“And I brought us whole binders full of — of women. I was proud of the fact that after I staffed my cabinet and my senior staff that the University of New York in Albany did a survey of all 50 states and concluded that mine had more women in senior leadership positions than any other state in America.”
The context behind Obama’s “You didn’t build that” (essentially, he meant to say “you didn’t build that all alone“) makes Obama’s faux pas a bit less offensive — but Obama still clearly celebrates the government’s role ahead of, or on a par with, the individual entrepreneur. I think a majority of Americans are more inclined to celebrate the successful individual.
The context behind Romney’s faux pas makes it clear that he has been a leader in identifying and appointing qualified women to senior positions.
“You didn’t build that” was humped by Romney completely dishonestly by twisting it out of context, and he fully participated in that deception. The “Binder full of women” is a gaffe. It just reinforces a feeling that Romney is like a fish out of water sometimes. They’ll have to get the record through to the public. Aside from contraception and abortion issues, it really seems pretty good.