Video: Did Romney alienate women voters?

>>> 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 binders of women .

>> everyone was wondering whether women 's issues would come up with a significant way. you heard it did. according to reuters. it was president obama 's pitch to women that put governor romney on the defensive which then led to that widely talked about and tweeted comment of the governor about binders full of women . let me bring you salon.com -- and there's fact checking going on about what wept down with this i guess governor romney saying he went looking for women to hire.

>> yes.

>> what is the story there?

>> first of all, romney wants a cookie for the bare minimum and making sure there's women at the table, 50% of the population and as it turns out that people that remember boston, massachusetts, during the romney administration know that in fact before anyone was even elected to that seat a group of women on both sides of the aisle came together and put that binder together and taking credit for something that was done before he showed up.

>> he hired half of the cabinet women .

>> he did have women represented but the number of women in high positions declined according to a study and further more, it's gone up again since duval patrick .

>> wanting for the credit for saying i made this action from your research and others that is not what happened.

>> that is false.

>> let's play governor romney on contraception last night, keith.

>> i don't believe that bureaucrats in washington should tell someone whether they can use contraceptives or not and employers whether they have care or not. every woman in america should have okay sestito contraceptives and the statement of my policy is completely and totally wrong.

>> he supported the amendment?

>> yes. he did. the funny is that he's contradicting himself almost every women 's issues and the idea that he's supporting contra septemberives for all women is flatly contradicted by the notion he says he's opposed to funding for planned parenthood which actually help provide contraceptives to poor women . you can't say you're favor of everybody having access to it and then strike down funding for it. in addition to what he did with the binder statement and the comment about the fair pay act, this guy was all over the place. i don't think he helped himself out on women 's issues.

>> something must be getting traction here. this is disputded by the obama administration and even slightly correct, there's closing in the gender gap here. the president doing enormously well and still is but, erin , if the polls are correct there's some movement and mitt romney 's picking up some steam with some female voters. obviously we don't vote just on medical issues or women 's health issues.

>> i think there's two things that need to -- we saw basically a narrowing of the gender gap and definitely still in president obama 's favor.

>> yes.

>> the other thing he was trying to do is, again, there's a small number of undecided voters and trying to do to motivate the base and excite them and the big part of that base is young women who are interested in making sure that their preductive rights are maintained and this access as you mentioned both through title x planned parenting funding and obama care and fully cover contraception through private insurance so i think it's, yes, absolutely the president has the task before him to remind everyone what's at stake here for women specifically and that's including undecided women but to talk to the women already with him and want to have a reason to turn out and feel like there's something at stake.

>> beyond the substance and the clear line between both of these men regarding women 's health issues, i want your thoughts on this. i'm going to play an undecided female voter. my producer was with a focus group .

>> the interaction between them was really aggressive. i thought it was a little rude at times. so that's not something that i was fond of. they made agreement beforehand not to directly argue with each other and they broke that.

>> erin , there were more than a handful of men on television today saying that the tone of the debate somehow would perhaps turn off women as if we can't take tough language, as if, i don't know that this is -- i don't want to say "leave it the beaver" because that was a favorite growing up as a kid but in the world of cable news battles we see every day, where is this story line coming up that women who are watching last night would shriek and be afraid of them? i believe that's what they say, we can't take it or too emotional. where does this come from other than one woman expressed the thought.

>> individual opinions may vary but talking about rudeness, look at mitt romney talked to candy crowly last night and dismissively treated her and didn't listen to her.

>> she fought back.

>> she absolutely did. yeah. it's absurd to suggest that women are meek and shrink back from this. there's politeness and then there's disrespectful.

>> a double standard , too. everybody was saying joe biden 's so aggressive, too much. now this week nobody's complain complaining about mitt romney . he was incredibly a bully last night.

>> to your point two weeks prior, the president wasn't tough enough and now people saying he was too tough this time around and which it has baffled me.

>> president obama was too --

>> yes. some conservatives who believe that, you know, this or that. doesn't make it true. that's my point. that's my point.

>> i think they just weren't expecting president obama to be so forceful as he was last night.

>> how could you not expect that?

>> on the women 's issues, the libya answer and most importantly that last comment he made about the 47%. that was genius right before the end of the debate when romney had no chance to respond. president obama was very forceful and women respond just as men do to say i'm glad we have somebody to stand up and fight for us.

>> i told someone as a woman, you don't want did guy do run behind the bar but the guy to stand in front of you at the bar fight . that's my opinion.

>> i think women want the hear a strong and vigorous defense of what you will do and done.

>> these are our lives. thank you so much, erin and keith. joining me now atlanta mayor reid. thank you so

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/49451967/

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