Women's Vote Is Top Priority

In the battle for the White House, currying the women's vote has become a campaign necessity in recent years. In fact, the power of women voters can make or break a presidential bid.

To explore the importance of the women's vote in the Presidential election, CBS News commissioned a poll of women voters asking them which candidates they now support. On Monday, The Early Show invited two top political insiders to analyze the poll results.

Ellen Malcolm is the president and founder of Emily's List, a network for Democratic women to get elected. Linda DiVall is a long-time Republican pollster. They joined the show in Washington, D.C.

Both women were asked how they interpreted Governor George Bush's 48% to 42% lead over vice president Al Gore.

"I think women are more interested in last-minute shopping than politics," said Malcolm. "Sixteen percent of the women only say they're paying close attention to the race. That's good news for Democrats. When women start focusing on the issuesÂ…I think the Democratic nominee will pick up a lot of support from women."

Linda DiVall thinks the numbers are excellent news for Governor Bush and should serve as a wake-up call for Vice President Gore.

"Not only has Bush increased his lead with men, he has maintained his margin with women, which suggests that the vice president is not in a position to be able to be competitive with BushÂ…" said DiVall.

"George W. Bush is an upbeat, compassionate conservative. You heard him talking about how his policies will affect a single woman raising two kids. He's taking his policies and targeting them to women's lives."

The issues women are more concerned about are education, healthcare and social security. Malcolm feels that when women learn more about Bush's record on those issues, his support among women will dwindle.
"When women discover the Texas school system is one of the lowest rated in the country, and one of only two states that does not have mandated kindergarten across the stateÂ…they'll find out he is more conservative than compassionate."

DiVall feels that there's a political shift going on.

"Democrats have got to be worried," says DiVall. "They don't have the traditional women's support locked up right now. It is a sea-change."

Malcolm feels that the agenda for this election is women-centered and that will bring more women to the Democratic side.

"When you look at the Democratic position on those issues, that's where women believe in," says Malcolm. "We'll see the shifting tremendously during the course of the election."

"One of the great things we found in '96 is, the more we talked about the gender gap, the more women thought they and their vote were important," says Malcolm. "More women went out and voted."