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Obama campaign emphasis on “Binders” best sign yet for Romney
Washington Examiner ^ | 10/19/2012 | Philip Klein

Posted on 10/19/2012 7:08:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Thursday brought a lot of good news for Mitt Romney’s campaign. National polls continue to move in his direction, with poll results starting to take into account the first day of polling after Tuesday night’s debate (though obviously we’ll need several more days of polling to see how the event affected the race). In Ohio, which could determine the outcome of the election, CNN reports that Republicans are significantly improving in early voting from four years ago, a key to winning the state. And the Romney campaign is so confident of victory in North Carolina (which Obama won last time) that it’s starting to pull staff out of the state. But the best sign for Romney may have actually been the the Obama campaign’s decision to make the main takeaway Tuesday’s debate Romney’s comment that he received “binders full of women” when he was trying to hire females to top positions as governor of Massachusetts.

In the past two days, liberals have seized on the remarks and Obama has made the comment a part of his stump speech. “I don’t know if you were listening last night, but, see, we don’t have to order up some binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women to learn and teach and thrive and start businesses,” he said in Athens, Ohio on Wednesday. In Manchester, New Hampshire earlier today he said, “See, we don’t have to order up some binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women who can learn and excel in these fields right now.”

The fact that Obama is making an issue of this suggests to me that his campaign is increasingly worried about signs that Romney is closing the gender gap, which would mean lights out for his reelection given Romney’s advantages among male voters.

It’s hard to see what argument Obama is advancing here, however. The attack isn’t even that Romney didn’t hire enough women as governor. It’s that he had to consult a binder prepared by a women’s group to find more female candidates when he wanted to hire more women. Is the suggestion that if he cared about women more he would have just hired his friends and associates rather than draw from a wider applicant pool?

In 2008, Obama was praised by his admirers for campaigning above the fray, for avoiding the temptation to score cheap points in the daily news cycle and instead focus on the big picture. When he all but sewed up the Democratic nomination after winning the North Carolina primary in May 2008, he said his win showed, “it’s possible to overcome the politics of division and distraction; that it’s possible to overcome the same old negative attacks that are always about scoring points and never about solving our problems.” Yet as the campaign enters its final serious stages, Obama is increasingly focusing on small things, like Romney’s mention of “Big Bird” and now this. This is typically the type of thing that you witness with losing campaigns — see, for instance, the hopes on the right in 2008 that Obama’s “spread the wealth around” comments to “Joe the Plumber” would show Americans the true Obama and thus provide a boost to John McCain.

To be sure, polls in many states still suggest Romney has to make up ground in the final weeks to score an electoral victory over Obama and perhaps as more data come in post-debate, the momentum will shift back in Obama’s direction. But if Obama is going to lose this election, this is sort of what you’d expect the final stages of his campaign to look like.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012debates; 2012dncstrategy; bho2012; bindergate; binders; desperatedems; losers; obama; romney; women

1 posted on 10/19/2012 7:08:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
I think Mr Romney should ask the Muslim about his Muslim religion and play this video to all on National TV.. http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tCAffMSWSzY#t=28
2 posted on 10/19/2012 7:11:16 AM PDT by PLD
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To: SeekAndFind
Obama brings ONLY caskets.


3 posted on 10/19/2012 7:13:07 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Vi veri veniversum vivus vici)
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To: SeekAndFind
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tCAffMSWSzY#t=28

Ask about this Mitt Romney..Let the whole world know what a filthy Muslim Obama is

4 posted on 10/19/2012 7:14:12 AM PDT by PLD
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To: SeekAndFind

If Obama’s concern with Romney is Big Bird and Binders, then you’ve got to wonder if Obama himself might vote for Mitt. If that’s the best you’ve got, and your own worst is millions more on food stamps, millions more in poverty, millions more out of jobs, foreign policy that kills ambassadors and embarrases the nation, and a social plan that exults in giving men free rubbers and women free pills, then you might just vote for your opponent.

That is if his major negatives are Big Bird and binders.


5 posted on 10/19/2012 7:18:16 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! True supporters of our troops pray for their victory!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I honestly don’t understand what Romney said wrong about looking for qualified women.

Was he supposed to go out on the street and tap women on the shoulder at random and offer them a job? I guess that would have been “fairer”.


6 posted on 10/19/2012 7:24:45 AM PDT by DManA
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To: SeekAndFind

Early “in person” voting begins monday.

If this is all 0bama’s campaign has, he’s sunk.

Get out and vote like you’re buying chicken sandwiches, folks, and let’s wrap up this repudiation of the latest thrust of the Marxist agenda.


7 posted on 10/19/2012 7:27:12 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: DManA
That Moslem in the White House should know that Mormons are one up on his religion regarding women.

To get the 72 virgins, the Moslem has to blow himself up, while the Mormon only has to return home from work.

8 posted on 10/19/2012 7:30:17 AM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
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To: Zuben Elgenubi

I should add, “badda-bing.”


9 posted on 10/19/2012 7:30:55 AM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m a women and I would be honored for someone to contact me about a job with my qualifications and for them to keep my info on file. Democrats are just reaching and trying to build something from nothing.


10 posted on 10/19/2012 7:34:13 AM PDT by coconut47
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To: SeekAndFind

Only leftists, communists and other individuals with malfunctioning brains would put any stock in the “binders” stuff.

And by the way, why is it that ONLY normal people are held to a high standard in the words they utter?
Why is it that leftists can say anything they want and they are not ridiculed?
57 states?


11 posted on 10/19/2012 7:34:36 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Liberalism is due to a breakdown of the thinking apparatus.)
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To: I want the USA back

Really, just WHAT is the supposed controversy around the “binders” comment?

I don’t get it.


12 posted on 10/19/2012 7:41:04 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: MrB

I don’t get it either. Since when are binders a politically incorrect way to group documents?


13 posted on 10/19/2012 7:49:06 AM PDT by Sloth (If a tax break counts as "spending" then every time I don't rob a bank should be a "deposit.")
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To: Sloth

Must be a “slabery” reference.


14 posted on 10/19/2012 7:51:18 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: SeekAndFind

Obama’s grasping at straws indicates he has nothing substantive that he can debate and successfully defend. It is pathetic.


15 posted on 10/19/2012 7:52:55 AM PDT by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves)
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To: MrB; Sloth

“I don’t get it.”

That’s good. Getting it indicates a mental deficiency.

I can only imagine they are upset because he didn’t say “binders of women’s resumes” and instead used a verbal shortcut in the midst of a stressful presentation.


16 posted on 10/19/2012 8:24:38 AM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (We won't stand for biased umps fixing a ball game but we allow a biased media to fix elections.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Romney wanted resumes to find qualified women.

Obama, like his supporters wanted to "hire" someone without any background check .

17 posted on 10/19/2012 8:31:23 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedys=Can't drive, can't ski, can't fly, can't skipper a boat, but they know what's best for you.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Mitt Romney gonna putch’y’all BACK in binders.


18 posted on 10/19/2012 8:53:46 AM PDT by JediJones (ROMNEY/RYAN: TURNAROUND ARTISTS ***** OBAMA/BIDEN: BULL $HIT ARTISTS)
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To: SeekAndFind

People! You don’t get it! It’s not only “binders” and “big bird,” Paul Ryan washed a pot that might not have been dirty!!! /sarc

They are truly desperate, if this is all they’ve got.


19 posted on 10/19/2012 9:00:51 AM PDT by RedWhiteBlue (Mama tried)
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