Opinion: Kerry should have addressed women more

11/18/04George W. Bush is not an advocate for women's suffrage. His record is so abysmal, in fact, that the Bush administration quietly deleted and altered information on women's issues from government agency Web sites, according to the National Council for Research on Women.

In his 2004 campaign, Mr. Bush offered no proposal to improve or expand the Equal Pay Act, no plan to help women through the Family and Medical Leave Act and no expansion of child care to help working women.

But when women cast their ballots on Nov. 2, 48 percent of them voted for Bush.

That figure plummeted to 24 percent among non-white women, but white women favored Bush over John Kerry, 55-44.

So why would so many women support a president who hasn't supported them?

"Kerry never drew a very strong contrast with Bush on women's issues until the end of the campaign," Martha Burk, chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, told the Associated Press.

In a campaign speech in Milwaukee, Wis., on October 22, Kerry told a group of supporters that he wanted to offer women "a fresh start" with good jobs and equal pay instead of the "false assurances" of the Bush administration.

"We believe that the middle class is the backbone of this country and that hard-working women are the bedrock of our families," Kerry said. "For far too many women, the American dream seems a million miles away because when you've barely got time to sleep, who's got time to dream?"

Kerry criticized the president's economic decisions, saying working women had been deeply affected by the "Bush economy," citing "rising costs and sinking wages," soaring health care premiums, the pay gap and an inadequate minimum wage.

But no one was listening.

Kerry didn't make these comments in the debates on national television or on commercials that air in swing states. He made these comments to a group of supporters that were going to vote for him anyway.

And Bush gained women's votes by using television ads to tell the country that Kerry opposed the child tax credit and tried to reinstate the marriage penalty.

The truth, of course, is quite the contrary. The Bush camp used Senate votes to vastly skew the truth, which is that Kerry has voted three times in favor of marriage penalty relief and countless times in favor of the child tax credit.

On occasion, Kerry did vote against the child tax credit and marriage penalty relief, but all those instances were votes against Republican proposals that also contained such facets as rate reductions for the most affluent taxpayers and reductions in capital-gains taxes and taxes on large estates.

But as far as the average voter is concerned, Kerry opposed tax relief for married couples 22 times, opposed increasing the child tax credit 18 times and supported higher taxes over 350 times. Because that's what the Bush camp told them.

Further, the Bush camp appealed to women voters the same way it appealed to men, drumming into their heads that Kerry is a flip-flopper who wouldn't be strong against the terrorists.

Historically, women have favored the Democratic presidential candidate by a considerable margin over the Republican candidate. In 2000, women favored Al Gore 54-43, an 11-point advantage.

Perhaps Kerry just expected that advantage.

Historically, women turn out in higher percentages than men at the voting booths. Women comprised 52 percent of voters in the 2004 election.

It is in a candidate's best interest to spend some time campaigning for the women's vote.

Bush didn't appeal to women's rights during his presidency, but did appeal to women in his campaign. Kerry did appeal to women's rights while in the Senate, but didn't appeal to women voters enough in his campaign.