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The vast majority of female Hillary supporters now support Obama.  But the 14% who are holding out, or claim to have switched their support to McCain because of Palin, is a crucial voting bloc in such a hotly contested election.  I was a Hillary Clinton supporter, and admit to shedding a tear or two during her convention speech.  As a woman I was extremely proud of how presidential she looked. Make no mistake, I will be voting for Obama.  But I understand why some Hillary supporters would move towards John McCain and Sarah Palin.  How does a person or a campaign “swing” these voters back into the Democratic camp?  These voters need to get a picture of Palin that disputes her current "I'm just like you" message.  Here I rate the issues and arguments raised in the media by their persuasive impact on these women.

Sarah Palin is inexperienced.  How can a woman with so little experience be a heartbeat away from the presidency, especially given that McCain is a 72 cancer survivor?   Score:  C.  If women are constantly limited by the “experience” argument, we’ll never break the glass ceiling.  There just aren’t enough women in the top spots in politics or business to get there through promoting the most experienced alone.   At least McCain clearly supports giving women a chance, making him more attractive than Obama to women who feel Hillary won the right to be his number two.   And it says a lot about McCain to these women that Carly Fiorina (former CEO of HP) and Meg Whitman (former CEO of Ebay) support him.   Arguably, Obama is inexperienced too, and he’s running for president, not Vice President.  Besides, we now know what the “experience” of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney got us, so don’t tell me that “experience” is the end all and be all. The republicans have done a decent job of making her background sound like it's on at least equal footing with Obama, so it isn't a terribly strong argument to a fence-sitter. 

She wants to have creationism taught along-side evolution in schools.  Score:  A.  Proof of religious extremism will impact how these women view her, enough to get them to question whethr her belief system is in the mainstream.  There is a tendency to want to give her the benefit of any doubt - on the face of it she is the perfect archetype of the executive supermom.  But revealing chinks in the armor that say "whoa, she's not like me" gets moderates to rethink a person on multiple dimensions.

Palin has 5 kids, and one of them has Down’s Syndrome and needs extra attention.  Score:  F.  This is a dead horse with a seriously rotten carcass.  Leave it alone.  No one would make this argument if Palin were a man.  This is what feminists have been fighting for all along.  Her husband is prepared to stay home with the kids, and, if elected Vice President, I’m sure she’ll have a great nanny or two.  The fact that she’s so close to the issues impacting executive women, especially those with kids needing special care, makes her very attractive.  She’s said she’d take on the issues of special needs kids.  With Autism fears rising along with its incidence rates, not to mention the lift in rates of other childhood medical issues (many highly correlated to childhood obesity) it is an extremely gratifying possibility  to see these issues championed through the white house because association groups are getting nowhere.  Shame on you (men in government) for not doing more to force insurance companies and educational systems to help families overcome by this financial and emotional strain. 

She’s a journalism major who went to 5 colleges to get her degree.  Score:  C.  This argument could be effective if you could show proof that she’s not all that brilliant.  What were her grades?  Five colleges sounds really odd – why did this happen?  I hear the top-line, but it is not strong enough in and of itself.  To turn this argument into a B you need backup – otherwise, at least older women can project their own experiences into it, coming to the conclusion that she stopped and started her college education for family or financial reasons.   But the agrument could be stronger if more voters knew that Palin went to five colleges – and did flunk out of at least one - versus a Harvard Law student who graduated near the top of his class.  Women project onto her that she must be very bright to get to where she is, but if this is proven false, then women will take another look.

The Republicans are keeping her from the media.  Score: B but could be an A if handled better.   It is very ironic that when she finally did get a degree, it was in journalism - yet she is vilifying the 4^th estate from doing its job vetting her background, and allowing the Republican campaign to shield her from interviews by arguing that the media is too sexist.  Surely the woman who may have to stand up to Putin can be interviewed by Katie Couric, Anne Curry, or Leslie Stahl?  There are enough women in the media to make the Republican’s “sexism in the media” reasoning for lack of interviews baseless.  Get out there with this one, because the Charles Gibson interview went a long way to showcase that her lack of specific knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and we need to hear more from her in her own words before Election Day.  If Republicans continue to prevent the non-sexist media from interviewing her, it could raise serious questions about whether she is smart enough for the job.

She has no foreign-policy experience.    Score:  A.  Keep digging on this one, but it’s not about meeting with foreign heads of State (as brought up in the ABC interview).   We need more on how culturally isolated she is, on how she’s only left the continent once.  This shows a lack of curiosity about the world that she’d be participating in on the largest possible scale.  Even those without foreign policy experience gain a real appreciation for other cultures by simply getting out there.  Heck, I’ve been to Africa twice and to Europe a few times – they were real eye-opening experiences for me on how much of the world lives.  It also was scary to see what they think of us now versus my trips in the 90’s.  Our economy was in much better shape when the US was so idolized that people all over the world wanted to get even a little taste of America by buying our brands.  Now a turning away from American brands is palatable, which is a small example of how much our influence in the world has been impacted by our foreign policy.  Let’s hear more about her views toward foreign policy to show that she’s on the neo-con track.  There is so much more that can be done with this argument to bolster the argument that she’s unqualified to be Vice President.

She’s involved in the Troopergate scandal.  Score:  D, again because of how it’s been handled.  The top-line message comes across as being “he said, she said” and the Republicans have been effective at making this sound like a partisan witch-hunt.  The media is not doing a good job of showcasing the string of incidents from her time as mayor to show that this wasn’t just a one-time deal, but that there is a clear history of personal abuse of power.  We need to hear more about the librarian and other cases.  The media is also not doing a good job of pointing out that she switched out qualified individuals for unqualified friends and supporters.  This is serious news, but only the wonks are really hearing this message.  Right now, the top-line message getting through is that she went after corruption and that’s why she switched out key personnel.   We just suffered 8 years of abuse of power and cronyism –This could be an A argument if the media was doing its job.

She’s anti-choice, putting  Roe vs. Wade is at risk.  Score:  C because of non-existent execution.  This argument should be an A if properly executed, but it’s the most poorly executed argument of all.   I understand not wanting to jeopardize the Catholic vote by pushing Choice, but this argument must get to the forefront .  A 527 group ad would be useful here.  There must be more energy getting 3 messages across:  1) Palin is so anti-choice as to not allow abortion in cases of rape and incest.  And too many women think McCain is at best neutral, despite his Rick Warren interview.  (Reality check:  older white women are not on YouTube, so they likely haven’t seen his response .);   2)  For those that know McCain and Palin are anti-choice, the McCain/Palin argument that overturning Roe would simply return the decision to the states really blunts this argument well , because  women project that their state wouldn’t overturn it.  You need to come back much harder on why making it a state issue is bad.  You’re just not scaring women enough as to how real the likelihood is that Choice would go away and how women would be impacted.  Roe is a few generations old so the days before Roe are long-forgotten.  3)  People are out of touch with the seriousness of why the Supreme Court voted the way it did, because it wasn’t about just the right to an abortion - It was about upholding the very notion that liberty must first uphold the rights of the individual.  McCain said he thought Roe was a poor ruling.  With religiosity in this country on the rise, where is the right to privacy line going to be drawn? 

She billed the State for nights she stayed at home.  Score C:  This isn’t a Jack Abramoff scandal – she didn’t break any laws.  In isolation, it looks like she simply took advantage of the perks of the job – like a man.  If it’s piled on top of the cronyism and the oodles of earmarks she-didn’t-not-support, then it starts to show a vindictive, greedy personality all too common in politics – and the opposite of the so-called anti-corruption politician she’s been billing herself as.

She had a tanning bed installed in the Governor’s mansion.  Score:  Z.  This is the stupidest argument I spotted.   There’s a bowling lane in the white house and you’re penalizing her for a tanning bed in Alaska, where there’s barely any sun in the winter?  Please - we’ve been hearing about golf-club perks for men forever.  So she got a tanning bed.   Biden got hair plugs, Edwards had his $400 haircuts.  Next we’ll be hearing about the secret Botox shots.  A vain politician – who knew?

She is not supportive of universal healthcare, and supports extending George Bush’s tax cuts.  Score:  A.  But it would work much better coming from Hillary.  We need an ad where Hillary Clinton clearly states that Palin represents the opposite of her healthcare and economic proposals.  More Hillary, more of the time.  It’s great that she’s “on tour” now, but she isn’t visible in the major media.  An ad with some of her statements from the convention speech would have a significant impact. 

In summary, what won’t work are the snide arguments that look partisan and petty.  What will work is helping women get more clarity around what she believes, as right now they are projecting their own views and values on this blank screen.  Attacks MUST stay issues based, and showcase her differences with Hillary and Democratic values, but be specific.    There is plenty of time yet.

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