[Darkwolf377]

Before one dismisses this soap opera analysis out of hand, it is well to consider that when the Hillary put on her pink suit and damned the vast right wing conspiracy, there was another dynamic at work.

Terrific analysis--and good to read you again.

You're dead-on when pointing out that if Hillary's going to fail it has to be at the hands of women, and men have their blinders on when they laugh at her "touchy-feely" approach (remember how many people laughed at her "listening tour"?).

The reason HRC is so hard to defeat is because as politically incorrect as it is to say, women ARE different from men in terms of their thinking, not just their physical anatomy. When women hear men laughing at things like "listening," they think that men don't get it, and that maybe someone like HRC IS what they need in office.

Many women are going to vote for her because she is a woman. If that solid core can be cracked, HRC has no "up" she can reach through other means--men, conservatives, minorities--she's already nailed down all the hardcore support she can from the "edges" so now she needs to get more from the mushy middle. Those women who aren't wedded to ideology will look at her, and if they don't find too many objections they'll say "Why not?" If they look at her and see an incompetent who will be calling the shots in the post-9/11 world where their children might be getting blown up by suicide bombs in the USA, she's done.

[nathanbedford]

I suppose that the Republicans and well-managed campaigns like Romney's are already slicing and dicing the demographics of the female vote in America and laying that on a state-by-state grid. No doubt they have already concluded that there is a huge difference between a married women who tends to vote Republican and single women who tend to vote Democrat. There is also about the same dichotomy between older women and younger women. Then I suppose there are women who vote and those who are not likely to vote.

But after these distinctions are drawn, there must be a residue of this demographic group which can be treated and considered as women . And these must be approached on an issue by issue basis being mindful that womens' reactions to issues are different from mens' and, as you point out, the manner of delivery is far more important to women than to men. At the foot of your note you suggest that women should be alerted that the war on terror threatens their children. You are exactly right. Every issue must be tied to such considerations.

For example, healthcare is being driven by the Democrats because they know how potent an issue this can be with with women. We Republicans and conservatives respond by saying that the idea that the federal government should be usurping healthcare is unconstitutional and unwise because it would cycle one out of every seven dollars spent on our economy through the exchequer. It would convert health delivery into something akin to the efficiencies we experience in the post office, as opposed to Federal Express.

Many women simply do not hear these arguments. They will let someone else worry about the Constitution, they are worried about who has to change their mother's diaper because their mothers have Alzheimers. Virtually every issue has to be seen in this light.

I consider that there must be a vulnerability in the womens' demographic to wedge issues just as there is within the general voting demographic. These issues must be exploited ruthlessly-but the manner of doing so is everything.

Apologies for the misrecognition of the word "except" when I dictated into my Dragon Naturally Speaking software "accept" in my post to you. software saves me from looking foolish for spelling errors but leaves me vulnerable to those kinds of sound errors which I sometimes fail to catch in proofreading.

[Jim Noble]

Both of you brilliant, as usual.

Her riposte of "you are afraid of strong women, waah, you're hitting a girl" is designed for across-the-board female appeal.

And it works.

Are we seeing the first cracks in the armor, or is it a mirage?

[sauropod]

The reason HRC is so hard to defeat is because as politically incorrect as it is to say, women ARE different from men in terms of their thinking, not just their physical anatomy. When women hear men laughing at things like "listening," they think that men don't get it, and that maybe someone like HRC IS what they need in office.

This is why we must repeal women's suffrage. /only partially s

[Max in Utah]

"...the mushy middle..."

Very apt. It's maddening to know there are so many who, in spite of access to so many sources of information, will not come to a reasoned decision on so important an issue.