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Politics | 08/19/2008 9:03 am

McCain Not a Ladies' Man?

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
© AP

Barack Obama’s campaign is trying to convince Americans that John McCain won’t be successful in wooing women voters.

Dana Singiser, who oversees Barack Obama’s women’s outreach efforts, issued a memo Monday, arguing that the Republican presidential hopeful made a major effort to reach women voters in June because he’s so far behind his Democratic opponent in garnering the female vote.

"Despite his campaign’s outreach efforts, McCain’s attempt to bridge the gender gap has fallen flat," wrote Singiser. "He fares worse among women than any presidential candidate since Bob Dole in 1996."

Singiser, who is a former Hillary Clinton aide, noted that women have outvoted men in every election since 1964, and that during this year’s Democratic primaries, the women’s vote reached at least 59 percent in 14 states.

"During the Democratic National Convention next week we will mark Women’s Equality Day, the anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States,” she said. “Eighty-eight years after the right of American women to vote was written into our Constitution, the women’s vote will make the difference in this election."

CBS News and CNN note that McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds did not respond directly to the Singiser memo, but said: "Barack Obama is spinning this issue to disguise his support for higher taxes, and refusing to acknowledge that the legislation he’s promoting has more to do with paychecks for trial lawyers than the struggles of working women."

Bounds said the Equal Pay Legislation, which Obama supports, would benefit trial lawyers in part because it could lead to frivolous lawsuits.

Here are five reasons, according to the Obama campaign, that McCain can’t get the women vote:

1.) Women voters don’t trust McCain because of his extreme positions on the key issues important to them. Obama leads McCain by 10 points (42% vs. 32%) when it comes to which candidate women trust more. (The August 5 poll also found that 14% said they trust neither, and 5% trust both.)

2.) Women want change from the last eight years of neglect for America’s middle-class families and women’s economic security.

3.) Equal Pay: 77% of women believe the next president should address the issue of providing women with equal pay for equal work. McCain has opposed legislation to provide more effective remedies to victims of pay discrimination, and legislation to overturn the Ledbetter decision — a pay discrimination case filed by Lilly Ledbetter against Goodyear. The case was thrown out last year by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision delivered by conservative Justice Samuel Alito.

4.) Health Care Costs: McCain’s health-care plan "isn’t expected to make a major dent in the number of uninsured Americans," and he would – for the first time in our nation’s history – tax health-care benefits. Only 27% of women are very confident that they will be able to afford health care for themselves and their families. There is a disproportionate number of women who are uninsured or in danger of losing their coverage.

5.) Women’s Reproductive Rights: 62% of women believe that Roe v. Wade established a constitutional right, but McCain has bragged about consistently receiving a zero rating from pro-choice group NARAL during his 25-year voting career. McCain has repeatedly voted against federal funding for family planning, and accessibility of contraceptives for women. McCain’s support among Republican pro-choice women dropped by 9% after hearing his positions.

188 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

James the Game
I’m very familiar with that Daisy campaign, it’s historical. Have seen it more than once. I just think we’ve said our piece, so to speak, in Iraq, now let’s get out of there, and focus on rebuilding the economy here at home, and helping people find jobs, get adequate health-care and save money for college, etc. - all the things that have been neglected during the past 8 years. Diana provided a great link, DeB’…don’t know if you saw it…a POW gives his views on McCain: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,164859_1,00.html .
By James the Game on 08/20/2008 12:27 am
DeBúrca obj
No I had not seen Diana’s link, thanks I’ll check it out.
By DeBúrca obj on 08/20/2008 12:37 am
Dona Howlett
Very informative article………. Thanks for giving the link.
By Dona Howlett on 08/21/2008 1:37 am
James the Game
P.S. Off subject, but when you mentioned “Daisy”, it brought to mind Marlo Thomas, who we both adore, DeB’. Here is a clip of her receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992. You women like Ted Bessell, and he’s in the video, too, briefly. I thought he was a great guy, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03gUNqD0as4
By James the Game on 08/20/2008 12:37 am
DeBúrca obj
You know what? I saw this before, it’s great fun to watch!
By DeBúrca obj on 08/20/2008 12:38 am
rocky rocky
DeBúrca — I am bursting with questions about current US involvement in Eastern Europe. I don’t expect you to answer but I sure wish we had a place on Wow to discuss. My latest: Bush is giving “missle defense system” (nukes?) to Poland. Why does he expect Russia to act any differently than we did in the Cuban missle crisis? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/20/rice-signs-missile-defens_n_120… http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR200803 http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/15/content_9328504.htm
By rocky rocky on 08/20/2008 11:41 am
rocky rocky
And another one: Who’s the bad guy? If Cuba were to attempt to annex Puerto Rico against the will of its people, the U.S. is likely to be all over that island doing its best to kick out Cuba. Is that what Russia is doing in aiding South Ossetia in breaking away from or defending itself against Georgia? http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/world/europe/09georgia.html?fta=y http://antiwar.com/pat/index_pat.html And one more: In the 1800s the Monroe Doctrine told Europe that the U.S. would view as hostile any action/war that occurred within its sphere of influence. How is it different for Medvedev to say that if any foreign entity tries to kill Russian citizens within Russia’s sphere of influence, that entity will receive a “shattering blow”? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4557369.ece
By rocky rocky on 08/20/2008 12:25 pm
DeBúrca obj
rocky thanks for the links I will definitely check them out. We really need to arm ourselves with facts because I don’t like the way this conflict is being covered and the bias toward Georgia… it feels like we are trying to start something and of course, oil is involved as usual. If McCain gets in I am really worried about where this is headed in the next few years if not the immediate future.
By DeBúrca obj on 08/20/2008 1:05 pm
rocky rocky
So glad I’m not alone in the dark! Looking forward to talking another time …
By rocky rocky on 08/20/2008 1:13 pm
Frannie Em
Rocky Ossetia was lobbing small missiles into Georgia, and then Georgia showed up on it’s borders with tanks, Ossetia lobbed more, Georgia shot back and Russia was waiting to go in. It was orchestrated by an old Kremlin General who wanted to show Georgia and Poland and the other democratly elected governments who was running the show.
By Frannie Em on 08/22/2008 7:50 pm
rocky rocky
aahhhh, I see. So Russia is misbehaving. Thank you, Frannie Em. It was kind of you to explain. — Rocky
By rocky rocky on 08/22/2008 8:38 pm
Diana T
Speaking of rotting economy, James, here is the editorial from todays NYTimes. This is yet another subject that is not being discussed the way it should be. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/opinion/20wed1.html?th&emc=th there’s an awfully lot of women, and men too, but older women and widows like me that need to be thinking about this if they are going to cross over because if McCain is elected, it’s going to be more of the same.
By Diana T on 08/20/2008 10:27 am
James the Game
There certainly is no time to waste, Diana, as the editorial attests. I’m just afraid the horse is out of the barn, and it’s going to be very hard getting the economic train going in the other direction now that it’s moving downhill. How can we replace a milliion manufacturing jobs lost, many of them to foreign countries? The economy will lag as long as people aren’t working and pumping money into it. The Bush Administration is finally waking up to the urgency of the crisis…now that there are only five months left to its existence.
By James the Game on 08/20/2008 11:02 am
georgia fatwood
on ever-lovin’ I-64
By georgia fatwood on 08/20/2008 4:28 pm
Susan B
Diana, you can always be depended upon to be a voice of reason. Thank you for providing us with facts and sources of info (v. opinion) about these issues, and for being a calm voice amongst a storm of controversy. Just when things are about to go up in flames in a thread, you help us all chill and think. Please stay with us. I have to say, my politics these days are mostly grounded in a concern for my 16 year old daughter and her future. So I’m voting for both the short and the long term issues (on my daughter’s behalf). What kind of a country and cultural environment do we want to leave to our daughters? We are defining it today, and especially, with this election. I ask everyone to please put any blind party allegiances aside, and think about your girls when you enter that voting booth. I promise you, they will have much, much bigger fish to fry than finding husbands to watch over them.
By Susan B on 08/20/2008 8:46 pm