Romney's '47 percent' chosen best quote

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Mitt Romney's comments about 47 percent of the population dependent on the government and about "binders full of women" topped this year's best quotes, according to a Yale University librarian.

Fred Shapiro of the Yale Law School library issued his seventh annual list of the most notable quotations of the year.

"Debate remarks and gaffes actually seemed to play an important role in the ups and downs of the election campaign and may even have affected the ultimate outcome of the election," Shapiro said.

Romney, who lost in November to President Barack Obama, made the 47 percent comment at a private fundraiser in May that was secretly recorded and posted online in September by Mother Jones magazine.

He spoke about reviewing "binders full of women" as governor when he sought to diversify his Massachusetts administration.

Obama made the list, too, for his "you didn't build that" comment, his contention that people who built businesses had help, from teachers, family and other supporters -- and sometimes the government.

"It was probably the leading line that Obama wished he hadn't made during this year," Shapiro said.

Obama's "horses and bayonets" debate rebuke of Romney in an exchange over the size of the Navy also made the list.

Others on the list:

"Please proceed, Governor." Obama, second presidential debate, Hempstead, Oct. 16 (lead-in to Romney's denial that Obama had called Libya attack an act of terrorism).

"If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Missouri senatorial candidate Todd Akin, KTVI-TV interview, Aug. 19.

"You hit a reset button for the fall campaign; everything changes. It's almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again." Romney senior campaign adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, CNN interview, March 21.

"I'm an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability." Socialite Jill Kelley, telephone call to a 911 dispatcher, Tampa, Fla., Nov. 11, about media crews that came to her home as news broke of her involvement in the scandal over the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus.