WOMEN AND THE GOP - AT 9:39 A.M. ET:   Mary Catherine Ham debunks the conventional wisdom that Republicans have a "woman problem," and believes that women can be convinced to vote Republican in 2010.  From the Washington Examiner:

On November 3, Virginia governor-elect Bob McDonnell won women by eight points, 54-46, against Democrat Creigh Deeds. A year before, Obama had won women by seven points; in his historic campaign to turn the state blue, he relied largely on the educated, affluent, suburban vote McDonnell would recover for the GOP. This information was obscured under the CNN headline, "Male, rural, suburban votes boost McDonnell."

Ah, CNN.  We may write further about that "news" network.

In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie lost women by 5 points, but shrunk McCain's '08 losing margin by 12 points.

And Christie won the governorship of that very blue state.

The exit polls reveal a model for speaking to women voters in 2010: "Here was a guy [McDonnell] who was a conservative, who was not afraid to speak to that," said RNC chairman Michael Steele. "But what he did was he applied it to the issues that were important to the people in his state. He didn't need to run away from it."

Representative Pete Sessions, head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has recruited 26 women to run in 2010, agrees.

"The economy and jobs and debt dominate, not just the political landscape, but what people are talking about around their own tables," he said, which was what McDonnell stuck to while Deeds attacked. "The [message] that worked in New Jersey was corruption."

And...

Senate races boast five high-profile GOP women candidates for 2010: Sue Lowden in Nevada, Linda -McMahon in Connecticut, Jane Norton in Colorado, Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, and Carly Fiorina in California. As leaders in their communities, business, and politics, several of these women are leading the polls in the early going, and have experience speaking to fellow women, sometimes in powerful ways.

Never let your opposition define you:

In the liberal mind, and in media coverage, the GOP woman seems to exist only as a parody of Sarah Palin--all bumpkin, no brains...

That perception of Sarah Palin is changing, and can change even more if she starts working the policy details.

The Republican party has work to do, especially with single women, but polling suggests women will be willing to listen to the GOP in 2010, and the GOP is working to speak to them, with the help of women in its ranks. The truth is that neither party can afford to treat women as simplistically as the "women problem" narrative does.

COMMENT:  Very well said.  The GOP has a history of giving up on groups, not even trying to get their vote.  A former Republican national chairman, Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., who was chairman during the Reagan presidency, complained about that, even then.

There is no reason why Republicans cannot appeal to women...if they make the effort.  The recruitment of many excellent female Republican candidates for 2010 indicates that the effort is being made.

December 17, 2009