President Obama’s campaign is rounding up an army of female activists to rekindle the enthusiasm among women that helped propel Obama to victory in 2008 and may be even more vital to his re-election in 2012.
Obama’s campaign this week started “Women for Obama,” an initiative led by first lady Michelle Obama that is enlisting female voters to serve as campaign surrogates at dozens of house parties and phone banks across the nation.
Obama badly needs female voters to turn out at the polls next year. He handily won them over in 2008, when 56 percent of women favored Obama compared with the 43 percent who backed Republican nominee Sen. John McCain. By contrast, men were nearly evenly divided between Obama and McCain.
But Obama’s support among women has since fallen to 45 percent, and his support among men has slipped to 40 percent, according to the latest Gallup Poll.
“Moms are so disgruntled right now with the state of the economy and they are not happy with where things are going,” said Lindsay Ferrier, election correspondent for CafeMom, an online political hub for women. “A lot of Obama’s promises haven’t panned out.”
Female voters, who comprise a majority of the electorate, are primarily concerned with the economy, according to most polls.
They are breadwinners in 63 percent of households, yet they make only 77 cents for every $1 men make — something Obama promised to change.
More than half of women said their financial well-being is less secure now than it was three years ago and six in 10 disapprove of the way Obama is handling the economy, according to Global Marketing Research.
Despite their frustration with the economy, women still favor Obama over any Republican candidate. The president doesn’t necessarily have to worry about a Republican challenger swooping in and wooing female voters away. What he should be worried about is lagging enthusiasm among an electorate whose heavy turnout in 2008 made him president, said Jennifer Lawless, director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University.
“Everyone is questioning right now whether Obama can mobilize the energy among women that was present in 2008,” Lawless said. “And Republicans are banking on that, now that Obama has a record and some failures along the way.”
Obama has also taken care to demonstrate his support of women. He appointed two women to the Supreme Court, passed a law making it easier for women to demand equal pay, and his health care law includes free preventative care services for women.
If he hasn’t achieved more, Obama has said, it’s because congressional Republicans are blocking him.
“We all know that lifting up women also lifts up our economy and our country,” Obama told National Women’s Law Center last week. “But not everybody in Washington seems to feel the same way.”
