even in more, answered the george w. bush question. that was a massive applause. and kind of put that done. we re not sure, but maybe. we have been talking for eight minutes. who haven t we talked about? ben carson. he has been number two, the only other front runner in double digits. there was a memorable moment. you re in the lead so you can t even pull out a a ben carson moment may be troubling. carson, less is more. carson is playing off the heat of the race. there s so much conflict in the way the candidates are banging on each other. carson is counterprogramming.
reform. he didn t call for self-deportation. george bush never suggested that we eliminate funding for planned parenthood. so, there are differences between governor romney and george bush, but they re not on economic policy. in some ways, he s gone to a more extreme place when it comes to social policy. and i think that s a mistake. any further discussion, gentleman? no. from there, they moved on. the george w. bush question, settled. for undecided voters, who very reasonably might be worrying about putting another republican in the white house, since the last guy was george w. bush, this is what was ringing in your years last night if you ve ever thought about that problem. and actually, in terms of the day two coverage, or even the late, late night coverage after the debate wrapped up last night, in terms of fact checking that whole exchange, george w. bush did hint at privatizing medicare, which the president referenced there.
problem. the republican party put out this picture of a binder, an empty binder and said, this is president obama s binder, his binder of policies. see how it s empty?! see, obama s the one with the hilarious binder! did you hear a binder thing from the debate! it was a thing about obama! this is insane, right? but this is what they do. this is their trick. war on women? your war on women. the overall problem here is that mr. romney brought up the binder story as a way of avoiding answering a very direct question on policy, which is, does he support fair pay for women? his running mate, after all, voted against the lily ledbetter fair pay act, and the question s first response about that question, the response was memorably noncommittal. does governor romney support the lily ledbetter act? sam, we ll get back to you on that. that was six months ago. last night, this was still an unanswered question.
that the romney campaign s position on this subject is any particular thing, but the fact that it s not any particular thing. the fact that mapping their position on this relatively straightforward subject lacks like a jackson pollack painting. this is not drip art. this is a simple issue. tens of millions of american women right now, who have health insurance, do not have to pay extra for contraceptives under their health plans. and insurance regulation says if contraception something you want, you do not have to pay extra for it, above your premiums. it s covered under what you pay for your premiums. millions of american women are covered by that. that is because of president obama. what is the mitt romney position on that? well, i m glad you asked. do you have a second or an hour? when republicans decided to make this new regulation an issue back in the spring, mitt romney was asked then, do you think your boss should be able to block you from having access to contraception? and mr.
administration officials advising the romney campaign. but even they, you would think, would be sort of cognizant of how people view that administration, right? you think they would recognize that there is a little political peril in trying to underscore to a country that is really paying attention right now that everybody should expect a lot of continuity between the george w. bush years and a romney presidency. if you like the george w. bush years and you miss all those folks, like condoleezza rice, don t worry, if you elect romney, you ll see more of them again. this came up last night in what i thought was a brilliant question from one of the audience members at that debate at hofstra, and it got right at the central problem that the republicans have been dealing, since the support for romney creatored during the george w. bush second term. the greatest show on earth has been the republican party figuring out who it is after bush and cheney. the republican party figuring out if the