Clinton Walks Fine Line Wooing Female Voters

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Oprah Winfrey hits the campaign trail this weekend with presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Obama campaign is hoping Oprah will help him appeal to women in a race where Hillary Clinton is running at the top of the polls, and Obama is not alone.

NPR's Tovia Smith reports.

TOVIA SMITH: She is often subtle about it and always careful not to overplay it. But when Hillary Clinton makes a campaign stop, her gender is always in the mix.

Senator HILLARY CLINTON (Democrat, New York): And, of course, I am thrilled at the prospect of becoming the first woman president. It is humbling. It is exciting.

SMITH: At this rally this week in Gilford, New Hampshire, as is usually the case, women are among Clinton's most enthusiastic supporters.

Ms. ANN FOUCHER (Hillary Clinton supporter): Go for it, girl.

Sen. CLINTON: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Ms. FOUCHER: I love you. God bless.

Sen. CLINTON: Thank you.

SMITH: Forty-eight-year-old Ann Foucher(ph) says her work in the male-dominated world of construction gives her great admiration for what Clinton is doing.

Ms. FOUCHER: This is a woman that's standing up to all these men. And you always have to prove yourself more than a man. And she's done it. And God bless her.

SMITH: But with women already more than half the electorate and their numbers growing, none of Clinton's male rivals are willing or able to concede the women's vote.

Ms. MICHELLE OBAMA (Barack's wife): Yeah, no. I, you know, I mean, I think we got some you go, girl going on too.

SMITH: That's Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, who has been making her own not so subtle overture to women.

Ms. OBAMA: Barack does actually understand and respect in ways that I think…

SMITH: In a corner booth at a Manchester, New Hampshire, bakery this week, Mrs. Obama convened a kind of coffee klatch with working women, bonding over everything from kids and work to the cost of health care and the burden on women trying to do it all.

Ms. OBAMA: That's my message too, get a pedicure, you deserve it.

(Soundbite of laughter)

SMITH: Some recent polls show Obama peeling women's votes away from Clinton, especially in Iowa. Pollster Celinda Lake who's working for Senator Joe Biden's campaign says women voters are usually drawn to women candidates early on, but they also usually reconsider later in the game.

Ms. CELINDA LAKE (Joe Biden's Campaign Pollster): This is a very typical pattern that we're seeing in the primaries. But I think one that wasn't anticipated when it came to Hillary Clinton, the thought was that she had a very solid hold on these women voters.

SMITH: Lake says expect to see all the candidates making more overt appeals to women, much like John Edwards did recently at a middle school in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Mr. JOHN EDWARDS (Democrat, Presidential Candidate): I want to be the president who's the most aggressive about enforcing our laws against discrimination against women.

SMITH: In some ways, it's easier for male candidates to aggressively advocate women's issues as they don't risk being pigeon-holed or stereotyped like a woman might be.

Ms. BONNIE CAMPBELL (Former Attorney General, Iowa): It is a definite tightrope act. No question about it.

SMITH: Bonnie Campbell was attorney general in Iowa but lost her run for governor there. She's now working for Clinton and hoping the prospect of shattering the glass ceiling will prove as compelling to other women as it is for her.

Ms. CAMPBELL: There's no way that a qualified woman is going to be running for president. And I wouldn't be supporting her. And there are many women who feel the same as I.

SMITH: Perhaps, but there are also many women who feel torn between their desire for a madam president and their qualms about Mrs. Clinton.

Ms. STEPHANIE MARSHALL(ph) (Obama Supporter): It's a tough decision. It's a very tough decision.

SMITH: Fifty-four-year-old Stephanie Marshall is one of the women invited to the Obama coffee. She hates the notion of voting against Hillary Clinton, but she feels more in sync with Obama on some key issues. And she can see it's a little easier passing on Clinton, knowing she can help Obama make history himself.

Ms. MARSHALL: He is not a white male. I mean, you know, if he were a white male, I think it would be very different. I'm really confessing to you. I really don't tell these people this.

SMITH: This is hard for Marshall to admit how race and gender may be deciding factors for her. It's enraging for some other women to hear.

Kate Reed(ph), an Obama supporter who also came to the coffee, sees it as a betrayal of everything feminists have fought for.

Ms. KATE REED: It is a step back. I would never want somebody to hire me because I'm a woman. Never. That would be an insult.

SMITH: That's the message Clinton's rivals are trying to fend as they deploy their wives and prominent women like Oprah on the campaign trail. Longtime women's rights advocate Kate Michaelman is stomping for John Edwards. She says it's been crucial for women voters to see her doing that.

Ms. KATE MICHAELMAN (Women's Rights Activist): When I speak, I find that it almost, in some ways, gives women permission to shake their head and say, you know, you're right. You're not obligated. We need to consider the issues.

SMITH: In some part, women's willingness to look past gender is generational. For every older woman eager to see a woman president in her lifetime, there's another younger one who's in no hurry.

As one college student put it, I know I'll see a woman in the White House one day. It doesn't have to be Hillary.

Tovia Smith, NPR News.

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