"Obama’s reelection campaign ramps up pitch to women; GOP focus on social issues seen as an opportunity" by Jackie Calmes | New York Times, March 11, 2012
WASHINGTON - President Obama’s reelection campaign is beginning an intensified effort this week to build support among women, using the debate over the new health care law to amplify an appeal that already appears to be benefiting from partisan clashes over birth control and abortion.
Related:
"the debate pitting insurance coverage of contraception against religious liberty rages on"
Not here.
Also see: Happy Valentine's Day From the Boston Globe
Obama Has Found His Reelection Footing
At the expense of women!
On Monday, mailings will go out to 1 million women in more than a dozen battleground states, their names culled from the campaign’s extensive voter lists, in three separate versions for mothers, young women, and older women, campaign and party officials said.
“Nurses for Obama’’ will begin Wednesday, with nurses nationwide enlisted to be advocates for the health care law in their communities. Millions of voters on the campaign’s e-mail list will be getting links to video testimonials about beneficiaries of the health care overhaul signed by Obama in 2010....
The campaign is trying to use the political climate to regain the traditional Democratic advantage among women, even as moderate Republican and independent women voice disenchantment with the Republican focus on social issues.
Women were 53 percent of the national vote in 2008, and given Obama’s and his party’s ongoing weakness among white men, they are crucial to his reelection. While Obama won 56 percent of their votes four years ago, women narrowly went for Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections that cost Democrats control of the House.
The campaign’s push to rally women around the health care law had been long planned, campaign officials said. But the effort has gained intensity, the officials and local volunteers said, because of recent controversies over contraception, abortion, and education in Washington and in state capitals, which have energized people in the campaign’s far-flung field offices who are essential to putting any national strategy into action.
For example, in New Hampshire, a swing state, the nine field offices will hold 16 phone banks to contact female voters about the benefits for them in the health care law. On Wednesday, when the “Nurses for Obama’’ effort is to be announced, nurses in New Hampshire will be making the calls. In Virginia, another battleground, Barbara Kanninen volunteered a month ago to help run a “Women for Obama’’ network and said “it’s growing fast’’ thanks to the debates in Washington and Richmond.
“Up until six weeks ago Democrats suffered from an intensity gap, but this has closed as women - particularly suburban women - have turned against the GOP,’’ said Peter D. Hart, a Democratic pollster who is not affiliated with the campaign.
Some Republicans say the current debate over social issues will fade soon, trumped by concerns about the economy and high gas prices. “Nobody thinks it will matter in a couple months,’’ said Vin Weber, a Republican lobbyist and former congressman. “I certainly don’t.’’
Can we get back to the wars and Wall Street's destruction of the economy please?
But other Republicans are worried....
The mobilization began after flaps in January over a decision by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure cancer foundation, subsequently reversed, to stop contributing to Planned Parenthood, and a mandate from the Obama administration that employers, including religious-affiliated hospitals, colleges, and other institutions, cover contraception in employees’ insurance policies.
Related: Komen Right Back at You
Then came controversies over Rush Limbaugh’s slurs against a female advocate of the contraception policy; actions in Texas, Virginia, and other state legislatures against abortion and Planned Parenthood, and statements of Republican presidential candidates seeking the votes of social conservatives....
A New York Times/CBS News poll in mid-February showed that women, who in a January poll had disapproved of Obama’s job performance by a 48 percent to 46 percent margin, now approved of him by 53 percent to 38 percent (men disapproved by 49 percent to 45 percent, about the same as the previous month).
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll this month showed Obama ahead of Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, by six points; while the president trailed Romney by six points among men, he had an 18-point advantage among women.
“Women 30 to 55 are always the most important target in health care,’’ said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who conducts the Journal/NBC poll with Hart. “They’re caregivers, taking care of children and parents, and are more engaged and active in the health care system, more than any other age and gender. It’s not surprising they’d be a target of the Obama administration and campaign on this issue.’’
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Related:
"An issue that evenly divides Americans.... An election year subplot sure to stir up heated emotions"
No thanks.
