Biden Appears to Have His 'Binders Full of Women' Moment

Leah Barkoukis | May 11, 2020 2:30 PM

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appears to have had his "binders full of women" moment, according to a New York Times report about his selection of a running-mate.

As you'll recall, Mitt Romney was skewered during the 2012 campaign after he awkwardly spoke about his efforts to recruit women for government positions as governor of Massachusetts, referring to them as "binders full of women."

Biden apparently views vice presidential candidates in a similarly strange way: as calendar models.

"In private encounters before this campaign, Mr. Biden has likened running-mate evaluation to deciding among calendar models, with three broad categories (and outdated honorifics): Contenders can be a 'Mr. August' (a shot of momentum in the summer), a 'Mr. October' (a reliable and effective campaigner for the fall) or a 'Mr. January' (a governing partner, politics notwithstanding)," The New York Times reports.

Some close to Mr. Biden say that his process will be informed by one intuitive, if often overlooked, fact: He thinks he was a very good pick — a combination of Mr. October and Mr. January, at minimum — and views his own blend of résumé and campaign chops with high regard.
“It was a governing pick with political benefits,” Anita Dunn, a top adviser to Mr. Biden in 2020 and to Mr. Obama in 2008, said with a laugh. “The best kind of governing pick.”
Yet as much as any figure in modern politics, Mr. Biden appreciates the power and peril of an “August”-style spectacle: He was once the Democrat responsible for neutralizing one, while subsisting in [Palin's] reflected glow. (NYT)

Twitter users did a double-take.