From The Road
July 11, 2008 1:26 PM

McCain Courts Women Voters

By
John Bentley
Topics
John McCain
(CBS)
From CBS News' John Bentley

(HUDSON, WISC.) – While Hillary Clinton campaigned for Barack Obama yesterday, today John McCain tried to cut into Obama's lead among women voters. "Sen. Obama went on at great length about how much he cares about women's issues," McCain said at a women's town hall meeting here. "My opponent was saying all the right things, but the fact is this: when you cut through all the smooth rhetoric, Sen. Obama's policies would make it harder for women to start news businesses, harder for women to create or find new jobs, harder for women to manage the family budget, and harder for women and their families to meet their tax burden."

The latest poll numbers, however, show McCain's support eroding among women. Obama is leading among women voters nationwide by 51% to 37%, an increase of nine percent from two months ago, according to a poll released yesterday from the Pew Research Center.

Most of the questions from the audience, which was at least 90% women, were not about what are traditionally called "women's issues." They ranged from health care to energy to Guantanamo Bay, and included one woman who said she thought about all of the questions she wanted to ask, but settled on this one: "Is Brett Favre coming out of retirement?"

McCain did not have an answer, but he did talk about how important he thought professional athletes are in encouraging children to stay physically fit.

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