While the debate, which took place at Hofstra University in the state of New York, amounted to little more than political point scoring and very little substance on proposed policies, internet monkeys busied themselves creating memes.
Romney’s clanger came as the question was raised about working conditions for women. Romney quickly recounted a story of his time as Massachusetts governor searching through “whole binders full of women” to find new staff members, which many commentators saw as condescending as well as being a particularly unusual phrase.
Soon #bindersfullofwomen was trading on Twitter and cheeky memes were being created for Tumblr. The Facebook page by the same name already has 200,000+ fans.
Memes like this by HeyVeronica quickly appeared on Tumblr during and after the debate
Obama took an opportunity to mock his opponent’s wealthy background and Chinese investment portfolio saying with a grin “I don’t look at my pension. It’s not as big as yours so it doesn’t take as long,” when Romney suggested that Obama look at investments for his personal pension.
With the penultimate bout over – the candidates will face each other one more time in Florida next week – CNN declared Obama the debate winner with 46% to Romney’s 39%. CBS put the figures at 37% Obama against 30% for Romney.
Watch the debate in it’s entirety below.
Images: Getty
There are going to be #bindersfullofwomen voting for Obama on Nov.6.
— Robbie Sherwood (@RobbieSherwood) October 17, 2012
“I don’t always use binders…. But when I do, I like them full of women”#bindersfullofwomen
— Big Bird (@BigBirdRomney) October 17, 2012
