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Are Women Shunning Obama? Pollster Says No

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June 09, 2008 1:39 PM

USA TODAY's 'On Politics' blog reports: There's been much written and You-Tubed about supporters of Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton who are having trouble making the switch to presumptive nominee Barack Obama -- and say they may never. Or may never unless he puts Clinton on the ticket with him as vice president.

Are women a big problem for Obama? Maybe not. At least one poll shows rapid recent movement to Obama overall among Democrats, including women.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen says that as of today, based on 3,000 automated telephone surveys over the past three nights, Obama gets support from 52% of the women in his national tracking poll compared with 40% for presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. He says that's better than Democrat John Kerry did with women against President Bush in 2004.

Scott attributes Obama's performance to unification within the Democratic Party over the past few days. "Before last Tuesday, Obama routinely earned around 70% of vote from Democrats," he tells us in an e-mail. "He's up to 81% today. Clearly the party has been coming together."

That said, the results this fall in individual states and in down-ballot races could turn on how enthusiastically Clinton's followers embrace Obama.

Ana Cruz, co-founder of Florida for Hillary, tells USA TODAY's Fredreka Schouten that female candidates could be hurt if Clinton's supporters stay home. She says three female Democratic candidates are seeking congressional seats in Florida alone.

Cruz, a Tampa public-relations executive and a former executive director of the state Democratic Party, says she and other Clinton backers are looking for more detail from Obama. "People are going to want to hear specific policy initiatives," she tells Fredreka. "It's talking to white, single mothers about affordable health care, the price of gas and the economy."

Obama embarked today on a two-week economic tour that will include a visit to Florida. Recent state polls show Obama trailing McCain.

June 9, 2008 in Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (220)

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I hate Obama , I am a woman and refuse to follow senator clinton's endrsment!
We will burry sin of a ... Obama!
Women will send John Mccain to the White House in 2008!
God damn Obama!

Posted by: Aviva | Jun 9, 2008 1:44:09 PM

For the first time of my adult life, I will vote for Republicans!
I am glad that person is John McCain!
The most acceptable republican!
Wpmen won't forget!
GO MCCAIN!

Posted by: Shirley, MA | Jun 9, 2008 1:46:49 PM

Shirley, I can think of Republicans I'd prefer to McCain. Chuck Hagel, Christine Todd Whitman, John Warner, etc.

But I'll admit I like McCain more than some of them.

Posted by: Paul | Jun 9, 2008 1:50:28 PM

You might want to consider that the core democrats have all been thrown
under the bus by Obama not just women. He ran a campaign that
disparaged the old, the gays, the women, the latinos, the "working
class', the non college educated and more.
Maybe the name can reflect you are fighting for the soul/core/base of
the democratic party-as opposed to whatever Rev Wright/Obama is
fighting for.
I am a man , a democrat but an American a US citizen first!
Citizen Democrats for John McCain
Ohio for McCain!

Posted by: Adam, OH | Jun 9, 2008 1:54:21 PM

his first day as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama made his first clear, serious mistake: He named Eric Holder as one of three people charged with vice-presidential vetting.
As deputy attorney general, Holder was the key person who made the pardon of Marc Rich possible in the final hours of the Clinton presidency.
Now, Obama will be stuck in the Marc Rich mess.
If ever there was a person who did not deserve a presidential pardon, it's Marc Rich, the fugitive billionaire who renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to Switzerland to avoid prosecution for racketeering, wire fraud, 51 counts of tax fraud, tax evasion (to the tune of $48 million), and illegal trades with Iran in violation of the US embargo following the 1979-80 hostage crisis.
Seventeen years later, Rich wanted a pardon, and he retained Jack Quinn, former counsel to the president, to lobby his old boss.
It was Holder who had originally recommended Quinn to one of Rich's advisers, although he claims that he did not know the identity of the client.
And he gave substantive advice to Quinn along the way. According to Quinn's notes that were produced to Congress, Holder told Quinn to take the pardon application "straight to the White House" because "the timing is good."
And once the pardon was granted, Holder sent his congratulations to Quinn.
In 2002, a congressional committee reported that Holder was a "willing participant in the plan to keep the Justice Department from knowing about and opposing" the Rich pardon.
It is one thing to reach back to Obama's pastor to raise doubts about his values. But it is quite another to scrutinize the record of his first appointee.
It couldn't be a bigger mistake.
===================================================
Obama Was Selected, Not Elected
Words mean nothing to liberals. They say whatever will help advance their cause at the moment, switch talking points in a heartbeat, and then act indignant if anyone uses the exact same argument they were using five minutes ago.
When Gore won the popular vote in the 2000 election by half a percentage point, but lost the Electoral College -- or, for short, "the constitutionally prescribed method for choosing presidents" -- anyone who denied the sacred importance of the popular vote was either an idiot or a dangerous partisan.
But now Hillary has won the popular vote in a Democratic primary, while Obambi has won under the rules. In a spectacular turnabout, media commentators are heaping sarcasm on our plucky Hillary for imagining the "popular vote" has any relevance whatsoever.
It's the exact same situation as in 2000, with Hillary in the position of Gore and Obama in the position of Bush. The only difference is: Hillary has a much stronger argument than Gore ever did (and Hillary's more of a man than Gore ever was).
Unbeknownst to liberals, who seem to imagine the Constitution is a treatise on gay marriage, our Constitution sets forth rules for the election of a president. Under the Constitution that has led to the greatest individual liberty, prosperity and security ever known to mankind, Americans have no constitutional right to vote for president, at all. (Don't fret Democrats: According to five liberals on the Supreme Court, you do have a right to sodomy and abortion!)
Americans certainly have no right to demand that their vote prevail over the electors' vote.
The Constitution states that electors from each state are to choose the president, and it is up to state legislatures to determine how those electors are selected. It is only by happenstance that most states use a popular vote to choose their electors.
When you vote for president this fall, you will not be voting for Barack Obama or John McCain; you will be voting for an elector who pledges to cast his vote for Obama or McCain. (For those new Obama voters who may be reading, it's like voting for Paula, Randy or Simon to represent you, instead of texting your vote directly.)
Any state could abolish general elections for president tomorrow and have the legislature pick the electors. States could also abolish their winner-take-all method of choosing presidential electors -- as Nebraska and Maine have already done, allowing their electors to be allocated in proportion to the popular vote. And of course there's always the option of voting electors off the island one by one.
If presidential elections were popular vote contests, Bush might have spent more than five minutes campaigning in big liberal states like California and New York. But under a winner-take-all regime, close doesn't count. If a Republican doesn't have a chance to actually win a state, he may as well lose in a landslide. Using the same logic, Gore didn't spend a lot of time campaigning in Texas (and Walter Mondale campaigned exclusively in Minnesota).
Consequently, under both the law and common sense, the famed "popular vote" is utterly irrelevant to presidential elections. It would be like the winner of "Miss Congeniality" claiming that title also made her "Miss America." Obviously, Bush might well have won the popular vote, but he would have used a completely different campaign strategy.
By contrast, there are no constitutional rules to follow with party primaries. Primaries are specifically designed by the parties to choose their strongest candidate for the general election.
Hillary's argument that she won the popular vote is manifestly relevant to that determination. Our brave Hillary has every right to take her delegates to the Democratic National Convention and put her case to a vote. She is much closer to B. Hussein Obama than the sainted Teddy Kennedy was to Carter in 1980 when Teddy staged an obviously hopeless rules challenge at the convention. (I mean rules about choosing the candidate, not rules about crushed ice at after-parties.)
And yet every time Hillary breathes a word about her victory in the popular vote, TV hosts respond with sneering contempt at her gaucherie for even mentioning it. (Of course, if popularity mattered, networks like MSNBC wouldn't exist. That's a station that depends entirely on "superviewers.")
After nearly eight years of having to listen to liberals crow that Bush was "selected, not elected," this is a shocking about-face. Apparently unaware of the new party line that the popular vote amounts to nothing more than warm spit, just last week HBO ran its movie "Recount," about the 2000 Florida election, the premise of which is that sneaky Republicans stole the presidency from popular vote champion Al Gore. (Despite massive publicity, the movie bombed, with only about 1 million viewers, so now HBO is demanding a "recount.")
So where is Kevin Spacey from HBO's "Recount," to defend Hillary, shouting: "WHO WON THIS PRIMARY?"
In the Democrats' "1984" world, the popular vote is an unconcept, doubleplusungood verging on crimethink. We have always been at war with Eastasia.

Posted by: Suzan, NM | Jun 9, 2008 1:59:19 PM

It is Propaganda put out by the Obama camp.

They want to have a reason to blame and someone to blame when he loses the election. Woman and Hillary, it is called a set up. Damage control before the damage they fore see.

Hillary got over half of the democratic votes, they were from a variety of people. Men, woman, students, Blacks and minorities.

The voters were the main part of the democratic party.

Obama won the Blacks and minoritiers, some woman and men, and New voters.

Obama camp is throwing it out there so they can blame hillary if he loses.

Polls, unless the are private telephone polls can not count. Obama has a list of polls for his supports to vote in every day in his favor or what he wants them to. Readily available on his site.

Posted by: seah | Jun 9, 2008 2:01:34 PM

This is one woman who has never or will never vote for Obama--I consider him dangerous for all-young, old, men, women, young people and Christians.

Posted by: virginia | Jun 9, 2008 2:02:01 PM

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY DID NOT PLAY FAIR...NOT IN MY EYES, NOT IN 18,000,000 WOMENS EYES..

Posted by: CAROL STANTON | Jun 9, 2008 2:04:28 PM

So much for the tens of women that said they would never vote for Obama.

This poll is a very strong indicator that the vast majority of Americans vote based on the issues, and not out of bitterness, as indicated by a very vociferous tiny, tiny minority.

Posted by: Texas Voter | Jun 9, 2008 2:05:22 PM

Well, here's a woman who will write in Hillary in the General, unless of course she is the VP, then I guess I will have to accept the most qualified and policy savvy candidate as second fiddle to a novice. Better than not having her influence at all.

Posted by: irma | Jun 9, 2008 2:05:29 PM

MR. BUSH IS VERY BLESSED BY HIS FAMILY, I WISH THEM WELL.

Posted by: CAROL STANTON | Jun 9, 2008 2:05:39 PM

I'm a woman and have been FOR Obama throughout his campaign! Don't believe most of the messages here - the really mean ones are usually from Limbaugh and co. or McCain's group (aren't they getting paid for that?)

Obama 08!! =-)

Posted by: Lynne | Jun 9, 2008 2:05:49 PM

I'm guessing you guys are in the 19 percent of the party who Rasmussen found to not be supporting Obama yet, lol.

I think Obama's chances are looking pretty strong for the fall. He was usually slightly ahead to even with McCain in polling, back when 70 percent of Democrats would back him in a notional match-up. Now that 81 percent of Democrats back him, he's that much stronger.

But that aside, its still independents who decide elections, and both major parties have nominated their strongest candidate with independents, so in that view this one is a battle of the titans.

Posted by: Paul | Jun 9, 2008 2:06:39 PM

Carol - even if Hillary got the entire amount of delegates from the invalid FL and MI vote - Obama STILL would have won.

Posted by: Lynne | Jun 9, 2008 2:07:35 PM

Obama will definitely win the women votes with a help of Hillary. There is no doubt that. He will continue to appeal to them and they will finally turn the table and be his in the fall.

Posted by: I.A.T. Smith | Jun 9, 2008 2:08:12 PM

Too bad the so called DEMOCRATIC PARTY isn't democratic at all in selecting a candidate.

Posted by: irma | Jun 9, 2008 2:09:18 PM

I ama woman and will NEVER forget!
Hillary will NOT change my mind!
GO McCain!

Posted by: Linda | Jun 9, 2008 2:10:58 PM

95% of these posts sound like Republicans agreeing with each other. Everyone knows that by the time we vote in the General Election people will come around to vote on what really matters, the issues, and the Democrats will wipe the floor with McCain. All of this propaganda now is the result of the media looking for any possible controversy to report. It's their livelihood.

Posted by: Topher | Jun 9, 2008 2:13:27 PM

I just went on the John McCain site and registered!
Barrack Obama is NOT getting my vote!
McCain for president!
I am NOT going to follow Hillary!
America comes first, than the unity of the party!

Posted by: Rose | Jun 9, 2008 2:14:22 PM

Who did they poll?

Posted by: Kim | Jun 9, 2008 2:16:20 PM

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