Female Voters Speak Out On Palin
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has re-energized her party's ticket. The GOP is also hoping the Alaska governor will attract the all-important female vote, especially in battleground states like Missouri. A group of women in the Show Me state explain how they feel about Palin.
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STEVE INKSEEP, host:
John McCain's running mate has been traveling alongside him. And elsewhere in today's program we hear Sarah Palin's answer when invited to explain her foreign policy experience. Right now, we'll listen to the way that Palin looks to women. Democrats tend to get more votes from women than Republicans who hope Palin can change that in 2008. NPR's Ina Jaffe went to the battleground state of Missouri to talk to women and see what effect the governor of Alaska is having on their choice.
INA JAFFE: After the Republican convention, one of the first places that John McCain and Sarah Palin campaigned together was Lee's Summit, Missouri. The Kansas City suburb leans Republican, and as many as 4,000 people showed up at the rally. But none of the women at this meeting of the Lee's Summit chapter of MOMS were there. Their organization supports women who've chosen to stay home and raise their children. So stand in line for hours with toddlers to get into a political rally? No way. But follow the campaign and have strong opinions, absolutely. Sherrie Moore(ph), an evangelical Christian, was at the meeting with her one-year-old daughter and three-year-old son.
Ms. SHERRIE MOORE (Member, MOMS, Lee's Summit, Missouri): Palin was actually what put me over the edge.
JAFFE: And pushed her firmly into the Obama camp.
Ms. MOORE: She's never met a foreign head of state. She's been caught time and time again in a mistruth. She just scares me, you know. I'm one of those people that should be a Palin supporter, but I want a strong leader in the White House, not just because she goes to a church or because she happens to be a female.
JAFFE: Sarah Palin was a decisive factor in a very different way for Cathleen Eggers(ph) who used to be more anti-Obama than pro-John McCain.
Ms. CATHLEEN EGGERS (Member, MOMS, Lee's Summit, Missouri): Palin just seemed to breathe new life into the Republican Party for me. She just made me a lot more interested in what's going on.
JAFFE: Eggers and Moore were among half a dozen moms who volunteered to talk politics. Each of them said the economy was a concern. Most said the war was too. Yet they were evenly split, three for Obama and three for McCain. There was quite a bit of child care going on as we talked. It made Gretchen Doyle(ph), Obama supporter and mother of two, wonder how Palin could manage the vice presidency with her five children.
Ms. GRETCHEN DOYLE (Member, MOMS, Lee's Summit, Missouri): I know that I could not be vice president. And I'm not saying that you can't have kids and be the vice president, but she has responsibilities. And I mean her youngest is - is he just over a year or under a year? And he has Down syndrome. And I just question her judgment.
JAFFE: The McCain campaign has called such concerns sexist. McCain supporter and mother of three Tracy McGill(ph) said that male candidates are never questioned about their ability to raise children while holding office, so why Sarah Palin?
Ms. TRACY MCGILL (Member, MOMS, Lee's Summit, Missouri): There are more and more stay-at-home dads. I think her husband is a big support to her. I think she's got a big challenge ahead of her, but I think it can be done.
JAFFE: Meanwhile, in strongly Democratic Kansas City, it wasn't Palin's children but her qualifications that worried five University of Missouri women. Jimoke Bologan(ph) is 20 years old, African-American, and an Obama supporter.
Ms. JIMOKE BOLOGAN (Student, University of Missouri): And I kind of think that the Republicans are using her as kind of, hey, look, we have a woman too. And that's so devastating to me, because I want to see a woman in office, but I want to see a qualified woman in office.
JAFFE: Bologan was in a lounge at the campus women's center where center Director Brenda Bethman had a more cynical take on the issue of Palin's qualifications.
Ms. BRENDA BETHMAN (Director, University of Missouri Women's Center): I actually think it's progress when unqualified women get chosen, since unqualified men have been chosen for years. So, why not?
JAFFE: Bethman was one of a couple of Hillary Clinton supporters here. Another one, English Professor Virginia Blanton, was angered over the sexist stereotypes aimed at Hillary Clinton, and now is just as disgusted at the way that Sarah Palin's being portrayed.
Dr. VIRGINIA BLANTON (Associate Professor of English, University of Missouri): Within a week of her speech at the Republican National Convention, there was the action figure doll brought out about her. And it's got this cutaway black leather, you know, sort of trench coat with short shorts, and she's really muscular and ready to kick people's hynies(ph).
JAFFE: But regardless, none of these women were so sympathetic that they were actually going to vote for Sarah Palin and John McCain. Brenda Bethman is still so distressed about the way Hillary Clinton was treated, she isn't sure she'll vote at all.
Ms. BETHMAN: I'm disenchanted with the whole process, and so there are days when I'm like, I'm just going to stay home because I can't vote for any of them with a clean conscience.
JAFFE: A day like that would be a good for John McCain, helping him narrow the gender gap in this battleground state, if only by a single vote. Ina Jaffe, NPR News, Kansas City, Missouri.
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In Va., Palin Draws Mixed Reaction Among Women
A woman in the crowd holds a sign as Republican presidential nominee John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, campaign in Fairfax, Va., on Sept. 10.
A woman in the crowd holds a sign as Republican presidential nominee John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, campaign in Fairfax, Va., on Sept. 10.
Political Junkie
Supporters listen as Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin attends a campaign rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on Sept. 13.
Supporters listen as Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin attends a campaign rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on Sept. 13.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin attends a campaign event at Van Dyke Park in Fairfax, Va., on Sept. 10.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin attends a campaign event at Van Dyke Park in Fairfax, Va., on Sept. 10.
A girl and some women watch from a window as Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin greet the crowds at a campaign event in Lebanon, Ohio, on Sept. 9.
A girl and some women watch from a window as Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin greet the crowds at a campaign event in Lebanon, Ohio, on Sept. 9.
Sarah Palin's dramatic effect on political attitudes is not limited to Alaska. She's given the whole country — and, in this case, female voters — a new way to think about the presidential election and women's place in it.
On a recent visit to the swing state of Virginia, female voters expressed both admiration and concern about Palin as a possible vice president. While some women said they admired her fresh approach, political ascent and ability to juggle her work and her family, others said they were worried about her level of experience and her ability to function as president if anything happened to Sen. John McCain.
"People are saying it's a maverick thing, but I think it's a risky thing," one young mother named Stephanie Elms said about McCain's selection of Palin. "The idea that he could pull something like that in foreign policy really, really worries me."
Virginia Women On Palin
NPR spoke with three groups of women in Prince William County: middle-aged women who take riding lessons; members of a mystery book club; and a group of young mothers, most of whom home-school their children.
One of the young mothers, Heather Melugin, originally jumped on the Palin bandwagon. Melugin, like Palin, has a special needs child and has been a working mom.
"So I was really excited about this until I saw her interview with Charlie Gibson," she said.
Palin was interviewed on ABC News last week. During the interview, Gibson asked Palin how she weighed the offer to be McCain's running mate. In response, Palin said that she accepted it instantly. It worried Melugin that Palin did not first consult her family.
But other female voters found that kind of candor refreshing. Undecided voter Peggy Smith is a riding instructor from Manassas.
"I think it's more that she doesn't come across so much as a lifetime, professional politician — that she started truly at a place where any woman could go out and start," she said.
And other women, like registered nurse Kay Finney, said that Palin's entry into politics should give women confidence.
"I like that she was in your face, and I like that she was straightforward. She says, 'I've been a mayor of a small town, and I've been the governor of Alaska, and that's it.' I think she's a breath of fresh air, and I'm excited that she's on the ticket," she said.
But all of the women agreed that as the economy worsens in the United States, the choice of vice presidential candidates seems less important.
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