This is an mailer that Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski sent to appeal to women voters. But not everyone is buying it. Meanwhile, women voters are unimpressed by Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina. What’s wrong with you chicks?
Also included in the mailer text, according to Mudflats blogger Jeanne Devon:
After talking about how mean Joe Miller’s ad campaign lied about her, and how another outside group called her a ‘princess’ she says:
“Fair? Not. But it’s what women have been dealing with for centuries. For every woman who has stood up to the Joe Miller’s [sic] of the world – and those who wished they had… Write in Lisa Murkowski… it’s a vote for you.”
The belief that women will simply vote for women regardless of what the candidates believe was most crudely promulgated first on behalf of, and then by Sarah Palin, Devon points out. (Or: “A woman is a woman. If we can’t have this one [read: Hillary Clinton], we’ll just take that one.”) But while Murkowski may not be nearly as extreme as Palin, Devon is unimpressed by her record on women’s issues:
If it was a vote for me, it would be a vote for someone who would have been proud to vote for two bright and qualified female Supreme Court nominees who support women’s issues. Lisa Murkowski didn’t.
If it was a vote for me, it would be a vote for someone who didn’t waffle about reproductive freedom.
If it was a vote for me, it would be a vote for someone who didn’t vote against the vital interest of my state including on issues of domestic violence because my party leaders told me to…
And while this is not a gender issue, a vote for me would also be a vote for someone who knows that an apostrophe does not make a word plural. Just saying.
Let us all be united in our opposition to apostrophe abuse.
Over in California, you could be forgiven for seeing the subhead of the Los Angeles Times article, “Female voters are judging Whitman and Fiorina more harshly than men, Times/USC poll finds,” as fodder for the whole “women are so mean to women!” meme. But actually, the point here is that women are suspicious of Whitman and Fiorina’s positions and their apparent characters. (Also, last we checked, Barbara Boxer is a lady.)
The results of [two recent] surveys confirmed that ideology, not gender, is directing the vote in this tumultuous campaign season. The candidates in question are being seen as Republicans who happen to be women, rather than women who happen to be Republicans – a key distinction in a Democratic-tilting state.
What’s that? Women voters are far more thoughtful than pandering politicians give us credit for? Staggering. Let’s hope that trend persists seven days from now.
Lisa Murkowski Wants Women to Vote with Their Ovaries, Not Their Brain [Huffington Post]
For Women, Ideology Trumps The Gender Card [LAT]
Earlier: How Abortion Might Be Alaska’s Dealbreaker