Women rock the vote

Since it is International Women's Day, it's a fitting time to recognize the woman voter.

First, though, it should be noted that this day started as a Socialist political event in America in 1909. It spread to Europe and ultimately Russia where it became an official holiday under the Soviets.

Times have changed and the word Socialist is no longer in vogue. The Soviet Union is history.

By 1920, the world started caving in for men when American women started voting in national elections. The U.S. was one of the last of the developed nations to grant women the same voting rights as men.

Even though it has been less than 100 years, women are clearly more concerned about voting than men in this country.

Here's a link to statistics, and another, about women and voting. The first contains a myriad of stats including this: 


"In the 2008 presidential election, 60.4 percent of eligible female adults voted (70.4 million women) while 55.7 percent of eligible men voted (60.7 million men)."


In 2008, more than 53 percent of the votes were cast by women. And, they favored President Obama by 13 percent over John McCain.


And:


"Since 1986, the proportion of eligible female adults who have voted has succeeded the proportion of eligible male adults who have voted in all elections, reversing the historical trend of higher voter turnout rate for men than for women."


In other words, women form a majority of the voting public. This is significant and will mean that we could have a woman president either in 2016 or 2020.


In the near-term, though, how women vote in 2012 will determine who will win the election.


As the saying goes, when women vote, Democrats win. And, in Oregon there about 200,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans.


The Wall Street Journal reported this week that women started identifying more with Democrats in the 1980s. 


And, if the presidential election were held today, the article states, President Obama would have a significant edge among women woters over any of the current crop of Republican candidates.


President Obama would win the women's vote by these margins against:


Mitt Romney, 18 percentage points
Rick Santorum, 24 points
Newt Gingrich, 27 points
Ron Paul, 18 points


Naturally, the WSJ notes that men favor Romney and Paul, by 6 and 4 points, respectively.


But, since more women will vote than men anyway, it doesn't really matter if President Obama loses the male vote by a small margin.


That's right, when it comes to voting, men don't count as much as women.


Republicans have only themselves to blame for their poor showing among more than half of the electorate.


After the GOP's "successful" campaigns against African-Americans, gays and Hispanics, it needed to wage another war, this time on women.


Like the other "wars," Republicans are bound to lose this one too.


Don't know if this is all part of the "Southern strategy" begun by Nixon and perfected by Reagan, but it's not a winning one.


Rush Limbaugh lit the fire last week to begin International Women's Month by calling a woman a "slut" and a "prostitute." 


Rush's minions in Congress and legislatures around the country took the cue and are eagerly trying to thwart women's access to reproductive health care.


You can be sure there are many Republican women out there who feel scorned on this issue by their own party. 


As they say, beware a woman scorned.