Women Dig Mitt

In the latest CBS/New York Times poll earlier this week, women are moving from supporting President Barack Obama for re-election, to supporting Republican Mitt Romney:

Romney took the lead among women voters, who supported the former Massachusetts governor 46 percent to Mr. Obama’s 44 percent, which is within the poll’s margin of error. In April, Mr. Obama had an edge among women voters, with 49 percent support to Romney’s 43 percent.

What caused the President to lose 5% of the women’s vote in the span of one month?  A couple of new data points from this week may help answer the question:

• According to a poll by Rasmussen Reports, 88% of American adults report paying more for groceries this year as compared to last year.
• According to a new USA Today/Gallup poll, 55 percent of those surveyed believe the economy will get better under Mitt Romney, but only 46 percent said the same of President Barack Obama.

In many families, women run the family finances.  They know how hard it has been to manage the family budget under this President’s policies.  They do most of the grocery shopping, buy the school clothes and drive the carpool.  They have seen the incremental reductions in their buying power add up during the Obama administration and are simply more confident in Romney’s ability to turn to economy around.

President Obama also miscalculates how women think.  This is not 50 years ago, where the norm was a family where the man looked after the wife and children.  This is 2012.  Women are strong, independent, running businesses and raising families.  The argument made in the President’s online ad “The Life of Julia” is that women need to be cared for, because they can’t – or won’t – care for themselves.

That is a tired, old argument, and women are not buying it.  In feminist terms, we don’t need to be shackled to anyone.  And that includes the federal government.  We are smarter than that.   Mitt has my vote.