt Romney and his binders full of women he didn’t ask for, a private sector with no female partners and not supporting the Lilly Ledbetter Act proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Mitt Romney doesn’t get it. But what would you expect from a man who said that he learns all he needs to know about women’s issues from his wife, who does not work outside of the home — and even if she did, would not be subject to the kind of discrimination that women who are not protected by wealth are. All of this and we haven’t even gotten into the financial ramifications for women and their families of his wanting to defund Planned Parenthood and kill ObamaCare.
But, binders full of women!
Photo/Video credit: tumblr
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14 Responses to Mitt Romney’s Binders Full of Women is a Trapper Keeper Full of Lies
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Sally
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
His Lt. Gov was a woman and she was spinning like a top on Andrea Mitchell this afternoon. She admitted that the women’s group had put together the binders before the election, for both candidates, but insisted that “Mitt embraced the idea.” Right. So why was his Cabinet made up of males with excutive experience, according to WIKI? She couldn’t answer anything, and kept spinning to the “more women are out of work right now. More women need jobs. More women are concerned about having a job than about equal pay.” Really? So we will just take any old job at minimum wage so we can rush home to make dinner for Dad and the kids, then do the alundry, monitor homework, and fall into bed exhausted but eager to return to the deadend ‘flexible’ job?
Someone pointed out that Mitt said, “I began to understand this issue when I became Governor” and that he was fifty-one at the time!!! It took him 40 years to understand that women were in the work force and not receiving equal pay? Yes, that’s our Mitt. So aware of everyone outside his swell circle of millioniares.
Doris
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Even more offensive to me was how he stated “IF women want to be in the workplace” I guess he just wants to keep them at home….
Reynardine
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Yep. Promise her anything, but don’t even bother with the Arpège.
Gindy51
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 3:06 pm
He’s a Mormon, what did you expect? When there was a Mormon CEO at our local big corporation (one employer town) he didn’t hire one female executive. He replaced a lot of the men with Mormon males as well. Once he was gone, booted out for nearly destroying the company, which we’ve heard before, the next CEO hired several female executives, one of them my neighbor.
Mitt is like most Mormon males, scared to death of anyone with a vagina who isn’t LDS and there for UNDER them.
DixiePixie
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
“Well, gosh, can’t we — can’t we find some — some women that are also qualified?”
And — and so we — we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet.
I missed much of this exchange last night because my hair was on fire and I needed to poke my eyes out. Seriously, it took a “concerted” effort to find “some” qualified women? He made it sound like finding qualified women is a rare thing and would have taken a national search just to come up with a couple of names.
Gosh, we really tried
Blade
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 3:43 pm
He is Mormon, in a way. He is not exactly living by their rules, although his deception and morality are Mormon based. I know about the Mormon religion because I experienced, and Romney doesn’t act Mormon (obviously), but he does show in some of his actions what influences him.
The women/binder comment is just sickening, and the fact that he doesn’t answer QUESTIONS drives me NUTS!
Here is a perfect response in regards to what people think Romney’s views on women are:
www.plewto.com/news/elect...
I just wish I knew why people followed him. Because they hate President Obama so much? Or is it something else? What is it? Are they mad America Survived? There has to be concrete reasons as to why President Obama is hated and a lying thief like Romney is LOVED. What am I missing?
DobieTracker
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 3:34 am
Our president is black.
He is the first black president.
Racism is still rampant in this country.
The extreme right wing has taken over the GOP and they, along with many of the old GOP, do not want a black president to succeed.
There are many many people in politics with giant egos ( yeah, I know, “Duh !”) and many of them, at least the racist ones, can always feel superior to someone of color, no matter how low the white person is feeling, because ‘at least they are white’ which in their eyes, makes them superior no matter what else is goinging on in their life.
When a black person,or anyone of color, or a woman, and God forbid a black woman or a woman of color succeeds, then those giant white male egos are forced to realize that they are not special after all, that they are just like everyone else.
When you have had the “superiority” of being white and male for hundreds of years, it is hard to let go and realize you are just as vulnerable to life’s problems as anyone else and in order to be special, that from now on you are going to have to EARN the right to be considered “superior.”
Hard lesson for the racist and chauvenist to have to swallow.
Remember how congress has opposed Obama at every turn, even to the detriment of the country?
I forget but who was that that actually stated and was quoted in the media that saying their goal was to see that Obama did not succeed? ( A male in congress I think, but not sure.)
To have the black guy get RE-elected is just more than they can stand.
Unfortunately, our usual low information voters did not learn as much as they should have from Palin.
Yes, they learned to recognize her as a grifter, narcissist, sociopath, but they have not recognized it in Romney and he lies even more than Palin.
Maybe after Romney and Palin, even the low info voters will realize they have to pay attention and think critically prior to voting or THEIR LIVES WILL BE GREATLY ADVERSELY AFFECTED !
Dion Repple CPA
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Hmm..Let’s look at how Willard ’s record with women really stacks up:
1) Representation of women in senior state government positions fell from 30% before Willard took office to 27.6% at the end of his term. His successor immediately reversed that trend.
2) Bain Capital, the company Willard headed for more than 15 years, counts only 8% women among its 87 managing directors and senior executives — meaning the company appoints males to senior positions 92% of the time.
3) In 2005, Gov. Willard vetoed a Massachusetts bill requiring hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims.
4) In 2004, Willard terminated Ardith Wieworka, a lesbian woman, from the Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services. Wieworka believes she was fired because she made public her intention to marry her partner as the Governor furiously tried to roll back the legalization of gay marriage in the state.
5) Earlier this year, when Willard’s campaign was asked if he supported legislation to ensure equal pay for women (aka Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act), his staff fell silent and told the reporter, “We’ll get back to you on that.” What else could you expect from a man who doesn’t consider women his equals?
So, you tell me, is Willard really interested in helping women or does he suffer from Romnesia? LMAO.
Reynardine
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 6:20 pm
“Romnesia” – a true *bon mot*. Thank you, Dion.
Vera
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Great list/comments, very impressive! I copied it. I would like to post it on my Facebook page. I hope it is OK with you. Thank you, Dion.
Patricia
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 6:16 pm
I found his statement that women need to cut out of work early so they can go home and cook dinner MORE offensive than the binders comment. I also found his comment about how if the economy was strong companies would HAVE to hire women, as if we are second class or a second rate choice more offensive. That was the best question of the night because you could tell neither candidate had rehearsed it. Honest answers!
Kinneroth
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 7:07 pm
There’s a reason he wouldn’t appoint women to what he sees as an important position. It would mean that he’d never be able to talk to them directly, and would have to send a mediator to do it. Mormon men don’t like dealing with women. They try to avoid it if they can. Which is why he didn’t try to push to talk longer during the last debate. He thinks women are beneath him.
Amy
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 7:12 pm
According to a report published by the Free Beacon in April, the 2011 annual report on White House staff revealed that the median annual salary for female White House employees was 18 percent less than male employees — $60,000 compared to $71,000.
Reynardine
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 8:42 pm
When I first heard about Romney’s “binders full of women” I thought they’d caught him doing something naughty, something nasty, something historically Mormon, or some combination of the above. When I thought about it, though, I’d as soon ascribe such motives to a fish in aspic, so he was probably doing what a jellied fish does- just wobbling and lying…