Yes, it was serious; I’m not a baker, and when I need flour for something, I buy a two lb bag of some organic whole grain trendy flour, use half a cup, double bag it, store it in a dark cool place, and throw it out the next time I need flour.
You might have a higher opinion of the privileged elite than others. Some of us think, “What can you expect? The poor guy’s been rich all his life, and doesn’t know where to buy a clue.”
Surely we remember all the highly qualified women at Bain Capital. And I think it speaks very well of his tolerance of alternate lifestyles than his entire staff of financiers was cross dressing women!
Store it in your freezer and it will be good for next time. 
Romney’s mother was a moderate, a role model for her kids by running for elected office. So I don’t get the complete aw shucks attitude towards women in the work force or lack there of, unless it is a convenience that helps him navigate a land mine issue for him.
My memories of Romney’s father’s time as governor of Michigan is a bit hazy, what with the passage of time, but his father never struck me as the sort of clueless dork Mitt is.
Sorry, but no, we don’t require head counts. Not to mention, they were pretty much killed by Bakke back in the 1970s.
It’s as if you have a picture in your head of what libruls are all about, and you think that’s reality. There was a time when parts of your picture may have even been true, but damn, a lot of water’s been under the bridge since then.
No, he did that himself. He was the one who said that, in two-thousand-fucking-two, not freakin’ 1974, he didn’t know very many qualified women on his own, so he needed the binders.
(ETA: This actually didn’t confirm any preconceived idea I’d had of Romney. Lord knows I’ve found plenty of fault with the man, but this one took me by surprise.)
I mean, what has he been, the Boy In The Bubble?
(A bubble made up of a loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires, of course. Hey, at least I gave you a good earworm, for once. :D)
Last I bought flour at Costco, it was a 50-lb bag for about $20. I’m not a professional baker. It lasted the bulk of the year. A 5-pound bag will go fast. That will make about 10 thin crust 14-inch pizzas, or about 5-6 if you’re going for a thicker pan or Sicilian crust.
But the “binders full of women” comments was just clueless & dorky. So, no, no outrage over that.
Women need flex time? Only irritation; statistically, women do handle most of the life chores, apparently. It would be nice to have a male major public figure suggest that more men pull their weight in that department, but I can’t complain on that issue.
No, I save my outrage for healthcare in general and reproductive health care in particular.
You say clueless and dorky, I say deliberate and cynical. See, it’s guys like this who use their apparent “cluelessness” to ensure the glass ceiling never get smashed. It’s up to those who care about this issue to call him out everytime. If we just say oh he’s just being Mitt, then CEOs and Governors gets license to never move beyond 1950 when it comes to equality in the work place. There’s a reason why Mitt is so low in the polls in his home state. The complete myopic viewpoint is just one of the myriad of reasons why. It’s absolutely so pathetic that the only progressive act he has done when it comes to bettering the status of women in the workplace is pointing out a binder that he had absolutely nothing to do with.
I haven’t seen outrage over the line. I’ve seen derisive laughter over the line (and not-so-derisive laughter over the line from conservatives). I’ve seen outrage over the attitude it embodies, which I think is justified and about substance. I guess it depends on how you define “substance,” though.
Anyway, “binders full of women” is illustrative, not demonstrative; it fits on a bumper sticker, whereas an 800-word column/blog post (e.g., the one in the Phoenix) on Romney’s sexist actions does not.
The outrage is that he didn’t support the Ledbetter Law. The outrage is that his answer to a question on equal pay boiled down to “some of my best employees are women, like my secretary and my maid” and “well, they should be home cooking dinner anyway.” “Binders full of women” is just funny.
That’s not actually true, not the “requires head counts” part. Liberals ask that people not be arbitrarily ignored, which isn’t the same as insisting that people be arbitrarily hired/admitted.
It would also seem to be bad business to arbitrarily ignore qualified people, so I don’t know why liberals and conservatives have so little common ground on this
I think the attitude he’s demonstrated towards equality is an issue of substance. Shirley Sherrod’s supposed racism was pitched as substance. But when it’s your guy suddenly “substance” means “the economy and maybe the war, and nothing else.”
I make a loaf of bread almost every week, and my girlfriend makes desserts with some regularity. And other things use with flour – even a tabelspoon at a time, it adds up. We buy a five-pound bag of flour almost every week.
That’s just kinda icing on the failcake, there. The fact that he didn’t know anyone who was qualified for an important position who was female is pretty bad to begin with; that he also didn’t care to, well …
I don’t see how you can call the “binders full of women” remark deliberate and cynical; it was just another example of Romney being impossibly tone deaf and out of touch with the lives of most of the population.
Most of the population because I can assure that most men do not think the wives’s salaries are insignificant, and most fathers wouldn’t mind a little flex time themselves, when the little woman has a meeting in another state.
As for why Romney is some unpopular in his so called home state - I assume you are referring to Massachusetts - I’ll tell you why, it’s because that … person looked us all right in the eye and lied. He just lied. He told us he was not using Massachusetts as a short step to a presidential run, and then he used us as a short step to a presidential run, stepping right on a couple of prominent Republicans he probably thought should have been home baking cookies along the way.
No matter what you think of Swift and Healy, both were just patted on the ass and then kicked in the teeth by Romney and the party. God, I still remember the rage I felt when that smug self-righteous prig told Swift her behavior was “unbecoming” during a debate.
And he either lied to us then or he’s been lying to the rest of the country ever since. Hell, probably both, if he has enough understanding of the concept of truth to lie; I guess if you think you words are just whatever you say to get what you want, “lie” has no meaning.
I’ve asked it before, and I’ll ask it again - How can anyone who supports the Republican Party platform vote for a man who got elected in Massachusetts?
He is a nasty, hypocritical, lying, smug, self-righteous prig, who can’t go a week without a major gaffe, because he doesn’t know or care about anything beyond getting his privileged lilly-white ass into the Oval Office, where he can implement his plans for what the rest of us should do.
So don’t try to tell me why his is not popular in Massachusetts.
However, “binders full of women” was just a funny gaffe.
Rap-band name!
As far as I can tell, the issue with the most “substance” for Republicans is the distinction between calling something an “act of terror” and calling it a “terrorist attack.” Also, whether you do so at the beginning of the speech, or four minutes in.
Presumably they’re having their flour shipped in from Italy and their beef flown in from Kobe to their personal shopper. Just think how much Bollinger could be bought if we eliminated Social Security!
There’s also the imagery of some old Mormon flipping through binders full of women to find his future brides.
Knowing how Mittens likes to exaggerate, they were probably Duo-Tang’s full of women rather than binders.
I don’t think that anyone was outraged. It was just a silly, inarticulate way of making his point. He could have said that he “reviewed many binders filled with resumes from qualified female candidates” and it wouldn’t have garnered a second look. “Binders filled with women” is just a funny double entendre.
R Money already has this one covered.
If there’s outrage I haven’t seen it, more like mocking, but even the mocking is stupid; It’s perfectly clear what he meant and that his meaning wasn’t offensive.
Good for a chuckle? Perhaps, but it’s should have been forgotten about a long time ago.
His meaning actually was offensive (also, it was misleading at best).
