174. "I had binders full of women." Enough.

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We all know what Romney meant: "I had binders full of women's resumés."  It's the kind of shortcut we all take and expect it, if it's noticed at all, to produce only a moment of mild amusement, which we will participate in.

But this is an election year and you've got to make a big deal of anything that makes the guy on the other side look stupid.  It tickles your friends.  It makes the candidate's whole political base feel superior.  But it does nothing to win those who haven't taken sides yet, and may turn them off.

You're too eager, friends, friends of the base.  Eagerness was for the early days, the primaries, where any stick that beat a dog was a respectable stick.  Not so now, within two weeks of the election.  Intelligent independents are outside the partisan choir, listening to the music, and judging it — as a judgment on you.  They'll decide the election.

And what will they hear?  They'll hear you straining your wits, snapping at anything.  A sign of shallow minds.  "So that's his base.  Those are his friends." 

So lay off it.  You're making tinny music.  Only serious chords will register now.