Romney claimed that when he became Governor of Massachusetts, that he, not knowing any competent women executives (that’s a story in its own right) that he wanted to add women to his cabinet so he had binders of women prepared and delivered to him.
What actually happened was that in 2002 — prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration — a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.
They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.
I have written about this before, in various contexts; tonight I’ve checked with several people directly involved in the MassGAP effort who confirm that this history as I’ve just presented it is correct — and that Romney’s claim tonight, that he asked for such a study, is false.
Further, the positions that he staffed with female executives were all in government agencies about which he didn’t care, or which he was actively trying to end, and as Romney’s administration continued in the state government, the percentage of women in executive positions declined from 30% before he took office to 27.6% when he left.
Consider this another open thread. On another note, as the evening wears on, there will be less stress on the server and site performance will return to normal. I think over all, we did very well. Kudos to DougJ and Mistermix for the live chat. I was approving comments as fast as I could read them, and others were as well and we just kept up. That live chat was the way to go.
jwb
I thought the live chat was excellent. It never overwhelmed my screen, though it was impossible to read everything if I looked for even a moment at the TV.
They
You didn’t bind that!
Mark S.
Eh, I’m going to re-post my last comment since there’s a brand new shiny thread here.
McMegan shows why she gets paid the big bucks:
Profound. And my favorite:
Don’t just stand their bust a move!
jwb
Still surprised that Obama’s numbers in CO suggest he did better in the debate with men (+5) than women (+3).
Delia
Is there any subject on which Mittens does not lie? How would you tell if he actually told the truth about something?
Soonergrunt
Anna Marie Cox on Twitter just now:
“PAT BUCHANAN CALLS IT FOR OBAMA. We can all just quit now.”
Duane
i recall a scene in Big Love in which i think alby or maybe roman is looking through a binder full of pictures of girls or young women for future brides…. if someone has the series on DVD this clip would be awesome right now….. or is that hitting below the belt…
Bruce S
OMFG! A Willard falsehood! Only problem with this is it’s becoming a “Dog Bites Man!” story.
Nicole
I’m still flabbergasted that one of the MSM corrected a falsehood, and in the moment. I guess we know who’s off the Romney Christmas card list.
handy
@Soonergrunt:
Cranky ole Pat will do that now and then. He about creamed himself after O’s 2008 DNC acceptance speech.
Bill
The instant that Romney uttered the bit about binders, and actively looking for women to fill positions, I called BS and commented thusly on the liveblog. I figured it was a lie, just based on the way it came out of his mouth. Who knew that it actually was, for real, a lie.
Well, you did.
scav
Live chat is pretty much a fire hose, so hard to keep up with any disractions such as the actual debate. Was it switched off earlier and without warning this time? Maybe that could have caused the gerbil death? Stripped the gear going from afterburners to first?
arguingwithsignposts
Okay, I’m going to post the Joseph Ducreaux from the previous thread: My organizers of paper products, they overflow with wenches.
TooManyJens
I’m about to set some motherfuckers on fire over this whole “he didn’t call it an act of terror.” Apparently it doesn’t count unless you say the specific incantation “The attack in Benghazi was an act of terrorism by dirty, rotten terrorists.” Because some people don’t have the reading comprehension for anything less blatant.
Not to mention that the only thing that’s important to the bugfuck Right is that Obama didn’t say the magic T word enough times. What he actually did, or what Romney would do differently, doesn’t matter. You just have to say the right word so they don’t feel emasculated.
? Martin
@Delia: It’s really alarming how facile he is at lying.
Bruce S
@Soonergrunt:
The one thing Pat Buchanan can be trusted to judge and analyze with some measure of integrity is speeches and debates. I guess it’s because of his speechwriter background. Weird but true. I remember him going over one of Obama’s ’08 speeches, I think it was the night he won, like a kid on Christmas morning, giving Obama mad props.
Matt McIrvin
@Duane: Already on the tumblr.
Tractarian
From the transcript:
Love how Obama called him a “very successful investor”. Perfect back-handed compliment.
Roger Moore
@Delia:
He doesn’t like about subjects he never talks about. I can’t think of anything else.
Wag
@jwb:
now that’s interesting
Bill E Pilgrim
Never mind.
JWR
The live chat site worked fine for me for about 70 minutes, at which point it quickly died. Aside from that, good times.
Duane
@Matt McIrvin:
well smarter folks than me are already on it…. i guess i need to use the tumblr thingy….
AnotherBruce
Slightly off topic, but the flip side of the “act of terror” lie that Romney tried to get away with was the fact that he implied that the President tried to blame the attacks on a video. Of course the President did no such thing in the time frame that Romney was implying. Of course, it wasn’t a direct lie. But the 14 days that Romney was talking about was the time frame in which the President brought up the video.
I don’t watch enough cable to judge, but, thank you Candy Crowley.
Soonergrunt
@Bill: Well, somebody else knew it. I just searched for and found it.
Wag
Best line of the evening
“Please procede, Governor.”
Mr Stagger Lee
Binders of wimmin!!
Binders Of wimmin!!
My eyes are swimmin with
Binders of wimmin
BGinCHI
Somewhere Tiger Woods was like, shit yeah, binders full of women.
Romney is so pro-women he’s going to let them move up in the Mormon hierarchy.
Wait. No.
bemused
@Wag:
Better yet was how nonplussed Mitt was by that.
jwb
@? Martin: he’s clearly had years of practice. The question I have is whether he knowingly lies or whether he believes the lies as he concocts them. He’s so slick with them I have to think he actually believes them as he says them. Yet some of the lies are so ridiculous. It’s a mystery.
SatanicPanic
@AnotherBruce: I don’t get why Romney thought that was such a great attack. I mean, who cares what he calls it? Obama has already proved what he does to terrorists, Romney is just nitpicking.
amk
Tweeted. Sooner, the better.
AnotherBruce
@jwb:
He was the alpha male, unfortunately we haven’t advanced as a species as we would like to think.
Spaghetti Lee
Conservative facebook friend (good guy to talk sports and movies with, even if our politics are polar opposites) said that Jim Lehrer was the best moderator of the three. I think the translation is “we got whupped.”
arguingwithsignposts
The binder thing really overwhelmed a few other zingers Obama got in, like at the end, when he closed with “I believe Governor Romney is a good man.” All I could hear was “For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men-“
Redshift
@Bill: Yeah, I had the exact same reaction. I turned to Ms. Redshift and said “I can’t wait to read how this story is a complete lie.”
Hill Dweller
I loved how the President tied Willard to Dubya on fiscal policy, but called him far more extreme on social policy.
The Dangerman
Romney has two core beliefs; one, how to get more money (this includes avoiding taxes) and, two, he really, REALLY wants to be President (so he can cut taxes, mostly, but there is an Oedipus complex there that even puts Dubya to shame). Everything else is a lie suited to that particular moment as he perceives requires it so he can be President, something his Daddy couldn’t do. When he loses, we might see him crack up, saying “Rose Garden” over and over instead of “Rosebud”.
His problem going into the next debate is Foreign Policy is his weakest area (by far). I don’t see how he can do any better than a draw in that one and, it’s far more likely, he gets schooled again.
Mnemosyne
The live feed made me a little seasick, but I’m hoping to scan through it when I watch the debate on Tivo.
jwb
@AnotherBruce: I actually found Crowley’s explanation confusing. I also didn’t closely follow the official explanations because it was clear to me as soon as I heard the weapons involved that the attack was a a carefully planned action. In fact I presumed all the official accounts were noise to disguise what we knew in the hopes of quickly getting the attackers.
jwb
@AnotherBruce: I actually found Crowley’s explanation confusing. I also didn’t closely follow the official explanations because it was clear to me as soon as I heard the weapons involved that the attack was a a carefully planned action. In fact I presumed all the official accounts were noise to disguise what we knew in the hopes of quickly getting the attackers.
jwb
@AnotherBruce: I actually found Crowley’s explanation confusing. I also didn’t closely follow the official explanations because it was clear to me as soon as I heard the weapons involved that the attack was a a carefully planned action. In fact I presumed all the official accounts were noise to disguise what we knew in the hopes of quickly getting the attackers.
Soonergrunt
@amk: thanks! I never remember to tweet my own articles.
mai naem
@Wag: “Please proceed”
Obama looked like he was arguing with an obstinate child . For real. It really looked like a father talking to a teenager. “uh huh, yeah, and you did that because your friends did that?? So if your friends stuck their hand on the stove you would too?”
AnotherBruce
@SatanicPanic: He was desperate and made the mistake of believing his own propoganda. All politicians are prone to this, some less than others.
bemused
@SatanicPanic:
Many business owners, big or small, are bullshitters so I would think in Mitt’s line of work, leveraged buy outs, you would find the most practiced bullshitters around.
jwb
FYWP. Submit comment button didn’t seem to be working on the iPad. But it was obviously working all too well.
Redshift
@jwb: “On Bullshit” is the go-to text here. He’s BS-ing, he doesn’t give a damn about whether what he’s saying is true or not, or how obvious the lie is, only about whether he’s effectively creating the impression he wants.
That’s not saying anything about whether or not he knows he’s lying, he may well know, but it’s obvious he doesn’t care.
Mike in NC
What a fucking dirtbag.
MattR
Could not force myself to watch the debate on the flight back from Vegas. But loving all the commentary I’ve seen since I got back home.
amk
@Soonergrunt: My pleasure dood.
scav
@Redshift: that book should practically be the operaters manual for this century (so far, certainly).
jwb
@MattR: If you get a chance, watch it. I found it even more entertaining than the Biden-Ryan debate.
Roger Moore
@arguingwithsignposts:
I think I prefer The Most Interesting Man in the World.
Suffern ACE
Lets see. Bizarre debate moment last week was Ryan answering a question about the auto bailout with a story about a car crash to prove that Romney was a car guy. I think tonight will be about assult rifles and single parents.
amk
How did this lying pos ever get to this position of a contender ? Thank you massholes.
Redshift
The other thing about the women cabinet appointees story, as emptywheel pointed out on Twitter — Romney had been in business consulting for 25 years and didn’t know any women executives?
AnotherBruce
@jwb: It’s a reasonable assumption that Obama would choose his words carefully the day after an attack like this. But I’m not sure what part of Crowley’s explanation you found confusing.
suzanne
Being out west, the debate starts at 6pm, and I’m not home from work at that time, so I DVR and watch about a half an hour behind. I’d love to take part in one of the live chats sometime.
I have hated Romney for a long time, but his slippery shadiness was really on full display this evening, and my aversion to him grew significantly. I didnt think that was even possible. He’s SO slimy. If there really are a few undecideds left out there, I think this should definitely help our POTUS tonight.
daverave
@The Dangerman:
I thought Obama missed an opportunity when Mitt went off-topic on the whole investments in China thing, the blind trusts and going on and on and on about how Obama’s pension and investments inevitably have money in China. Would have been a perfect time for Obama to come back with something like: “Not everyone has their life revolve around money all of the time, governor.”
guachi
Upon further reflection, Obama saying “please proceed” as Romney was about to blow his Libya answer was one of the single greatest (unpracticed) debate moments ever.
Almost all the other good lines from debates past were rehearsed in some way.
Joseph Nobles
Not only did Obama call the Benghazi attack an act of terror on September 12, he did it again on September 13.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/13/remarks-president-campaign-event-las-vegas-nv
Right there at the top. Yes, that was the Las Vegas fundraiser speech.
MattR
@jwb: Will do now that I am in the comfort of my own home where I can talk back to the TV while pacing around the living room.
TexasMango
There’s a focus group on MSNBC and they are all idiots. Every single one of them.
Joseph Nobles
@guachi: Oh, sweet Jesus, I now know that if I ever hear the President tell me to “please proceed,” it is time to reconsider all my life choices.
I did seriously think the President was about to break a foot off.
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne: You might want to keep the CoveritLive thread open until you watch the debate, then. I think if you close it and re-open it, you will have to press a link a bunch of times to see more and more of the comments.
At least that’s how it worked for me last week.
Betsy
@jwb: My mom, who is a very good judge of character (and whose mom isn’t), says that he decides himself, that he has no self-awareness. May not actually know his own lies. Now that’s more frightening to me than if he is a calculated liar. Because what the hell he would do if elected, not even he can tell, and it wouldn’t be internally consistent even atthe barest minimum.
Redshift
@scav: The Bush Administration made so much more sense after I read it. Before that, I could understand why they lied, but I couldn’t understand why they would tell such obvious lies. The one I particularly remember was when Bush cut his vacation short and flew back to sign the Schaivo bill, and his press flack just said flat out “Oh, no, he didn’t come back early. He was always planning to come back now.” That completely mystified me until I read Frankfurt.
WaterGirl
@jwb:
I have been thinking the same thing.
Bill E Pilgrim
@SatanicPanic: It’s a big thing on FOX News and talk radio, where they think it’s a “gate”. Or are trying to make it one at least, but so far it’s not getting too much traction outside their crazed world. This should help kill it.
Mitt suffers from echo chamber syndrome, sometimes, thinks that what he hears in the insane-o-sphere is actually newsworthy.
Some Guy
Watching MSNBC’s undecided voter focus group. They are fucking idiots. The SNL sketch is clear. They keep saying Romney is a business man and did well in Massachusetts. Really stupid people. Easily impressionable and lacking basic information.
piratedan
I’m sure Mitt will get around to sharing his five point plan details about the same time that he discloses his tax returns from 2009 and 2010
jwb
@AnotherBruce: I was confused by what she said was happening in the 14 days after with the story about the video.
WaterGirl
@suzanne:
I thought the same thing until I talked to my best friend tonight after the debate. He isn’t nearly as political as I am, and he did not recognize most of Romney’s lies as lies.
He’s still planning to vote for Obama, but he was planning on that even before the debate. It really is true that we are in a position to really influence the outcome if we talk with other people we know who may not be as tuned in to the situation as we are.
Soonergrunt
@TexasMango: Yes. They are. From the lifelong Republican who is going to vote Republican, and the lifelong Democrat who is going to vote Democrat, and the three morons in the middle who are voting for either Obama or Romney because of things that they heard tonight that no one else on the fucking planet heard, and the three morons that are still undecided, every Goddamn one of them was a fucking idiot.
Redshift
@TexasMango:
Yeah, I had to turn it off. Did you hear whether they are supposed to be “undecided”? I wasn’t paying attention at the start of the segment.
The Dangerman
@Betsy:
He would be Dubya on steroids; he’d get his huge tax cuts and his draconian budget cuts and he’d go vacation to clear brush (or whatever the fuck he does; I guess it’s boating). I don’t think he could give less of a shit about, say, Syria.
AnotherBruce
@TexasMango: Jesus, I finally got cable and I hear this. Cole has a point. I prefer right wingers to these stupid fucking people.
jwb
@Betsy: Yes, and if he doesn’t know he’s lying, you know none of his staff will ever be able to call him on it. The only thing they’ll be able to do is lock him up in the White House, just like they have him locked down on the campaign right now.
handy
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Romney’s our first real Fox News candidate. His entire campaign is nothing but Roger Ailes-approved fax blast talking points.
jwb
@handy: Oddly enough, I get the impression from Murdoch’s Twitterfeed that he seems to think Romney is fucking incompetent.
Anya
MSNBC focus group was full of blethering morons. OMFG! They are really unbelievably dumb. I cannot get over how idiotic they sounded. They woman were the worst.
Anya
@Redshift: Undecideds from Ohio. Kay must be mortified.
Hill Dweller
@Some Guy:
Willard had a 35% approval rating when he left office. How is that “doing well”?
Original Lee
I saw this piece today, and after tonight’s debate, I am even more convinced that De Vries knows Mitt very very well.
handy
@Hill Dweller:
These people are smart. He did very well in Massachusetts.
batgirl
@TexasMango: You are being too nice to them.
handy
@Anya:
Here’s hoping it’s more like “motivated.”
AnotherBruce
@jwb: Very simple, Romney was trying to imply that Obama was trying to blame the violence on a video and didn’t mention act of terror until 14 days later. Crowley mentioned he did call it an act of terror almost immediately that the Prez didn’t mention the video until 2 weeks later. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s certain that Obama labeled the attack as an “act of terror” the day after it happened.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@AnotherBruce: But did he call it a war? It’s important that he call it a war.
Gex
@Hill Dweller: They must be thinking of Romneycare.
SatanicPanic
@guachi: That was classic. It’s a trap Mitt! Obama wasn’t even trying to hide it.
Redshift
@AnotherBruce: And considering that Romney keeps referring to the “assassination” of the ambassador when (correct me if I’m wrong) he died as a result of the fire, it takes a lot of gall to try to make something of quibbles about Obama’s language.
Hill Dweller
@Gex:
Which Ryan’s medicaid cuts will likely end.
SatanicPanic
If you’re undecided right now, you’re basically like the person who skipped the first seven Harry Potter movies and now you’re confused at the start of the 8th and annoying everyone around you with your stupid fucking questions.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@AnotherBruce:
I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.
Dexter's new approach
Not sure if the team should play up the binder moment or expose the bogus claim. I mean the binder sounding really bizarre, out-of-tune statement. As usual, Mitt is lying but don’t we have enough evidence of that? Let’s play up the weirdness.
And I thought Mitt sounded really old-school patronizing in general in his comments towards the question. I mean we all agree that we need more flexibility at the workforce to take care of families. But Mitt seems was like his actions were: “sure sweety, go home and pick up the kids from soccer and make dinner, the men got this.”
DPS
We have a new collective noun for women. “A murder of crows,” “a pack of wolves,” “a school of fish,” and “a binder of women.”
fuckwit
I watched the TPM 100 seconds summary, and it looked like a guest shot on O’Lielly’s show. They just stood around interrupting each other and yelling at each other? And the moderator too? What the screaming fuck?
That’s not a debate, that’s hurting America, Tucker Carlson style.
But I guess that’s what the TV idiots wanted: a Jerry Springer brawl.
We will not solve the problems of the 21st century by trying to conduct our politics as if it were 0th century gladiatorial combat.
jwb
@AnotherBruce: very odd that Romney didn’t have that timeline down. I guess he figured he could bluster through, but if he really thought Obama wouldn’t be prepared for Mitt on this item, it really means politically he’s not very smart. There are times you can gamble with BS, but there are also times when you’re going to get called on it, and this one had a high probability of being called.
fuckwit
I watched the TPM 100 seconds summary, and it looked like a guest shot on O’Lielly’s show. They just stood around interrupting each other and yelling at each other? And the moderator too? What the screaming fuck?
That’s not a debate, that’s hurting America, Tucker Carlson style.
But I guess that’s what the TV idiots wanted: a Jerry Springer brawl.
We will not solve the problems of the 21st century by trying to conduct our politics as if it were 0th century gladiatorial combat.
Still I guess it’s great that the President figured out how to win at that game.
TheMightyTrowel
@fuckwit: your concern is noted.
jwb
@fuckwit: you can have a debate or you can have a brawl. But if one guy shows up to debate and the other guy shows up to brawl, it will either end in a brawl or the debate guy will lose.
TheMightyTrowel
@fuckwit: your concern is noted.
Comrade Luke
A guy on my Facebook feed just posted: If the media does it’s job, Obama will lose his job over the Libya lie.
So there’s that.
Laura
@fuckwit: Uh It’s kind of hard to put 95 minutes into 100 seconds without making it look like all they did was talk over each other. Which is not what happened at all.
Spaghetti Lee
@fuckwit:
Huh. In a 90-minute debate, what do you suppose a journalist is going to pick for his video montage, the most dramatic clips, or the least?
Maybe it speaks poorly to TPM, but as someone who actually watched the thing, I can assure you they did not spend the whole time screaming at each other.
jwb
@Comrade Luke: did you push back?
Comrade Luke
@jwb: No. There were already 18 comments and half a dozen likes supporting his comment. This is the same guy who posted a photo of what his 8th grade son decided on for a Halloween costume “on his own”: Obama as the devil, complete with horns and a pitchfork.
It would be pissing in the ocean at this point. I just hid him from my news feed.
amk
@fuckwit: Totally typical ‘murkan clueless ? Watch the fucking debate.
James E. Powell
@jwb:
On pushback in response to family/friends who post right-wing shit on facebook.
Is there really any point to doing anything? I admit, I do occasionally respond because occasionally I just can’t take it.
Recently, some one posted that Obama had run up more than half the total federal debt of $17 trillion and that we owed $11 trillion of it to the Chinese. So I responded with a link to FOX that refuted both claims. He responded with another completely untrue claim as if he had never made the first one.
I have two brothers who are Limbaugh/FOX dependent for their information. They know I am educated in economics and law. They know I worked in the Ohio legislature on budget matters. They have known me all my life. And nothing I say to them, no reasoning, no questioning, does anything to change their Limbaugh/FOX dependent ways.
If I can’t make a dent with my own brothers, what good is it to talk to strangers?
slightly_peeved
@Redshift:
My wife imagined Jon Stewart going “go oooonnn..”
Felanius Kootea
@Comrade Luke: Please also hide him from our newsfeed on BJ if you’re not going to push back. We got enough jackasses like Sully in our corner screaming doom and gloom at the slightest hiccup – I’ve reached my naysayer saturation point.
Comrade Luke
@James E. Powell:
A friend sent me a screen shot of his FB feed, where one of his friends posted:
Someone replied to her post with the scientific explanation of why it’s not true:
Her reply?
They’re not going to listen, no matter what facts you provide.
amk
@Comrade Luke: Jeebus. That’s all.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@amk: Well, since I learned that fact from my minister – along with lots of other facts that turned out not to be true, I’m going to take a pass on the criticism. I was 12 though. It took me until I was 18 to learn that that was not true. Maybe she’ll come around.
amk
@Or something like that.Suffern Ace: That’s why I said Jeebus.
Eric U.
@jwb: don’t think Murdoch is stupid enough to eat his own dogfood. That was the most disturbing thing to me about GWBush’s presidency, that was the first crew that actually believed all the contradictory things that they have the rubes believing. Now the whole party has become unhinged, as has been well documented
Dream On
Doesn’t the villain in Sherlock Holmes’ “The Illustrious Cllent” (with Jeremy Brett) keep a binder full of women?
Frankensteinbeck
@Eric U.:
Romney has definitely drunk the Kool Aid. In a series of debates where he’s reversed course on all his major stances to pretend he’s a moderate, he’s also parroted a number of the flakiest Wingnut memes. I live with a totebagger. His raving about Fast And Furious or blaming China’s monetary manipulation for the job situation made her scratch her head and wonder what this crazy man was jabbering about. The passion with which he bitched about the 47% should make it clear that he’s swallowed the counterfactual underpinnings of Wingnut thought. The man doesn’t just believe his wealth makes him a living god, but that half the country actually pays no taxes and lives off government handouts.
PreservedKillick
We got rid of him as fast as we could. The rest of the country primaried him to where he is now.
FWIW.
different-church-lady
@AnotherBruce:
In other words, when Crowley said Mitt was right that it took two weeks, she meant he was right in a completely inverse way from what Romney was saying.
different-church-lady
@Comrade Luke: “You know what’s really amazing about God? That he also created complete morons like you who know fuck-all about how the things he created work.”
Do it. I dare you.
Cassidy
@fuckwit: You my concerned friend, are wrong. Disclaimer: I went to bed early last night. I was exhausted. I already know who I”m voting for and it’ll be straigt Dem ticket. You put Ted Bundy on as “D” and he gets my mark vs. any Republican.
Politics is a street fight. There is no such thing as polite, considerate debate in this country and never has been. It’s ugly now, was ugly then, and has been ugly in between. Now, we just have social media and meme generators.
rikyrah
of course it was a lie…is this a shock to ANYONE?
catclub
@Delia: Mormonism. Not. a. word.
lacp
@DPS: It made me think of witch hunters: “Willard Romney, Binder of Women.”
Sammy
@Delia: Thsi site is great. I laughe so hard that my face hurts.
Binders Full Of Women http://bindersfullofwomen.tumblr.com/
Okelliott
@Dream On:
Yes. Here it is….
http://elliottswildkingdom.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/women-in-binders-with-sherlock-holmes-and-mitt-romney/