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This article discusses the importance of female voters in the 2004 presidential election. Through clever stage-managing and endless iteration of the discredited Saddam/Al Qaeda connection, the RNC managed to attach to the reckless and inept Bush presidency the qualities Americans admire in men--optimism, confidence, fun, resolve, determination, single-mindedness, strength, will, foresight. Kerry and the Dems were the opposite--pessimistic, weak, indecisive, effeminate Breck girls and girlie men. You'd think Kerry, not Bush, had been the cheerleader in prep school. In the contest between real men and girlie men, women don't exist. The few female speakers were there to underline Bush's heterosexual credentials: Elizabeth Dole said Bush would protect us from gay marriage; Laura, Barbara and the twins testified to his Dadness. And don't forget Barney, the Scottish Terrier. Real men have dogs. Women--gays--Democrats--have cats. And what of those women voters both parties are supposedly so eager to woo? Bush has done so little for women--and so much against them--that Laura had to reach all the way to Afghanistan to find some women whose lives have arguably been bettered by her husband. Kerry's positions on issues women care about are good, but you have to read about them on his website: He has yet to make a direct appeal for women's votes. Martha Burk, the witty and vigorous head of the National Council of Women's Organizations, tells me that during the primaries Kerry actually told a roomful of Women for Kerry that he didn't want to single out female voters because that would be "pandering" to a special interest. Kerry, after all, has no problem appealing directly to veterans, to hunters, to NASCAR fans. What are those if not special interests? Why is it OK to sidle up to gun-owners but not to talk about your support for battered women?
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