“War on Women” Rhetoric Backfires, Romney Leads With Women

The “War on Women” rhetoric President Barack Obama and top Democrats have used to attack GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and pro-life advocates standing up for religious freedom has backfired.

A new CBS News/New York Times poll shows Obama’s support among women has dropped five percentage points over the last two months, going from 49% to 44%. Romney has seen his support with women go up three percent from 43% to 46%, according to the survey.

Mike Flynn, of the conservative Big Government web site, noticed the poll and writes, “Mind you, that isn’t GOP woman or even independent women, but ALL women voters.”

“More importantly, today’s poll finds a notable shift among women in just the last month. In April, Obama was leading Romney by 6% among women. No other group saw an 8 point shift in their support,” Flynn writes. “Turns out women’s top concern is the same as men’s: The Economy. All the contrived outrage about contraceptives and women’s health can’t mask the fact that 73% of voters listed either the economy or the federal deficit as their number on issue. Looks like its going to be a long, hot summer for Team Obama.”

Looking further at the poll, the race for president remains close, but Republican Mitt Romney now has a three-point lead over President Obama, despite positive movement on the economy.

“Romney now leads the President among independents; they were nearly tied among this group last month. Obama beats Romney among moderates. Both candidates continue to perform well with their political base: the President gets solid support from Democrats and liberals, while Romney is running strong with Republicans and conservatives. More than seven in 10 white evangelicals are backing Romney – similar to last month,” the poll reveals.

When asked to choose from a list of six issues, 62% pick the economy and jobs as most important in their vote for President. The budget deficit is a distant second (11%), followed by health care (9%). Only 7% pick same-sex marriage, but that issue does come out ahead of foreign policy (4%) and immigration (2%). Among voters who choose the economy as the most important issue in their vote, 44% pick health care as their second most important issue, followed by the budget deficit with 28%. Only 3% of these voters choose same-sex marriage.

Recently, in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Romney took President Obama to task on his party’s divisive “war on women” rhetoric and the Obama campaign’s “The Life of Julia” cartoonwhich purports to show how Obama policies benefit women. ...