Of Chippendalers & Milk Cartons
Getting back to John Edwards’ fade into invisibility of late…
The Kerry people picked Opie for one overarching reason, and one about which they were amazingly candid: they expected women to swoon over his “sex appeal.” Liz Sporkin, assistant managing editor of People magazine told the Boston Herald that, "He's easy on the eyes and he's a good person." UPI Senior News Analyst Martin Sieff echoed a similar sentiment in a story on July 6: "Edwards is young looking, handsome and attractive to young voters in general and to women voters in particular." In other words, the return of the “arousal gap.” Remember when President Bush snapped that Dick Cheney’s primary qualification for the Vice Presidency was that “He can be President”? It was in response to a “reporter’s” question that was predicated on how much “hunkier” Edwards is than the pear-shaped, balding, rumpled veep, and how that alone somehow made Opie obviously superior.
It would have been a hoot to have the President reply, with his trademark smirk, with something like, “Well, gee, I didn’t think the casting auditions for the Baywatch remake were starting until sometime next spring,” but I digress.
What strikes me about that whole line of “thought”…no, there’s no thought in that…”reasoning”…no, no, there’s none of that, either…”bull” – yeah, that’s the ticket – this whole line of bull is about as sexist and patronizing to female voters as you can get. Women don’t vote issues? They don’t think about this or that topic? They don’t read up on platforms and positions and policies of candidates and make informed decisions? Sure, maybe they’re aggregately more prone to emote then men, but aren’t we always told that it’s guys who think with their genitalia? And yet the Democrats are so condescending toward a bloc they imagine themselves to own that putting a warmed-over Chippendaler as Lurch’s second banana was going to drive women so wild that they’d be rubbing themselves furiously as they pulled the lever next to the “D”? Besides, I thought feminists thought that cucumbers were preferable.
Well, guess what? It’s not having the desired effect.
Polling data collected by Gary Andres of the Dutko Group indicate that only 32% of Democrat women said the VP pick had a positive impact on their vote choice – nine points fewer than for Democrat men. More to the point, a quarter of Democrat women surveyed believe Edwards to be less qualified to step into the presidency than Dick Cheney. And that gets us to the punch line: nagging concerns about the Kerry-Edwards ticket over how they would handle national security and the war on terror. Only 68% of Democrat women believe John Kerry would protect the country better than Bush, as compared with the 90% margin the President enjoys amongst GOP ladies.
This explains from yet another angle why the Boston Bacchanalia was so militaristic, even as the speakers and ticket were more out of place in the theme than, as the Gipper once quipped, a skunk at a lawn party; and why John Edwards is already vanishing from sight even before making it to the veepancy.
The Kerry people picked Opie for one overarching reason, and one about which they were amazingly candid: they expected women to swoon over his “sex appeal.” Liz Sporkin, assistant managing editor of People magazine told the Boston Herald that, "He's easy on the eyes and he's a good person." UPI Senior News Analyst Martin Sieff echoed a similar sentiment in a story on July 6: "Edwards is young looking, handsome and attractive to young voters in general and to women voters in particular." In other words, the return of the “arousal gap.” Remember when President Bush snapped that Dick Cheney’s primary qualification for the Vice Presidency was that “He can be President”? It was in response to a “reporter’s” question that was predicated on how much “hunkier” Edwards is than the pear-shaped, balding, rumpled veep, and how that alone somehow made Opie obviously superior.
It would have been a hoot to have the President reply, with his trademark smirk, with something like, “Well, gee, I didn’t think the casting auditions for the Baywatch remake were starting until sometime next spring,” but I digress.
What strikes me about that whole line of “thought”…no, there’s no thought in that…”reasoning”…no, no, there’s none of that, either…”bull” – yeah, that’s the ticket – this whole line of bull is about as sexist and patronizing to female voters as you can get. Women don’t vote issues? They don’t think about this or that topic? They don’t read up on platforms and positions and policies of candidates and make informed decisions? Sure, maybe they’re aggregately more prone to emote then men, but aren’t we always told that it’s guys who think with their genitalia? And yet the Democrats are so condescending toward a bloc they imagine themselves to own that putting a warmed-over Chippendaler as Lurch’s second banana was going to drive women so wild that they’d be rubbing themselves furiously as they pulled the lever next to the “D”? Besides, I thought feminists thought that cucumbers were preferable.
Well, guess what? It’s not having the desired effect.
Polling data collected by Gary Andres of the Dutko Group indicate that only 32% of Democrat women said the VP pick had a positive impact on their vote choice – nine points fewer than for Democrat men. More to the point, a quarter of Democrat women surveyed believe Edwards to be less qualified to step into the presidency than Dick Cheney. And that gets us to the punch line: nagging concerns about the Kerry-Edwards ticket over how they would handle national security and the war on terror. Only 68% of Democrat women believe John Kerry would protect the country better than Bush, as compared with the 90% margin the President enjoys amongst GOP ladies.
This explains from yet another angle why the Boston Bacchanalia was so militaristic, even as the speakers and ticket were more out of place in the theme than, as the Gipper once quipped, a skunk at a lawn party; and why John Edwards is already vanishing from sight even before making it to the veepancy.
posted by JASmius at 12:55 PM
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