Feminists for McCain?

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Political Eye - John McCain - Viewpoint essay

Does Barack Obama have a woman problem?

Will women who supported Hillary Clinton vote for McCain?

The feminist outpouring for Hillary, as she gave up her bid for President, prompted media speculation that women, who have long given Democrats a "gender gap" advantage, would abandon ship.

McCain immediately began to court women voters with speeches praising Clinton.

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A Hillary delegate in Racine County, Wisconsin, Debra Bartoshevich, announced that she would attend the Democratic Convention but would vote for McCain in the fall. "No self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her--that's by Susan B. Anthony," Bartoshevich told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel .

But why would women dump the Democratic nominee for a candidate with a pro-life voting record, who opposed equal pay legislation, sex education, and federal funding for birth control?

There are two completely contradictory answers to this question. One is that women were so angered by what they saw as the sexist, unfair treatment of Hillary Clinton that they will defect in order to punish the Obama campaign. The other is that so-called security moms will vote for McCain because they like his tough talk on terrorism. A recent piece of analysis in the Chicago Tribune added, incredibly, that women for whom economic concerns loom large like McCain better.

No one is more important to conventional political analysis than undecided voters who dwell in the suburbs. The conventional wisdom is that, while they might vote Democratic some of the time, these voters can be pushed by the fear of terrorism and high taxes to vote Republican.

But these suburban, white women voters are an entirely different group from the die-hard Hillary supporters who saw her run as historic and felt terribly disappointed when she lost. (It turns out the women the Trib interviewed are Republicans.)

"There are women activists who waited their whole lives to see this and to have this chance and I'm kind of one of them," says Ellen Moran, the executive director of EMILY's List, the political action committee that strives to get pro-choice, Democratic women elected. "It's hard to accept. But there's too much at stake in this election to let John McCain be President."

The Hillary supporters Moran refers to are not "security moms."

"These are women who were against the war, who want to fully fund SCHIP, and who are completely beside themselves about the Lilly...