Does President Obama need a couple of binders full of women and minorities to help him restock his cabinet? He unsuccessfully sought to nominate U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, an African-American woman, to replace outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and his top gun cabinet members at State, Defense and the CIA will be older white guys.

During Tuesday's daily press briefing, reporters wanted to know what's up with that.

"The president values diversity, believes it's important, because it enhances the quality of the pool of potential nominees for positions across the administration," White House spokesman Jay Carney replied. "He believes that by looking broadly for candidates for offices that ups the chances he’ll find the very best person for the job."

The president's final decisions, he added, will be guided by finding the best individual to fill a specific spot.

But as Obama's choices so far suggest that the term-two cabinet will be less diverse than the first, the temptation was too much for one reporter to resist recalling the obvious.

"Check your binder for that," quipped Bloomberg's Hans Nichols, recalling Republican rival Mitt Romney's infamous debate gaffe about the "binders full of women" he received to diversify his gubernatorial staff.

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(Photos fromLeft: Alex Wong/Getty Images, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)