Posted on 09/07/2006 7:33:04 AM PDT by Big Guy and Rusty 99
MACON, Ga.
President Bush's once-solid relationship with Southern women is on the rocks. "I think history will show him to be the worst president since Ulysses S. Grant," said Barbara Knight, a self-described Republican since birth and the mother of three. "He's been an embarrassment." In the heart of Dixie, comparisons to Grant, a symbol of the Union, is the worst sort of insult, especially from a Macon woman who voted for Bush in 2000 but turned away in 2004.
In recent years, Southern women have been some of Bush's biggest fans, defying the traditional gender gap in which women have preferred Democrats to Republicans. Bush secured a second term due in large part to support from 54 percent of Southern female voters while women nationally favored Democrat John Kerry, 51-48 percent.
"In 2004, you saw an utter collapse of the gender gap in the South," said Karen Kaufmann, a professor of government at the University of Maryland who has studied women's voting patterns. White Southern women liked Bush because "he spoke their religion and he spoke their values."
Now, anger over the Iraq war and frustration with the country's direction have taken a toll on the president's popularity and stirred dissatisfaction with the Republican-held Congress.
Republicans on the ballot this November have reason to worry. A recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that three out of five Southern women surveyed said they planned to vote for a Democrat in the midterm elections. With control of the Senate and House in the balance, such a seismic shift could have dire consequences for the GOP.
Democrats need to gain 15 seats in the House and six in the Senate to seize control.
In a sign of how crucial races in the South will be to the GOP national strategy, Bush was traveling to Georgia on Thursday to help former Rep. Max Burns raise money in his bid to unseat Democratic Rep. John Barrow. The president also will give a speech in Atlanta.
Knight lives in another congressional district considered competitive. Republicans hope to oust Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall, whose district was redrawn by the GOP-controlled Georgia Legislature to make it more conservative.
Voters like Knight could prove to be spoilers. The 66-year-old real estate agent doesn't particularly like Marshall, a hawkish Democrat and former Army Ranger, but she said she'll vote for him because she likes his conservative Republican opponent, former Rep. Mac Collins, even less.
"I'm going to go for the moderate, and these days that tends to be Democrats," Knight said.
Sandy Rubin, a high school teacher in Macon, voted for Bush and said she's also likely to vote for Marshall. Rubin said the GOP's focus on issues that appeal to social conservatives, such as gay marriage and abortion, have turned her off.
"I care about job security and education. The things I hear the Republicans emphasizing in their campaigns are not things that affect me or my family," said the 39-year-old mother of two.
The movement of some Southern women away from the Republican Party tracks with national poll results showing that women have become more disillusioned with the war and were more likely than men to list the conflict as the important issue facing the country.
Nationally, the AP-Ipsos poll found that only 28 percent of women approve of Bush's handling of the war. Bush did better in the South, but only slightly _ just 32 percent of women in the region said they approve of his handling of the war.
"I never did understand why we went into Iraq and didn't instead clean up the mess in Afghanistan first," Knight said.
Teresa Cranford, 39, also of Macon, said her support for Bush was lukewarm in 2004, but she ultimately voted for him so he could finish the job in Iraq. As the death toll has risen, so has her discomfort.
"I'm a mother and that makes me think differently about it," Cranford said.
Lynn Hamilton, 44, said she still supports Bush even though her backing for the ongoing war has waned.
"As a mother you worry, 'Am I going to lose my baby boy?'" said the Gray, Ga., resident. "A mother's view about war is often going to be a lot different than dad's is."
Neither Cranford nor Hamilton has decided how they plan to vote in the midterm elections, although neither ruled out voting for a Democrat.
"I'm not a straight party-line Republican anymore," Cranford said.
Still, some Southern women remain stalwart supporters of the president and the Republican Party. At a watermelon festival in Chickamauga, in the mountains of northwest Georgia, substitute teacher Clydeen Tomanio said she remains committed to the party she's called home for 43 years.
"There are some people, and I'm one of them, that believe George Bush was placed where he is by the Lord," Tomanio said. "I don't care how he governs, I will support him. I'm a Republican through and through."
"it is sad that you seem bitter about an awful lot of things."
Mostly, I'm bitter because it's hard to differentiate today's "Republicans" from Dummicrats. When the choices are tweedle-dum and tweedle-dumber, why bother to make a choice.
When all is said and done, it's irrelevant. Bush can never run for president again and most likely will never run for anything else.
The gain of all this however I fear has been squandered by those in this country who have attacked our Iraq plan for whatever reasons, political or otherwise. We now come across to our Arab enemies as being just as weak as when Slick Willie Klintoon cut and ran in Mogadishu. Or when Slick Willie further compounded the Arab world's impression of the United States as wussies by having Christian boys and girls fight and die to protect Moslems in Bosnia. A true sign of weakness in the Arab world.
Given the above mentioned moves by Slick Willie, among many other examples, I find myself amazed that you would call President Bush the worst President in history.
My apologies. Upon a closer re-read of your original statement, I see you used the phrasing, "among the worst in history".
"I suppose I will be classified as a non-thinking bushbot by you, but I think the Iraq war was the right move to show those in the Arab world who might wish to do harm to the United States, just what will happen to anyone that supports such an attack. With great ease we kicked the a** of the world's most powerful Arab army, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the other Arab countries of the world."
We all know that Saddam Hussein was a monster who richly deserved to be overthrown. What ticks me off is young Bush's Woodrow Wilson-like insistence on "making the world safe for democracy" and spending countless billions of OUR taxpayer dollars to rebuild a country we had just kicked the crap out of. Those freakin' Muslims wouldn't recognize democracy if it came up and bit 'em in the butt and with their oil riches, they can afford to rebuild themselves.
I don't know how or why it became the fashion in Washington to convert the rest of the world to the American model but IMO, there is more than a grain of truth in those charges of "American imperialism". Screw the rest of the world, I say. We have far more than enough on our plate to take care of without worrying about Joe Sixpack (or whatever they're called) in Muslimstan.
My descendants and yours, and THEIR descendants, will be paying for the bills run up by America's politicians for probably centuries to come and that pisses me off.
So you think we should have just pulled out of Germany on May 9th, 1945?
Googling "barbara knight macon" brings up hits for an active librarian and board member of the League of Women Voters in Georgia. I'd say those are two suspect classes when someone "self-identifies" as a Republican for a news article.
I'm in the South, am a woman and have women friends all across the South, and I don't know anybody that feels this way.
Bet they looked REALLY hard to get a cross section of opinions here.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
"So you think we should have just pulled out of Germany on May 9th, 1945?"
Yep - Japan too on Aug 15, 1945. And why do we still have troops in Korea more than 50 years after that little dustup ended?
You see, gatorman, as a career soldier, my philosophy is "to the victor goes the spoils". Losers cry and winners laugh is another adage I like.
I guarantee if we left Germany on May 9, we would have been back to fight the Russkies.
Just as if we leave Iraq in shambles, inevitably we would have to return.
Choices are difficult. They call for information, judgment and discrimination. I think you are missing a lot of information if you cannot discriminate between Republican administrations/Congress and Democrat administrations/Congress.
Note that my screen name reflects when I started to see things more clearly. Prior to that, I voted for George McGovern and Jimmy Carter. Now I wonder how much better the world would be had Gerald Ford (a semi-RINO) been re-elected over Carter.
"I guarantee if we left Germany on May 9, we would have been back to fight the Russkies.
Just as if we leave Iraq in shambles, inevitably we would have to return."
You know the biggest problem we have with politicians in this country?
We have the means to totally defeat any potential enemy in this world, to the point we never have to worry about them again. What has always been lacking is the political will among the governing classes.
Where's George Patton or William T. Sherman when we need 'em most?
I agree.
None of my southern women friends (myself included) who were in favor of the war in '03 have budged off of their original convictions, despite the media's fervent attempts to paint it as a failure.
"I wonder how much better the world would be had Gerald Ford (a semi-RINO) been re-elected over Carter."
Not much, IMO. I think we need more Ronald Reagans, George Washingtons, Thomas Jeffersons and Andrew Jacksons.
Karl calls the shots around here. I'm surprised that you didn't know this. Though I'm proud to say that I do have my own personal set of keys to the Rove Weather Machine.
I'm beginning to understand why I decided to become a Libertarian.
A Libertarian? Suuure you are.
The mainstream media must've gotten to her.
-snip
"I'm not a straight party-line Republican anymore," Cranford said.
Really? What has this "straight party-line Republican" been doing with this pro-Democrat group?
http://georgiawomenvote.com/calendar.cfm
_________________________
March 12, 2005
Women's History Month Celebration!
Secretary of State, Cathy Cox, will be our keynote speaker as we honor Middle Georgia women leaders! Wesleyan College, Peyton Anderson Building Rep. Nikki Randall, Mrs. Teresa Cranford, Co-Chairs 3 PM
_________________________
Take a look at a couple other entries of their past events:
September 2, 2004
Seeing Red ... Feeling Blue?
An evening gathering of Kerry & ABBB fans to watch the acceptance speech. A time to share and energize for the sprint to the finish! We will dring and eat and celebrate the Kerry - Edwards campaign and the last days of the GWB occupancy of 1600 Penn. Ave.
Buffalo's Southwest Cafe
NE GA W4K
9pm - 11pm
August 30, 2004
Debates
Please join me to watch the first of the debates between John Kerry, a brilliant prosecutor that exudes intellectual curiosity, and George W. Bush, a man who can't read a teleprompter properly and admits he doesn't even read newspapers. This should be good.
25 Forest Brook Dr., Covington, GA 30016
Sarah Morris
7:00pm
I think we are still working in Afghanistan.
I'm well aware of that. Still working, but we did go into Afghanistan first, knocked down the Taliban and did to Afghansitan in two weeks what the soviets couldnt do in 10 years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.