What women want

The female vote will be a huge factor in the US presidential election. Has the tone of the gender debate swung it far enough in President Obama’s direction? John Riordan reports

ON the mark with his razor-sharp satirical television show, Stephen Colbert held up a board for the camera and scrubbed out the number 13.

The prop read ‘Days Since a GOP Candidate Has Mentioned Rape,’ above the small space in which he forlornly wrote the new number: 0.