Obama targets female support

With polls suggesting women voters were shifting their support to Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama made an aggressive pitch to them yesterday that yielded awkward moments for the Republican and a new catchphrase on social media.

Obama hit hard on issues such as equal pay for women and contraception and abortion rights in the second debate ahead of the Nov 6 presidential election. The topics did not come up in the first debate on Oct 3, when Romney outshone the Democratic president.

Romney has gained ground on Obama in opinion polls since the first head-to-head, and even took the lead in many surveys. Reuters/Ipsos polling data showed the Democrat’s support slipping among women, particularly married women.

59% of married white women backed Romney for president, versus only 30.4% who picked Obama, according to data for the week ending Oct 14. That was a move of around eight points in Romney’s favour since before the first debate.

With strong support among women essential to his hopes of winning re-election, Obama devoted much of the second debate toward shoring up their support.

He mentioned the women’s health organisation, Planned Parenthood, five times. He stressed Romney had promised to defund the organisation, which provides contraception and abortions, but also basic services such as cancer screenings.

Romney hit back by saying he would help women, and all Americans, by improving the sputtering economy. But the Republican offered fewer specifics on women’s issues than Obama and at times seemed to stumble.

One of the night’s most memorable moments came when Romney was asked how he would ensure pay equity for women. He answered by recalling how, as governor of Massachusetts, he had been concerned when all of the applicants for his cabinet were men.

“I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks?’ and they brought us whole binders full of women,” Romney said.

Romney’s awkward response lit up social media. The user name @RomneyBinders got its own Twitter account, and attracted more than 31,000 followers less than an hour after the debate ended. The hashtag #bindersfullofwomen was one of the 10 most common on the social media service.

Democrats said Romney’s answer seemed to show he had few women in his inner circle, and the candidate did not directly address the pay equality issue.

Obama, in contrast, stressed his support for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill he signed into law as president, which guarantees equal pay for women workers. Romney has declined to say whether he supports the law.

Analysts said that Obama’s performance was likely to stop the loss of support among women voters.

“We’ll probably see some movement of women in a more pro-Obama direction after tonight,” said Susan Carroll, senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

“I think women saw the Obama they hoped to see and were disappointed not to see at the first debate.”

Women in a snap poll by the Democratic Lake Research Partners picked Obama as the debate winner by 56%-34%. Men also gave Obama the victory, but by a narrower margin, 49%-43%.

Romney strongly disputed an accusation by Obama that he “feels more comfortable having politicians in Washington decide the healthcare choices that women are making”.

He went out of his way to say: “Every women in America should have access to contraceptives... the president’s statement of my policy is wrong.”

Obama scored points by talking about his working mother and grandmother, and his children.

“I’ve got two daughters and I want to make sure that they have the same opportunities that anybody’s sons have,” said the president.