Last night's presidential debate differed dramatically from the first in many ways. First, moderator Candy Crowley was engaged and in control, despite both candidates' overages, interruptions, cherry-picking, and exaggerations. Second, President Obama himself was engaged and in control. He made some truly brilliant points and articulated some thoughtful rebuttals.
Governor Romney remained much the same -- same expression, same manner, and same fictitious talking points that ought to have been fact-checked out of his arsenal by now. But he did touch on a point that he'd previously outsourced to his wife, Ann: Women.
The discussion of his Massachusetts cabinet was brief, but it was extremely telling. Asked about workplace inequality, he eschewed the opportunity to comment on the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and spoke instead of how "all the applicants seemed to be men" when he put together his cabinet. Massachusetts women's groups brought him "binders full of women", which helped lead to an admittedly diverse cabinet.
Points for Romney for wanting women in his cabinet. Problem is, why didn't he know any himself?
Never mind the fact that the so-called "binders full of women" had been assembled long before Governor Romney took office, certainly not at his behest. Hadn't he ever worked with any women whose performance merited consideration for his cabinet?
In any executive position, be it CEO or governor or president, there's a fantastic opportunity to surround yourself with people whom you personally know to be excellent performers. I blinked at the word "applicants," wondering if he didn't mean "appointees." Were these positions advertised on Monster.com? For all of Governor Romney's private sector experience, shouldn't he know dozens, even hundreds, of qualified folks that he'd want to work with as governor?
Instead of underscoring Romney's supposed commitment to workplace equality, the example he cited demonstrated a historical lack of diversity in his workplace experience. Had he made a concerted effort over his years in the private sector to recruit qualified women, he wouldn't have had to rely on any binders. He would have had plenty of appointees in mind right in his own Rolodex.
Governor Romney didn't even know enough women to staff his Massachusetts cabinet without outside help. What would this mean for representation of women in his presidential cabinet?
Image via moveon.org
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Comments 2
Governor Romney has run large companies, governed a state and run the Olympics. I think he knows a thing or two about hiring people and I don't think he'll have any problem appointing QUALIFED people to his presidential cabinet. He certainly has more experience than a community organizer, LOL
Governor Romney has:
1) run large companies into the ground and then raped and pillaged the spoils like a pirate....and left the government on the hook for the unemployed worker's pensions. He's also taken over companies, made the employees train their foreign replacements and also had them build a stage that management then stood on when they announced the layoffs and offshoring of the business. FYI - a government should not be run like a business. The goal of business is to provide the least amount of services for the most amount of profit. A government does not seek to make a profit.
2) governed a state for one term in which he took that state from 37th in job creation to 47th...only ahead of the states that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina! He left that position with a mere 36% approval rating and currently, the president is polling a full 20 points ahead of R-money in MA.
3) and run the Olympics after borrowing 1.5 BILLION dollars from the taxpayers. Even though he now says that he doesn't believe in stimulus funds for any reason.
He certainly DOES NOT have more experience than the community organizer.