During this week’s presidential debate, Mitt Romney answered an audience question about creating opportunities for women in an unfortunate way.
‘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.’
The nonpartisan group who assembled the ‘binders full of women’ (Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus) are now saying that they presented the binders to Romney on their own initiative.
The moment in the debate where Romney unwittingly created an internet meme.
According to the Washington Post, his awkward phrasing is now ‘the hottest topic in the land’, flooding the internet with memes based on the phrase.
Ironically, while Democrats have jumped on the phrasing to highlight Romney’s ‘woman problem’, it should have been a strong point for Romney. He initially filled 42 percent of senior-level appointments with women, which was the highest number in the country. Just 25% of President Obama’s initial cabinet appointees were women.
Here are five of our favourite ‘binder’ memes.
