Undecided women voters in key swing states have spoken: dads and other old white guys are out and mommy lawmakers are in, especially those with a little spine–or a pistol.
In a far-reaching Emily’s List poll that showed President Obama beating Mitt Romney among the group 48 percent to 40 percent, the 950 women in 13 states rejected male politicians in Washington, blaming them for the fiscal crisis and being out of touch with the everyday woes of females.
The poll, which the progressive group is using to guide its Women Vote! project to back female Democratic candidates, put dads near the bottom of the list of appealing attributes women voters prefer, slightly above attorneys, stock brokers, lobbyists and current members of Congress.
At the top: Teachers, female police chiefs and moms. “Moms are more appealing than dads,” said pollster Lisa Grove, because it’s assumed that they understand what women want.
And proving Mel Gibson’s character in the hit 2000 movie “What Women Want” wrong, Grove said that the overwhelmingly white and male caucus running Washington doesn’t understand women. She said that women view Washington as a place where “a bunch of white guys, old white men, are running the show and it’s not going well.”
Republican men fare worse, with women slamming GOP male leaders “trying to run everyone’s life.” But Democrats get dinged too, with the poll finding that 74 percent of women in the swing states are angry with “big spending Democrats who are driving up the deficit.”
Overall, Democrats do fare better than the Republicans in Grove’s poll, with women linking the GOP to millionaires and cuts to Medicare and Democrats to punishing the rich and preserving birth control.
