McCAIN'S PROBLEM WITH WOMEN, PART II

Most women are rational and make decisions based on factors other than gender, bitterness or race. According to this morning's L.A. Times, women are looking at McCain's record and massively spurning his advances. "Now that the Democratic marathon is over, Clinton supporters... are siding heavily with Obama over McCain, polls show. And Obama has taken a wide lead among female voters, belying months of political chatter and polls of primary voters suggesting that disappointment over Clinton's defeat might block the Illinois senator from enjoying his party's historic edge among women."

"There are women still struggling with a real sense of grief that Hillary is not the nominee," said Maren Hesla, who runs campaign programs for EMILY's List, a group that promotes female candidates who support abortion rights. But that sense "will grow smaller with every day that passes from the nomination battles."

..."Women are voting for Obama because they dislike [President] Bush, they dislike McCain, they dislike the war, and they're upset about the economy, and those facts override any concerns about the Clinton-Obama primaries," Democratic pollster Mark Mellman said.

...In the days since Clinton abandoned the race and endorsed him, the political arm of Planned Parenthood and other women's groups have rallied behind Obama and joined forces to attack McCain. Among other things, they have highlighted McCain's opposition to abortion rights. The Republican's moderate image, they say, has misled many women into thinking he supports abortion rights.

"It's astonishing the extent to which that's just assumed about him," said Hesla.

Voters are starting to get the unhyped picture of McCain's actual voting record-- rather than the unsubstantiated claims that he's a "moderate" or a "maverick." McCain has the worst voting record of any U.S. senator when it comes to children. Of the 25 votes on children's issues since March 2003, McCain has voted against children 22 times (missing 3 votes while rooting around for money so he could run for higher office). There were also half a dozen votes specifically seeking to address the plight of less affluent women. Predictably-- although not so predictable if you only read the media hype-- he voted against women every time (except when he was awol, sucking up to big special interest campaign contributors and not bothering to show up for his day job).

Not only is McCain on record voting 100% against women's right to choice, he even votes against contraceptives! There is no Republican with a worse voting record on these issues. Ditto when it comes to preventing foreclosures on homes and access to health insurance. Many women voters are particularly concerned about health care and McCain, regardless of what he says now while he's trying to get elected, has a horrible and unwavering record against reasonable health care policies. In the past 5 years there have been 7 roll calls on access to health insurance; McCain voted against it 7 times. McCain also says he would preserve Social Security if he were elected president. But why would anyone believe him when his voting record is crystal clear-- he's a doctrinaire anti-Social Security Republican who voted for every scheme to destroy it and against every proposal to strengthen it.

And, forgetting for a moment how abysmal McCain's record is on issues important to women, there's the less quantifiable matter of his lifelong misogyny. There used to be a cigarette ad directed at women: using the theme "You've come a long way, baby." The concept of women having come a long way was accepted in society after McCain came to maturity. He's always treated professional women in a degrading fashion, and his views about women-- purely sexist-- were fashioned in another century. Women have come a long way. John McCain may have heard about that-- I'm sure he has-- but his record as a legislator and as a human being shows he hasn't paid the slightest bit of attention.