Chicks don't dig Kerry?

A recent poll suggest Bush leads with women voters (sorry, I just caught the story on NPR's All Things Considered and didn't catch the source of the poll). While I doubt it's true, Kerry does seem to be underperforming with women according to a large number of recent polls. I hear alternately that it's because of so-called "security moms" but then the next moment I hear it's because Kerry is talking too much about war and terrorism and not bread and butter issues. Once again, Bush gets away with screwing voters, while the media puts Kerry on the defensive. So, what's going on here and what can be done about it?

Personally, I think this gap will go away as soon as Kerry finishes this recent push on terrorism and war issues (after the first debate). Kerry needs to establish himself on security before he moves to domestic issues (which should happen after Thursday as the candidates prepare for the domestic issues debate and the national media starts to bore of reporting on deatsh in Iraq and moves on the something else). IMO, I think Edwards will win over tons of these women when he comes to national prominence at the debate with Dark Dick and in the closing weeks of the campaign when, hopefully, he shows up on the national radar. Not just for his looks and charm, but also because he is naturally more likely to focus on kitchen table issues.

But is there something else going on here? Is Bush just more appealing to women for personality/image reasons? The snarky side of me can't help but bring up the late Bill Hicks' song: "Chicks Dig Jerks." Maybe it's true. After all, Bush is the biggest jerk of them all. Does Kerry have a chance or is Bush's macho swagger and compassionate veneer going to fool enough female voters to erase the gender gap?

•  AIGGGH

  Sorry.  The thought of a woman "digging" Bush put horrid images into my head.

  Why do some women like very, very, VERY VERY VERY stupid men?

  As for Kerry, I remember hearing an interview with a couple of young women in New Hampshire, who were giggling and saying that they decided to vote for Kerry because he "looked hot" playing hockey.  Whatever.  It's shallow, but whatever gets the votes, I suppose (in this round, anyway).

  by Plutonium Page on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 02:48:53 PM PDT

  •  it's nonsense

    All polls show Kerry doing better with women than with men.  ARG shows Kerry beating Bush by 10 points among women.  Some other polls show it closer.

    Kerry is doing a lot better with single women than with married women, so maybe there is some truth to the "security mom" thing.
    

    by Joe Buck on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 02:52:29 PM PDT

    •  exactly

      I don't know what polls the wingers and media whores latched onto, but Kerry is winning among women and he will continue to do so. Bush tends to do better among men, so it is support from women that allows Kerry to even things up or take the lead. If Kerry was really losing amongst women then Bush would be leading by 10-15% overall. And the only polls showing that are the ones with severe oversampling of Republicans.

      by existenz on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 02:55:57 PM PDT

      •  CNN, for one

        Just did a poll with Bush ahead with women.  Most other polls (I don't as a rule check the gender thing though, so just my impression) have shown most of Kerry's advantage with women vanishing.  

        by glibfidget on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 05:47:02 PM PDT

  •  I know! I know!

    Why do some women like very, very, VERY VERY VERY stupid men?

    Stupid men are easy to manipulate. ;)

    by JenAtlanta on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 02:54:28 PM PDT

  •  I'm with Rush Limbaugh on this one...

    ....I just go all fluttery when I see pics of George in his little flight suit....his manly parts bulging....his animal magnetism oozing from every pore.....mmmm.....

    Can't you see Bill the Cat's reaction to this post?   Accckkkk!!!

    by cls180 on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:57:25 PM PDT

•  Women and Minorities

  I always find it interesting when Dems blame their candidate's loss on the failure of women or minorities to get-out-the-vote.  Perhaps if Dems went after the white male vote, they'd not only pick up a small percentage of that vote.. but also capture the women and minority vote they so cherish.

  No, I don't think Joe Willy is doing any blaming in his diary.. it just make me think of it.

  by JenAtlanta on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 02:53:06 PM PDT

  •  Huh?

    It seems like all the party's been doing for the last ten years is emphatically targeting white males.

    by ChicagoDem on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:07:50 PM PDT

    •  That May Be True..

      ..But after a lot of elections, you'll hear various people say, "African Americans didn't turn out!" or "Where were the women voters?"

      They always get the blame.

      by JenAtlanta on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:13:01 PM PDT

      •  Who cares?

        Seriously, that's life.  People try to lay the blame.  It seems like a natural reaction, whether or not it's fair.  Don't take it so seriously when people say stuff like that.  

        by Asak on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:44:58 PM PDT

      •  Ok...

        And I totally agree that's unfair.  I just don't see where focusing on white men more changes that.  In fact I think the reason Dem strategists that want to project blame onto voters for their failings almost always choose minorities and women is that they consider their votes already accounted for.  Try and imagine a Dem leader taking ALL white men to task for low Democratic voting turnout-- it seems absurd.

        by ChicagoDem on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 06:52:56 PM PDT

  •  Getting them to the polls

    The biggest gap is between the folks who say they support a candidate and the ones of them who actually get to the polls.

    Leave no voter behind.

    by TarheelDem on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:20:32 PM PDT

    •  GOTV to the Polls

      I really think this time around you'll see a BIG effort to publicize the fact that there are organizations who are willing to pick you up and take you the polls.  And publicizing the fact that you can BRING your kids to the polls.  Of course, I also think there should be short-term babysitting for such parents because no one wants to stand in line with their two kids, who will most likely be bored and whiny.

      by JenAtlanta on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:28:35 PM PDT

      •  Don't forget

        Early absentee balloting in those states where it is available.

        by TarheelDem on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:34:38 PM PDT

        •  Early Voting

          Georgia actually has early voting, a week before the election.  Of course, it's not absentee voting, but rather mere early voting on the notorious voting machines.

          by JenAtlanta on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:39:41 PM PDT

  •  Good grief - - -

    women and minorities have been voting in droves for the Democrats for years.

    -- what are you talking about?

    It is not women and minorities that are a problem --

    it is white men -- white men that want to have a beer with their good old frat boy Bush -- of course all the while forgetting that not drinking is the least of their pal's problems.

    At November 02 - you will find a high number of women voting for Kerry - because women know that the life and well-being of their children depend on a president that is smart and has the smarts to lead the country and that will get the world to follow and be on the side of the United States again.

    by sara seattle on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:42:57 PM PDT

    •  Uhm..

      I think you misunderstood what I was saying.

      OTHER people, not myself, blame women and minorities when Democrats lose.  And that we should go after the while males because they're the ones who are NOT voting for us in droves.

      by JenAtlanta on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:45:02 PM PDT

      •  Oh - I'm sorry

        Yes I did misunderestimate you -

        fool me once, then I was fooled - then I get fooled again (or words to that extend)---- he he

        by sara seattle on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:50:10 PM PDT

        •  Hah

          I almost wrote 'misunderestimate' thinking it was an actual word.

          DAMN YOU BUSH.

          by JenAtlanta on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:51:54 PM PDT

          •  What????

            do you mean - here I am quoting our exalted leader, the Preznit himself - and you tell me that

            misunderestimated

            is not a real word?? - a word that he uses with such vigor and lack of knowledge??

            by sara seattle on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 04:06:22 PM PDT

    •  White Men...

      They vote stupidly because too many of them have been socialized into acting tough and macho.  That's why they think going into Iraq was a good idea-- to show who's boss, etc.  Unfortunately, I think the Redumblicans have a pretty solid base there, thanks entirely to how our culture teaches men to act.  Not all of us white men vote for Republicans, but too many do.  Fortunately, white men are slowly becoming a minority, so this discrepancy should become less and less important.  

      by Asak on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:49:42 PM PDT

•  No worries.

  Kerry will win a large margin of women voters.  Women don't vote for the scary man who smirks, and doesn't trust them with their own bodies, they vote for the calm, friendly man who thinks they should make their own decisions.

  Bushco thought they were doing something smart by having the foreign policy debate first.  Yes, it is Bush's strong suit, yes, fewer people watch the second debate, and fewer still the third (domestic policy) debate; BUT -- the domestic debate is closer to the election (Oct. 13), and uncommitted voters make up their minds late in the game, with whatever issues are freshest in their minds.  A majority of late deciders are women, and war and terror are not the number one issues for this group.

  But one thing I have learned here, Chicks DON'T dig being called chicks.  

  by PBJ Diddy on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 02:57:01 PM PDT

  •  chick here

    I can live with it, coming from the right person. In my advancing age, I'll even live with "girl" now. Of course, you can call me that, but you can't treat me as if that's what you think of me. Call me whatever, but respect my intelligence.

    by mcjoan on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:43:43 PM PDT

•  Pantywaist.

  It will always be a source of fascination to me that Kerry, who is supposed to be smart, did not instinctively know that the only way he could win this election was to project that he was as tough as Bush, and would respond to threats or an attack against our country with the same unflinching vengeance. And the ONLY way to project that was to defend himself against all attackers, and not only go after Bush, but relish going after Bush.  

  Instead, for months he refused to attack, and worse he refused to defend himself. As far as women were concerned, what kind of a pantywaist  was he?  That's why women drifted away from him in droves.  This time women want strength.

  by Lords on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:00:17 PM PDT

  •  It's very hard for me to see Bush as

    manly and tough.  Then again, I'm not one of his mindless followers.

    To be honest, I can't see Bush shooting a .223 assault rifle or something with even more recoil.  He'd go flying across the room.

    Bush at the shooting range would involve him checking to see if the gun is loaded by looking straight down the barrel.

    My point is that he doesn't project this tough, badass, super-macho, testicle-swinging war hero image.  This image is being sold .  It isn't real.

    I'd challenge him at the shooting range any day.

    by Plutonium Page on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:26:07 PM PDT

    •  Totally agree...

      It's totally a construction of his campaign.  Like him "clearing brush".  How much do you want to bet the man never cleared brush in his life until the campaign started.  

      by Asak on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:51:54 PM PDT

      •  of course he didn't

        Anyone who's actually used a chainsaw could tell you that. They show the same clip over and over again of him cutting up a tree on the ground, with the blade going into the dirt. That's the quickest way there is to wreck your chain.

        by mcjoan on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 05:05:27 PM PDT

    •  Bush: "His hands are very soft,"

      "His hands are very soft," she said. "He must use some powerful lotion."

      From Friday.
      AP
      

      by ben masel on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 05:19:07 PM PDT

    •  You're absolutely correct.

      IMO Bush is a damned COWARD. He is role playing, and that's easy. In any case, from the start, his handlers settled on selling him as plain-spoken & decisive and they have not deviated from that.

      by Lords on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 05:22:03 PM PDT

  •  Gore got a big majority of the women's vote in '00

    and he wasn't exactly a big warrior.

    by JamesB3 on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:58:29 PM PDT

•  Debate sweat

  
  According to TIME mag, the latest GOP theory is that women won't like Kerry because they will see him sweating at the debates, and that is apparently a big turnoff.

  The Kerry campaign had argued for a stipulation that the rooms be air conditioned to below 70 deg F, but the Bush campaigned strongly objected -- and won, no a/c requirement in the final agreement.

  by dburbach on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:00:40 PM PDT

  •  Sweating

    the latest GOP theory is that women won't like Kerry because they will see him sweating at the debates

    I don't know.. guys sweating can be kinda hot.  Maybe he can capture the chick vote that way.

    by JenAtlanta on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:10:22 PM PDT

    •  No sweat for Kerry - - -

      but what has grossed me out several times watching the President in shirt-sleaves on TV - totally pitted out.

      Big stains everywhere - eeeeeeuuuuuuwww - nasty looking.  That for sure does not go over big with women.

      I mean - doesn't he know enough to use an anti-perspirant?? -- well I think i just answered my own question -- NO, he does not.

      by sara seattle on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 04:12:54 PM PDT

  •  Bush's three chanbered...

    reptilian heart requires higher ambient temperatures for him to be able to function.

    Otherwise, he becomes torpid.

    Make sure Kerry is wearing some sort of personal cooling unit, that fits under his tailored suits, to keep him cool.

    by rgilly on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:23:59 PM PDT

•  Bush has such a cult, that gender politics

  become a bit strange when one thinks about who "digs" him and why.  There are all these guys who are infatuated with him because he's "the MAN;" and there's something about a nation-stomping fascist that I suppose can turn on both men and women who enjoy domination, ravishment and rape fantasies.

  I know that there were many fluttering female Republican hearts when he posed in that flight suit with his crotch so emphatically stuffed looking; but that image sent an equal number of Republican men into a swoon, due to our fearless leader's apparently admirable (though illusory) proportions: I could just hear Bushcult men everywhere gazing at that pack and thinking, "A guy like that has GOT to know something about f-ing with the bad guys, no?"

  by concernedamerican on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:01:42 PM PDT

•  Withholding

  My sense, between my own experience talking to women and the two-way conversation on NPR (one Dem guest & one GOP guest), is that many women are withholding approval of Kerry because he has spent, or is percieved as having spent, too much time on Vietnam and Iraq, not enough on jobs, health care and education. It's not that these women are backing Bush, but just not committed to Kerry yet. They will be.

  by pHunbalanced on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:12:16 PM PDT

•  Why women with kids will not vote for Bush

  Because if Bush is elected, he is very likely to reintroduce the draft.

  Let's face it: the danger from al Qaeda is that thousands, maybe even tens of thousands will die in a major city like New York or Washington.

  But, if Bush and a Republican Congress reinstitute the draft, our kids (young men and young women) are in danger wherever they live. A mother in Idaho or Montana or for that matter Wisconsin probably doesn't worry very much about a terrorist attack, because none of these are what the bad guys would call a "target rich environment." A draft, on the other hand, threatens nearly every young adult between 18 and, say, 25.

  Bush would reintroduce the draft, because the neocon agenda is hardly begun. Iran, Syria and perhaps even Libya are on the hit list, and we're running out of cannon fodder. Hence the stop-loss actions with respect to the poor folk in the National Guard.

  I truly do not understand why the Democrats are not harping on the likely reintroduction of the draft, and the likely start of other wars, if Bush and Co are in power next January.

  by derbes on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:13:58 PM PDT

  •  But JE-sus is With Bush!

    Our kids will be safe with Bush. Jesus told him to go to war. Bush knows something the rest of us don't.

    The draft lottery begins in February 2005.

    by easong on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:40:41 PM PDT

    •  I got 20$ that says

      neither Jenna nor Barbara Bush's names will find their way into that lottery...Any takers?

      Funny thing is, since they're twins, if their number DID come up - they'd BOTH have to go, since the lottery is based on birthdates.

      by PBJ Diddy on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 04:19:44 PM PDT

      •  Your Birthday = Same as Jenna and Barbara

        Then you get out of the draft FREE! Lucky kids!

        It's November 25, by the way.

        by easong on Mon Sep 27, 2004 at 09:28:06 AM PDT

•  single women and not voting

  Some of the poll confusion you're talking about might be the whole "likely voter" business. Single women overwhelmingly support Kerry, but are not as likely to vote, while married women are more likely to vote Republican and to cast a ballot. It's all polling and it's all screwy this year.

  by mcjoan on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 03:46:32 PM PDT

•  Christian Science Monitor was going on about this.

  They interviewed a very, very liberal woman in PA who was voting for Bush because he's tough and he'll save us from terrorists.

  This is one of those memes that our disgusting whore media wants to believe is true, so they make it true.

  They hate Democrats and will destroy them all.

  by JamesB3 on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 04:01:34 PM PDT

•  I'm a chick

  and I dig Kerry.  Of course, I don't get to vote but honestly...you'd have to be the worst kind of stupid to think that Bush is a better protector than Kerry would be.  

  The thing for me is that Kerry is presidential - I can't quite put my finger on what that quality is exactly but I think he's a better face to put on America - it's like the election has become some kind of "Homecoming King" thing, where people are voting for someone because they look  cool and have a flashy car...forgetting just how complicated the job really is and that GWB who would make an excellent "Homecoming King" makes a suckass president.  

  So not to lump all chicks together but the chicks I know think Kerry Rocks!!!!!!

  (I have to go and wash my brain out after that sentence)

  by confusedintexas on Sun Sep 26, 2004 at 05:26:19 PM PDT