美国有线新闻 CNN 2012-10-21

 Hey, I’m Anderson Cooper. Welcome to the Podcast. Mitt¹ Romney talks about his record on women and starts an Internet sensation, but the question remains² what about his record on women. “Keeping Them Honest,” also the “RidicuList.” Let’s get started.

We will begin tonight "Keeping Them Honest" with Mitt Romney's record on women and something he said at the debate last night, something that's turned kind of silly but might actually have serious consequences for the campaign because it involves a key voting group - women. 

 

Now you may already know what we're talking about. Even if you didn't watch the debate last night, you're probably familiar by now with the phrase "binders⁴ full of women." It's now a full-fledged Internet phenomenon. Take a look. About 140 million hits and counting on Google. "Binders full of women" is one of the several hot Twitter hash tags now. There's a Tumbler page loaded with photos, cute phone, snarky photos, binders of unicorn⁵, sharks through the rainbow tones, Hillary Clinton, Fat Bastard⁶, you name it. 

 

When the going gets weird⁷, the weird turn pro³, it seems. The "binders of women" phrase began minutes literally⁸, just minutes after Mitt Romney uttered those words responding to a question about equal pay for women. Mr. Romney pointing to his hiring process when he first became governor of Massachusetts. Listen. 

 

And I said, well, gosh, can't we, can't we find some women that are also qualified⁹? And so 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. 

 

So that's the somewhat silly phrase. Now here's the totally serious context on why it's important to break it down. Women may decide this election, as you probably know. Look at this from the latest Gallup Poll of swing states. President Obama's formerly¹⁰ big advantage among female voters appears to be gone. Now other polling shows a bigger gender¹¹ gap in President Obama's favor, but whatever the size of it actually is, and Mitt Romney can successfully narrow that gap, that would make the president's road to re-election very, very difficult, nearly impossible. 

 

Campaigning today in Virginia, Mr. Romney said the president has failed America's women and as you just saw, he was touting¹² his own record last night claiming that he, quote, "went to a number of women's groups," and said, "Can you help us find folks." But "Keeping Him Honest," that's not quite true. There's a problem with the timeline. We want to look at that tonight. 

 

The group in question, a nonpartisan outfit¹³ called the Massachusetts Government Appointments Project, MassGAP, actually approached him. They put out a statement today saying, and I quote, "Prior to the 2002 gubernatorial election, MassGAP approached the campaigns of candidates Shannon O'Brien and Mitt Romney." 

So they want, they went to him and his Democratic opponent as well. Not as he claimed the other way around. 

 

In addition, Mr. Romney last night credited the recruiting effort that followed with helping¹⁴ him bring so many qualified women on board. And today the campaign put out this from the former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey. Quote, "As we took office, our administration actively¹⁵ sought to recruit the best and brightest women the Commonwealth¹⁶ had to offer. And Governor Romney wasn't just checking a box." 

 

But "Keeping Them Honest," though, in 2007, a MassGAP study reveals that even though it started out strong, female recruitment dropped off by the end of his term, went from 42 percent female in the first 2 and 1/2 years to 27.6 percent. 

 

Running mate Paul Ryan rose to his boss, the, his boss' defense¹⁷ today saying, quote, "He was an exceptional record, he has an exceptional record of hiring women in very prominent positions in his administration and that's the point he was making last night." 

 

As for the Obama campaign, well, they've certainly seen an opening.

1 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

4 binders   

n.（司机行话）刹车器；（书籍的）装订机( binder的名词复数 )；（购买不动产时包括预付订金在内的）保证书；割捆机；活页封面

参考例句：

• Propellant binders based on these materials have excellent mechanical properties and good performance. 用这些材料制成的推进粘结剂的工作性能很好，而机械性能则更为突出。 来自辞典例句
• The and inferior binders fabrication process has become much more important. 黏合剂制作工艺优劣显得更加重要。 来自互联网

5 unicorn   

n.(传说中的)独角兽

参考例句：

• The unicorn is an imaginary beast.独角兽是幻想出来的动物。
• I believe unicorn was once living in the world.我相信独角兽曾经生活在这个世界。

6 bastard   

n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子

参考例句：

• He was never concerned about being born a bastard.他从不介意自己是私生子。
• There was supposed to be no way to get at the bastard.据说没有办法买通那个混蛋。

7 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

10 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

11 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

12 touting   

v.兜售( tout的现在分词 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报

参考例句：

• He's been touting his novel around publishers for years. 他几年来一直到处找出版商兜售自己的小说。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Technology industry leaders are touting cars as a hot area for growth. 科技产业领袖吹捧为增长热点地区的汽车。 来自互联网

13 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

14 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

15 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

16 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

17 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。