On Sunday, Sept. 2nd, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Op-Ed page rolled out the newsprint carpet to let "GOP Pollster" Kellyanne Conway argue that "The GOP can win women". (This sprawling epic apparently first appeared in the Washington Post, but why are we not surprised?) She writes:
As the "war on women" rhetoric shows, Democrats seem to want to speak to women only from the waist down. To win, Republicans should call their bluff and address women from the waist up as well, especially their heads and hearts, where economic worries are key.
She said a recent poll she conducted for Lifetime television, along with Democratic strategist Celinda Lek, found that "41 percent of women said a candidate's position on the issues is the biggest deciding factor when they vote...." trumping moral character, background/experience, record in elected office, political party and spouse.
For five straight years, women have said the economy and jobs are top issues. Health care and education are important too.
But instead, she argues, Democrats are ignoring these issues important to women and concentrating all their efforts on abortion.
I'm just a guy, and seriously deficient in the "lady parts" department, but even me, a retired almost 70-year old, knows nonsense when I read it, and especially when it is coming from a GOP Pollster, so I sat down and crafted a letter to the editor which just ran in today's (Sept. 9th) issue. The text, below the orange whoop de doo.
Wow….GOP “pollster” Kellyanne Conway gets 1,100 words and 35 column inches in the PG to argue “The GOP Can Win Women” ( 9/2/12). She argues that Democrats “speak to women only from the waist down,” and not from the waist up, where her polling shows “economic worries are key.”
I get 250 words to reply Kelly, so here are just a few of the GOP policies that are driving women away in droves. Your party:
• Opposes equal pay bill for women.
• Opposes increasing the minimum wage.
• Supports higher student loan interest rates.
• Votes for cuts for education and day care including Head Start.
• Supports cuts to public transportation.
• Supports cuts to clean air and water regulation.
• Supports policies that will increase middle class taxes, particularly on working women. (The Ryan budget would raise taxes on families earning $30-40,000 a year by $500.)
• Opposes health care reform but offers no substantive plan of its own to make care affordable and accessible to all and reduce costs.
• Supports cuts to social service programs providing shelters for battered and abused women, job training, and continuing education.
• Supports lowering Social Security benefits and increasing retirement age. (Social Security accounts for two-thirds of income for women over 65.)
• Supports conversion of Medicare to a voucher system adding thousands a year to the health costs of seniors.
I could go on….a LOT, but I am reaching my limit. Let’s look at the polls again in November, Kelly. I’m afraid you are in for a shock.
Interestingly, there were five letters to the editor included in today's issue....and four of them (including mine) pointed out the nonsense behind Ms. Conway's screed. If the GOP is relying on her polling findings, they appear to be in even bigger trouble than the latest polls about the Presidential "horserace" are indicating.