By isaac Butler
(1) Binders Full of Women is clearly the meme of the night, giving birth to, amongst other things, this magical tumblr. But if you actuall look at the transcript, at the substance of what Romney said... what he was actually articulating was a robust case for and textbook example of affirmative action at work. He looked at his staff, it didn't have enough women in it, he put in great effort to try to fix this problem. He was, to put it in right wing parlance, showing "preference" for women which means (given the limited number of jobs available in his administration) "discriminating" against male candidates. But when you actually explain what that "preference" and "discrimination" look like, and when you describe the problem that needed to be solved, it doesn't really seem so scary. This is no different from what colleges do when they take into account race as one of many factors in deciding who will attend their schools. Somehow, now that he's the candidate, I doubt that many on the Right will mind this.
(2) This is why I was quite disappointed as a human (although excited as a partisan) to find out that Romney's "Binder Full of Women" story is actually a lie. The binder full of women was put together by a women's advocacy group before the winner of the election was known and presented to Governor-elect Romney as part of a concerted effort to get him to hire more women. Which he did. But the women he hired he tended to put in charge of departs he either did not care about or was in the process of trying to eliminate. He took, in other words, an opportunity to increase diversity and instead practiced tokenism. Maybe he was a right winger all along after all.
Good analysis, although I think the ultimate effect will be much more mundane. It won't spur debate on affirmative action, but instead will be viewed as a gaffe that widens Romney's gender gap again.
Posted by: Jon Pennington | October 17, 2012 at 10:00 AM
It wasn't even his "Binders full of women" comment that irked me, it was the fact that he didn't even address income inequality. Instead, his answer was tantamount to a racist person saying, "I'm not racist, I have black friends." It doesn't solve the overarching problem.
And don't get me started on how he thinks women are not being hired because they demand more "flexible" schedules so they can go home at 5 to make dinner for their children...
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