Why women like Bush

Democrats disdain women. That is just one of the reasons why the president is winning the women’s vote according to the latest Opinion Dynamics poll. In that poll, Bush led 47 to 45 percent – a monumental accomplishment for a Republican. But how did he get there?

For one, women in America have never seen anything from President Bush except his gentlemanly nature. In the third debate, when asked what he had learned from the strong women in his life, his response was simple and engaging, “listen to them.” Everyone chuckled. They also took notice of how his eyes always light up when he is given the chance to dote on the love of his life Laura. When he introduced her at the Republican National Convention, he almost teared up. He loves Laura and he just can’t do anything but show it. He’s just beside himself when it comes to her. Women see this, they get it and they respect it.

He also believes that a woman should never be taken advantage of. He has been tough on this point. He signed the “Laci and Connor” law which makes committing a crime against a pregnant woman a double offense. He signed the partial-birth abortion ban – which violates in a brutal fashion the child and womb of a mother. He has funded in record amounts initiatives to help mothers get or remain married. He recognizes that marriage in many respects is a protection for women.

But what about his opponent?

In that same debate, John Kerry infamously violated one woman’s private sexual identity, dragged it onto the stage of a presidential debate for the mere purpose of smearing her father, outing the woman to anyone watching, and remaining smug in his thinking that he had won a point in a political debate.

That elitist haughty nature was repeated by his surrogates as they pronounced shame on that same mother’s family the next day for being upset at Kerry’s use of the woman’s personal issue.

On Tuesday night in New York, the president’s lovely bride was giving an award to the teacher of the year. She also squeezed in time for an interview with the local NBC4 political reporter. He asked Mrs. Bush her thoughts of Teresa Heinz Kerry. In her typical and famously gracious way Mrs. Bush spoke of how difficult it is for a woman’s husband to run for president and her thoughts were with Teresa as she knew what she was experiencing these days.

The next morning, Teresa Heinz Kerry said in an interview with USA Today that Mrs. Bush “had never held a real job – since she had been an adult.” Either forgetting about the fact that Mrs. Bush had been an extremely successful school teacher and librarian and an extremely devoted mother, or choosing to believe that none of these quite measured up to her standard of what a “real job” was. (Marrying ketchup and pickle kings, working at the United Nations, etc.)

By late Wednesday, Teresa had finally issued a prepared statement that one could only best describe as a “half-apology” (primarily because she went out of her way to insult mothers in the process).

By late Thursday, Mrs. Bush – again in her famously gracious way – said an apology wasn’t necessary and implied that answering reporter’s trick questions is sometimes difficult.

Add all of this up and it is easy to see why Mrs. Bush’s favorability rating this week was near 75 percent, while Teresa’s was trying to hold at 40 percent. It is also even easier to see why even the converted and now Bush-hating Andrew Sullivan put it so simply on his blog this week when he said someone needed to shut Teresa up.

The point is, with barely more than a week to go, the Democratic ticket in this presidential race sees women as a voting block. They see them as a group to be dealt with. And on occasion Kerry himself sees them as objects he can twist and manipulate for his own purposes.

President Bush sees women much the way we see his favorite woman – creatures full of grace, beauty and elegance – and full of respect. And even when the gracious first lady is wronged, she is willing to smile and say in the most charming of Texas’ drawls, “That’s fine, no harm done.”

So in the contest between condiments or class, I hope for the sake of our little girls all across America we pick gracious humility over gaudy elitism.