Move over, Big Bird — make way for Women in Binders. They’re the latest campaign non-issue to go viral — in pro-Obama circles, anyway.
Given Mitt Romney’s surging poll numbers — and his blowout on economic issues revealed by CNN’s post-debate issues tallies — it’s no wonder Democrats seized on what Obama-friendly media gleefully labeled Romney’s “blunder.”
It was nothing of the sort, of course.
But when you’re trying to spin your own candidate’s debate performance as a great victory, you need all the help you can get.
Especially when the CNN polls showed Romney outscoring President Obama on the economy (58-40 percent), health care (49-46), taxes (51-44) and the deficit (59-36).
And when those same polls show viewers overwhelmingly — 61-38 percent — rejecting the suggestion that Obama offered “a clear plan for solving the country’s problems.” (Viewers were evenly split on whether Romney did the same.)
Which is precisely the point Romney made — and quite effectively — during the debate: Take away the speeches, the photo ops and the rhetoric and all you’re left with is Obama’s record.
Not a pretty sight.
Enter the Women in Binders.
Romney was describing his strenuous efforts as Massachusetts governor to ensure a large number of women in top administration positions — and the reference was to a binder full of résumés he obtained from a Bay State feminist group.
He hired (if you’ll excuse us) liberally — and a 2004 study by SUNY-Albany’s Center for Women in Government and Civil Society showed that women held fully 10 of the 20 senior positions in the Romney administration.
That was better than any other state.
And while the number later fell, the average during his entire term was 45.1 percent.
In contrast, notes blogger Mary Katharine Ham, the average female state Cabinet membership for the nine current members of the Democratic Governors Association’s leadership is only 24 percent.
Obviously, Democrats and their friends don’t want a substantive debate over Romney’s position on genuine women’s issues.
Just as the Big Bird ridicule was an attempt to deflect attention from Romney’s substantive stance on wasteful government spending.
Which may explain, as one wag noted, that the infamous binders are now filled with women voters who’ve begun flocking to Mitt Romney.