By Nathan Rothwell
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| Romney's gone viral (again). Just not in the way he wants. |
Those in the market of turning soundbites into Internet
memes were not disappointed by last night’s presidential debate.
President Obama and Mitt Romney, the former governor of
Massachusetts, squared off in a town-hall style debate on Tuesday where they fielded
questions from the audience. Both were asked by a young woman how their respective
administrations would tackle inequalities in the workplace – specifically, the
fact that women on average make only 72% of what their male counterparts earn.
Both candidates gave wildly different answers. For his part,
President Obama mentioned the very first bill he signed into law upon becoming
President in 2009; the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which gives women full opportunity to sue their employers if they experience undue discrimination. As Obama explained, before
the Act passed women who were being unfairly paid had only 180
days to discover the discrimination and file a lawsuit. Even if they had no way
of discovering the discrimination until after this 180-day period, they were
out of luck. The Act signed by Obama allowed for a new 180-day period to begin each
time a woman received a paycheck that unfairly paid her lower wages based
solely on her gender.
While Obama directly answered the question of unequal pay by
referencing the Lilly Ledbetter Act,
Romney dodged it almost entirely when given a chance to respond. Instead, he
revealed that he initially couldn’t find enough capable women to serve in his
Cabinet upon becoming governor of Massachusetts in 2003, and in doing so coined
the phrase “binders full of women”:
“…I said, ‘Well gosh, can’t we find some women that are also qualified? And so 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.”
As the New
Yorker put it, Romney’s “binders full of women” phrase provoked instant
fascination with debate-watchers nationwide. Facebook groups, Tumblrs, and Twitter accounts devoted to Romney’s
inartful phrase captured the attention of thousands, and could very well spell
doom for Romney in the polls. Yet as much fun as it is to poke fun at the
imagery, Romney’s answer should sound alarms among voters for two important
reasons.
