What We're Reading This Morning -- April 2
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Good morning, everyone! It was a busy weekend here and it will sure be a late night with Kansas playing Kentucky for the coveted NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. Meanwhile, politicians were talking up a storm on the Sunday shows and at campaign events throughout the country. While Vice President Joe Biden declared the contraception debate “remarkable”, Mitt Romney received an endorsement from our latest Chump, Senator Ron “Just Google It” Johnson. A newly released poll is driving the discussion this morning, so we’ll begin with that…
Women give President Obama the needed advantage in swing states over Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney. “Swing States Poll: A shift by women puts Obama in lead” — “President Obama has opened the first significant lead of the 2012 campaign in the nation's dozen top battleground states, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, boosted by a huge shift of women to his side. In the fifth Swing States survey taken since last fall, Obama leads Republican front-runner Mitt Romney 51%-42% among registered voters just a month after the president had trailed him by two percentage points. The biggest change came among women under 50. In mid-February, just under half of those voters supported Obama. Now more than six in 10 do while Romney's support among them has dropped by 14 points, to 30%. The president leads him 2-1 in this group. Obama campaign manager Jim Messina says Romney's promise to ‘end Planned Parenthood’ — the former Massachusetts governor says he wants to eliminate federal funding for the group — and his endorsement of an amendment that would allow employers to refuse to cover contraception in health care plans have created ‘severe problems’ for him in the general election.”
It’s not just Mitt Romney who is losing the women vote; Republican senatorial candidates are suffering as well. “Democrats Winning Women Across The Board, Polls Show”—“… recent numbers show the presidential race isn’t the only one being affected. It’s one point both Democrats and Republicans agree on: Social issues at the top of the ticket are poisoning the well and creating a gender gap across the board — mostly to the benefit of Democrats. The numbers are fairly stark. In two polls of the Senate races in Ohio and Florida released Thursday, Quinnipiac University identified a major gender gap. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has opened up a commanding 17-point lead among women over Ohio state Treasurer Josh Mandel (R) while leading the overall race by 10 points. Sen. Bill Nelson’s (D-FL) overall 8-point advantage over Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) in Quinnipiac’s Florida numbers was ‘fueled by female voters,’ as women went for Nelson by 14 points. In both races, the candidates were in a dead heat with male voters.”
Women may have been making significant gains in closing the gender gap, but in the political world the attacks continue. “Still not a woman's world” — “Mitt Romney has pledged to "get rid" of Planned Parenthood. A number of states have passed abusive laws to discourage legal abortions or to harass women who obtain them. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have accused the Obama administration of interfering with religious liberty by insisting that insurance plans cover contraception. And that doesn't even begin to plumb the depths of Rush Limbaugh. The progress of women in American society is one of the great markers of this nation's egalitarianism, and though it remains incomplete, it should inspire pride in what has been accomplished as well as determination to complete the work. Instead, it is deliberately polarized by those who would divide in order to win. Denigrating women for competitive advantage should be the politics of yesterday; sadly, they remain.”
