Saturday, October 27, 2012

The Female Vote Matters!

The Gallup poll website has posted a table showing issues that women in swing states care about in this election. Abortion, taking up to 39%, was named the most important one. Historically, women used to be a vulnerable group in the political world. Now their influence has grown stronger in election. While President Obama and Governor Romney are working hard to gain the poll from swing states, they too put much attention to women’s concerns in order to get the female vote. (See "in the swing states, the power of women") An article in LA Times points out that “Obama and Romney fight for female vote”. Women have been a key constituency for Obama. This year, the president is in hope of gaining more female vote so that he would have a bigger chance of winning the election.

At the same time, Romney has spent much time on persuading women. According to that article in LA Times, “Even as Romney focused his remarks Wednesday on the economy, his campaign launched a new TV spot that sought to reassure women — especially more moderate women — about his positions on contraception and abortion.” There was a common misunderstanding about Romney’s stance. Indeed, Romney does act inconsistently regarding to contraception, which confuses the public and infuriates the democrats. A lot of women thought Romney was opposed to all abortions as well as contraception because Romney once supported a measure that would allow any employer to refuse to include contraception coverage in their insurance plans. Now that Romney decides to court the female vote, he has made himself more appealing to women. As a result, the poll found out that Women gave Romney a second look. And one of the reasons is probably that women have learned that Romney does not oppose contraception at all and allows for abortion in the cases of rape, incest or to spare the life of the mother. 

Moreover, in order to defend himself, Romney questioned "Why is it that there are 3.6 million more women in poverty today than when the president took office?" during a stop at Tidewater Community College in Chesapeake. "This president has failed America's women. They've suffered." Romney’s question would be a stifling one to the supporters of Obama. Since the public tend to vote based on how the current president is doing, which political scientists define as retrospective voting, Romney’s words remind women that Obama is not doing well and women would be more likely to vote for Romney. However, Robert Durant, a professor of public policy points out a potential problem of the female vote. He worries that "Women with families are especially busy. They arrive at the theater midway through the third act,look around, and decide who the heroes and villains are.” This way of dealing with election also troubles Menand, a professor at Harvard. “The unpolitical animal”, he described those people who use shortcuts to reach judgments about political candidates. Although these shortcuts are as good as the long and winding road of reading party platforms and listening to candidate debates, to value more aspects and to think again before they vote would always be cautious for people, who are emotional and careless in general.


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