Republicans losing ground with US women (XIX Ammendment Alert)

AFP ^ | Jocelyne Zablit | 10/25/06

[presidio9]

Women voters, notably married moms, are turning away from the ruling Republican Party in the run-up to US legislative elections due, in part, to dissatisfaction with the Iraq war and domestic issues.

Polls and analysts say that unlike the 2002 and 2004 elections, when terrorism concerns and other security-related issues drove many women to support President George W. Bush and his Republican Party, these factors are no longer playing a key role.

"Women voters are turning more Democratic now than they were four years ago," Carroll Doherty, associate director of the Pew Research Center in Washington, told AFP. "Four years ago Republicans were running about even with Democrats among women, but now you see a big gain for the Democrats among women."

A poll conducted by the Pew Center in early October had 55 percent of women voters expressing support for the Democratic Party as opposed to 34 percent for the Republican Party.

"Women are very down on the Iraq war and their view of the president is also eroding," Doherty said. "Men are still pretty divided over the president but women disapprove of him two to one."

For Bush, who has prided himself in saying that his middle initial stands for women, the slipping support could spell trouble on election day as his party seeks to hang on to its majority in Congress and grapples with a series of corruption and ethics scandals.

Carrie Luka, vice president of the Independent Women's Forum, a conservative advocacy group in Washington, said she believes women may snub the Republicans on November 7 largely out of a sense of disappointment rather than to endorse Democratic policies.

"This election has become more of a referendum on the administration or on Congress itself and that definitely has the Republicans nervous," Luka told AFP. "The stories of corruption have made some women less likely to pull the Republican lever this time around."

But she warned that women considering voting for a change should think hard about the alternative.

"Even though a lot of people are sick of the Republican leadership ... they need to remember that they aren't really looking forward to a democratically controlled Congress either," Luka said.

Analysts, however, point out that the Democratic Party traditionally has fared better with women when it comes to domestic issues and they say that dissatisfaction with the Iraq war and terrorism-related issues could play in the party's favour come election day.

"The swing voters are usually women, and they care about domestic issues like health care, education, environment, and those are better issues for the Democrats," said James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington.

Page Gardner, president of Women's Voices Women Vote, a non-partisan organization, said the impact of women on US elections is enormous, especially when it comes to single women who are the fastest growing demographic in the country.

She said her group was particularly focusing during the current campaign on the 20 million unmarried women who failed to cast a ballot in 2004.

"The women's vote is so important in this country because they are the majority of voters," Gardner said. "So women have the power to decide elections."

[Little Ray]

Actually, its more like wondering why we we're taking casualties and letting the enemy get away with it:

Saddam's daughter is alive and well and financing terrorists - why is she (and her friends) still alive?

Mookie (Sadr) is a murdering pig - why is he still alive?
Iran is funding the terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere - why are they still pumping oil?

The Pushtun tribes in Afghanistan and Pakistan are supporting the Taliban and Al Qaeda - why aren't we "pacifying" them same way we did the Indians and the Moros?

And so on. We're fighting a "politically correct" war that seems to be going nowhere. We both know we need to fight. But the way we're fighting seems to be a waste of lives and money.

[Little Ray]

Its not that she or I have problems with fighting, but with how we're fighting. We'd like more positive results (more dead terrorists, sympathizers and sponsors, and destroyed infrastructure) and to go along with negative results (we haven't been attacked again).

[presidio9]

My mother raised NO fool!

Thanks for continuing to amuse me and countless lurkers with your stupidity. And for proving my point about you being the type of woman who couldn't live without having the last word.

Try this one on for size: Like women, the majority of black people also vote knee-jerk Democrat down the line. In addition to being a chauvinist, am I also a racist for pointing this one out?

Didn't you ever take a logic class in college, or did all of your academic instruction take place in classrooms with splattered paint on the floor?
Were all of your "professors" wearing smocks?

[Grammy]

Easy to do without emoticons. No blood, no foul.

8-)

[MEGoody]

We're fighting a "politically correct" war that seems to be going nowhere.

I don't disagree with that, and I think we need to take the gloves off. But I haven't forgotten why we went there in the first place, and I still think it was something we needed to do.