Sarah Palin may have women flocking - to Barack Obama
BY KENNETH R. BAZINET and MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Saturday, September 6th 2008, 1:54 PM
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Beck/Getty There was a spike in donations to Barack Obama’s campaign after Sarah Palin’s much-watched acceptance speech last week.
WASHINGTON - If John McCain wanted to poach the women’s vote from Barack Obama, he shouldn’t have tapped a running mate who dubbed herself a “pit bull with lipstick.”
At least, that’s the assessment of women Democratic operatives who seem tickled at Obama’s prospects for November.
“So much of the information about her [Palin’s] agenda and her experience did not resonate with women voters outside the Republican base,” said Ellen Moran, executive director of EMILY’s List, which promotes Democratic women candidates.
There was a collective deep breath, and even a bit of shock, in the world where Hillary Clinton is queen after McCain turned Palin into the new sensation in the race for the White House.
READ MORE: HILLARY, NY DEMS TAKE AIM AT PALIN
But that soon was replaced by excitement, especially after the Obama campaign reported $10 million in donations the day after Palin’s GOP convention speech.
“It’s going to take more than delivering a line about lipstick to win over undecided women voters,” said Rebecca Kirszner, a consultant with Hilltop Publics Solutions.
EMILY’s List was perhaps the first to sing out about an opportunity rather than a threat from Palin, pointing to a poll it had done a couple of days after McCain selected the Alaskan moose huntress.
The survey of 800 women likely voters said Obama holds an 11-point lead on McCain, and that women Hillary voters in particular flooded the Illinois senator’s way.
Before the Palin pick, Obama led McCain by 44 points among female Clinton backers. That jumped to a 54-point lead afterward, 75% to 21%, the poll said.
Those kinds of numbers have the activists thinking that if Palin lives up to her schoolgirl basketball nickname of Sarah Barracuda, she’ll be less aquatic predator and more filet-o-fish.
READ MORE: REVERSE REAGAN? THEN RESPECT OBAMA
Excerpt: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/09/06/2008-09-06_sarah_palin_may_have_women_flocking__to_.html