Mitt Romney's Five Nuttiest Moments from the Second Presidential Debate Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/mi

As he was getting trounced in the second presidential debate last night, taking a pounding from President Obama on everything from his "sketchy deal" tax plan to his disdain for the 47 percent, Republican challenger Mitt Romney also got weird – on women's issues, guns, Bain Capital and more. [italic]Here are the top five Romney moments that made us shout "WTF?!" last night:[/italic] [bold]1. "Binders Full of Women"[/bold] Romney was hoping to communicate that he was a kindly boss who hired lots of womenfolk as governor of Massachusetts. But his tale of affirmative action took an unwelcome detour when he described his staff as presenting him with "binders full women" for him to peruse. Imagine for a second had Romney said he also compiled "binders full of blacks" (or Asians, gays, Jews – whatever) and you'll realize why that's really not an acceptable way to talk about human beings. The bizarre flub went viral, inspiring the brilliant bindersfullofwomen. tumblr. com – featuring hilarious spin-off images starring Hugh Hefner, Ryan Gosling and more. [bold]2. Single Moms Cause Mass Gun Violence?[/bold] Romney, the noted varmint hunter, said he'd do nothing to restrict the ownership of AK-47s – leading to one of Obama's better lines on the night: "I think Governor Romney was for an assault weapons ban before he was against it." That Romney now lines up with the NRA isn't terribly surprising. Where Romney really stepped in it was what came next – his suggestion that the root cause of tragedies like Columbine and Aurora is too many single moms. Unbidden, in the context of mass killing with assault weapons, Romney said the following: "But let me mention another thing, and that is parents. We need moms and dads helping raise kids. Wherever possible, the – the benefit of having two parents in the home." That prompted perhaps the tweet of the night from the writer Mary Pols: I'm a single mother and I just can't stop my 8 year-old from running around with his AK-47. I really need a husband. [bold]3. Bain Capital Was a Small Business?[/bold] In a discussion of tax policy, Romney suggested that his own career helped him understand the plight of the hungry entrepreneur: "I came through small business," he said. "I understand how hard it is to start a small business." One can only assume Romney means Bain Capital here, which was a start-up once, but nothing like what most Americans would classify as a small business. In fact, the leveraged buyout firm launched with millions in investment from Romney's boss, Bill Bain, who also guaranteed that Romney would have zero personal or professional risk if the venture didn't pan out. Now, that's a tale of gutsy risk-taking. What pluck! [bold]4. "I want to make sure we keep our Pell Grant program growing."[/bold] Romney returned to his habit of in-your-face lying on the subject of higher education funding. First he touted his days as governor of Massachusetts, when he put in place a program that allows the top quarter of every high-school class to attend a state college tuition-free. Then he claimed he'd continue to grow the Pell Grant program. That's a whopper. Not only has Romney called for an across-the-board, five percent cut to the Department of Education, his campaign has also said Romney would've signed the Ryan budget – which seeks to cut Pell Grants by 42 percent next year alone, eliminating aid for more than 1 million students.

http%3A//www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/mitt-romney



• [bold]5. "Lorraine"[/bold] Throughout the night, Romney had difficulty connecting with the town hall questioners. But he found one woman's name unreasonably perplexing. The transcript does the exchange justice: MS. CROWLEY: Governor, I want to move you along . . . Lorraine Osario has a question for you about a topic we have not heard — MR. ROMNEY: Is it Lorraina? Q: Lorraine. MR. ROMNEY: Lorraine? Q: Yeah, Lorraine, yeah. MR. ROMNEY: Great. Q: President — Romney, what do you plan on doing with immigrants without their green cards that are currently living here as productive members of society? MR. ROMNEY: Thank you, Lorraine. Did I get that right? Good.

  http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/mitt-romneys-five-nuttiest-moments-from-the-second-presidential-debate-20121017

  OP

• I still can't get past the fact that he tried -again- to use the fact that his WHITE Father, born of WHITE parents who ran to Mexico to avoid the US polygamy laws - as some kind of connection between himself and immigrants. [italic]Hey folks, My Grandfather had a kid in Mexico- so I know what it's like to have - um - Mexican relatives.. somewhere out there. [/italic]

• Maybe Lorraine can be hired along with the binders full of women

• Stinky linky

• The Libya moment was stunning because of how Obama asserted his presidential responsibility while calling Romney out on how insulting, and wrong, his accusation was. Brilliant and stunning.

• I got a fever And the only cure Is more binders full of women

• Didn't the Columbine killers each have two parents?

• Was the woman who said she voted for obama but is undecided now a personal friend of the Romneys? She's the one who asked Romney to differentiate himself from GWB. It seemed like a gift of a question. At the end of the debate, Mitt and Romney both gave her a big hug, like you would to an old friend. Someone should investigate this.

• Yeah, the Klebolds and the Harrises were both married, undivorced couples. They were the most spectacular school shooters in the world.

• Silly r9, Romney wasn't talking about white kids with one parent running around with guns. We all know that single white moms are pillars of society like Sara Palins daughter!!!

• r8, I thought it was a man that asked that final question. Although I agree with most everything on Rolling Stone's list, Obama also called Lorraine Lorena when it was his turn to answer. Also, did Mitt Romney call himself an immigrant because his father was born in Mexico? That was a head scratcher...

• And there were a few more: (6) "I like wind-jobs." (said while making a bowling-type gesture from his pants region) (7) Wacky aggro moment in Obama's face near the end: "oh yeah well what's in YOUR pension? What's in YOUR pension? What's in YOUR pension?" Obama cracked back "a lot less than what's in yours" and the audience flat out laughed at Romney. (8) I'll sidestep the question on gender and equal pay, and instead say that if we're gonna let women be in the workforce, we have to have flexible hours so the womenfolk can get home early enough to fix dinner for their families. That's important in today's workplace. (9) I'm all about affirmative action. Oh and contraception for women, yes, totally believe in that, I do. (10) To cap the night, I'll bring up out of the blue that I *do* care about 100% of Americans, I do, I do. This tees up Obama to bring up my politically toxic 47% comments as his closing statement and he gets the final word, I can't make any rebuttal. I'm smart that way.

  Torta

• What about shouting out "Government doesn't create jobs!" an hour after saying "We are going to create 12 million new jobs"

• Love you torta

• r13. That was a good one. Mittens debated himself again.

• I can well understand Romney winning the first debate hands down. However, I don't understand how the polls on last night's debate can be so close. Obama clearly won, perhaps not as dramatically as Romney won the first debate (by lying and stealth but he still won), but he certainly won.

• Mitt took them binders of women And stuffed them in his drawers And no one has seen them since.

• LOL.

• One of my favourite tweets: "Binders full of women? That's something you find in a serial killer's apartment!"

• Mittens came off as slightly unhinged at more than a few moments last night. Wandering, uncomfortable, whiny, and bossy. MSNBC's Chris Hayes made a point last night that I'm not sure has been explored enough--Romney was also a rule-breaker. Both campaigns carefully negotiated the rules for each debate and agreed to them. The rules for last night forbade either candidate to directly question the other. Romney broke that rule more than once (repeatedly, in fact, in the exchange about "your pension" alone). Not that it helped Romney at all--he looked petulant and disrespectful. And came off as the loser. But as Hayes said...what an attitude as a former CEO who surely knows exactly what was agreed to, and then to just ignore the agreement as if it meant nothing. Mitt should have not only lost but been called out for rule-breaking. I can't think of a moment Obama questioned Romney directly. If there was one, I missed it.