May 14 – It’s not surprising that the latest Bush campaign television ad has Laura Bush speaking on camera. A new Pew poll reveals a 12-point gender gap for Bush, enough to sink her husband in November. “Women are sick of Bush and all the macho strutting; it’s gotten pretty old,” says a Republican strategist.
If the First Lady were the candidate, the Bush campaign might have a better shot at arguing it stands for compassionate conservatism. Laura Bush is so muted and so reserved, that she’s a welcome antidote to Bush’s guns-blazing style. Still, she’s got an impossible task when it comes to selling her husband’s education and health policies.
Bush’s No Child Left Behind legislation is so unpopular around the country that state legislatures are voting to reject its provisions. It imposes higher standards without the promised funding, and the result is a lot of schools labeled as failures and the overcrowding of schools that have worked hard at being a success.
Bush’s prescription-drug program for seniors is both a public-policy and a political disaster. Senior women are most skeptical. They’re experts on the cost of drugs and they know it’s a scam when consumers get to choose a discount card once a year while the drug companies get to raise prices whenever they want.
Women are the crown jewel of the electorate. It’s their vote margin that could elect John Kerry just as it did Bill Clinton. In 1996, Republican Bob Dole beat Clinton among men by a single percentage point; women voted overwhelmingly for Clinton. The wave of prison-abuse photos made public over the last two weeks confirms the doubts women have about Bush’s policy in Iraq. But Bush was falling behind among women even before the graphic images hit the airwaves.
Surveys taken in March showed women disapproving of Bush’s job performance by 47 percent to 39 percent, while men approved 54 percent to 38 percent. The numbers in battleground states mirror the national scene. In Ohio, Bush’s job approval among men in March was 53 to 45 percent while women disapproved 56 to 40 percent. In Wisconsin, one poll has Kerry leading Bush 50 to 42 percent with a wider margin of 54 versus 35 percent among women. In Oregon, a 1-point Kerry lead expands to 9 points when women are polled.
C’mon, women of America, let’s vote some sense back into this country!
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