So, for those of us who live in caves (Wait. How are you reading this?) Mitt Romney opened his mouth at the second Presidential Debate of 2012 last night and surprisingly, (sarcasm?) another load came out of the wrong end. When asked about his views on gender equality in the workplace, he told a charming story about his governorship of Massachusetts: "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." "What," you may ask, "is so horrible about this?" Let me explain:
First, "Binders full of women"? This is your view on life, isn't it, Mitt? Everyone and everything is neatly organized into binders. You have all kinds of binders, filled with all kinds of people: There are binders full of poor people, binders full of minorities, binders full of old people… you get the point. I'm sure there are all kinds of binders on your shelves in which business are neatly organized: Businesses which haven't offered you money, but which you plan to approach and ask for money in return to favors that you may be able to do for them, binders full of businesses with whom you already have similar agreements, etc. Those are probably the only two binders worth mentioning on your shelf, I'm sure. Of course, there are likely binders full of organizations against whom you stand and those which you endorse as well as business which endorse you and those who don't. Is everything truly neatly organized into binders? Does this extend even to the suits and plaid shirts you wear? Somehow I wouldn't be surprised. Every time I see you in a plaid shirt, it's always clean and neatly pressed, along with your jeans. The outfit is always an obvious attempt at connecting with the "common" because, like it or not, you know that you're going to need his vote in order to get your rear end into that seat.
Second, the entire story was completely made up. Yep, those pesky fact checkers are at it again, debunking the garbage that you're so fond of making up. Mitt, when are you going to realize that you are running for the office of the President of the United States of America? It isn't something that the citizens are going to take lightly. And this is arguably one of the most important, if not the most heated elections in the history of this country? You're not running for a spot on the PTA here. Further, you're conducting your campaign (in case you're unaware) in the Information Age, not the Bronze Age. We aren't zombies who sit in front of the television and allow commercials to pump our heads full of garbage, anymore. There has been a wonderful development called the Internet. With it, almost everyone has instantaneous access to almost any answer to any question their minds can think of! Worse (for you), it has been around for several years, now and many of us have learned how to use it effectively. We have learned to sift through the mounds of malarkey to find credible resources when looking for those answers. So no matter how much money you pour into ads with your face superimposed against a backdrop with the American flag waving in a breezy sunrise, we aren't going to file into the voter booths with only this image of you in our heads.
Worst of all, none of what Romney had to say had anything to do with the type of answer that this young lady was looking for. She wanted to bring up how awful it is that women, on average are paid 72% less than their male counterparts who do the same jobs and her question was about what he planned to do about that sad fact. Romney has been focusing on how awful the last four years have been and how aware he is of the plight of so many of us who are struggling, trying to find jobs in this economy. He had obviously rehearsed his answers regarding that issue so well and so intently that that seemed to be all he was capable of saying. Every time he opened his mouth, his answers equated to one of two statements: Obama made you, the American people, a lot of promises and he has failed to deliver on them, so you deserve better. And, the deficit and unemployment were high when Obama took office, (insert statistics and percentages here) and they are even higher now (insert statistics and percentages here). It got to be that if someone in the audience sneezed, I expected his kneejerk reaction to be, "23%!" or "That was Obama's fault!"
I realize that I'm not the first one to point out Romney's similarities to a robot, but I don't think it has been focused on enough or been given enough emphasis. Take away his mannerisms and how closely he emulates C-3PO and just focus on the words that come out of his mouth. What is heard is programmed. He's not speaking from the heart because he doesn't have one. He isn't quite capable of coming up with an answer on his own because he isn't using his brain: the phrases he uses have been placed there for him by someone else. And the worst part of that is that he doesn't mind being utilized in this fashion-he just wants to say that he is or has been the President of the United States. Coal companies want to destroy Yosemite National Park with drilling and fracking? He doesn't care! He takes the spin on the situation that they give him; that allowing them to do so will create jobs because it will place them in a need for mining equipment operators, and happily regurgitates this into our faces after first filtering out the part that may taste bad. The result is a sweet-smelling puddle of vomit in which swims dreams and promises of more jobs for more people. And this has been the core of his campaign. It may just be time for us to pick up a mop and start cleaning it all up. Now, where did I put my mop full of binders?
,