Did Mitt Romney really even have ‘binders full of women’

In a line that may as well have come out of the Romney “Gangham Style” parody (Heeeeey, wealthy ladies!), Mitt Romney admits to having “binders full of women.”

That’s just how Mitt rolls — and it already has its own URL.

Romney, in tonight’s town hall debate with President Barack Obama, speaking of inequalities in the workplace explained:  ”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 internet, doing its job, quickly started a meme and, a Twitter accountFacebook page and a music video.

Turns out though, Romney didn’t actually ask for binders full of women. According to David S. Bernstein of Boston’s The Phoenix:

“What actually happened was that in 2002 — prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration — a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.

They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.”

Beyond that, however, on a policy level, PBS commentator Mark Shields points out Romney’s binders story — if it’s even accurate — is affirmative action:

“That will be the clip that will be seen around the world, Mitt Romney. And the interesting thing about that is, he told the story about the women in his Cabinet, was that was affirmative action. That is affirmative action.

He got all these men. And he said, no, no, can’t we find some women? Go out and find some women. That’s the definition of affirmative action.”

The substantive debate, predictably, isn’t what’s buzzing on the internet this morning, it’s stuff like this:

Governorthatsnottrue.com is not far behind, which was also immediately registered, though not populated.

Chris Preovolos