The Five (or More) W's
By Mike Allen
Thursday, May 13, 2004; Page A04
A new project of the Bush-Cheney campaign, "W Stands for Women," aims to make Republican voters of the single and suburban women who are more concerned about safety than they were before Sept. 11, 2001.
About 300 women packed a Washington ballroom yesterday for a kickoff featuring Elizabeth Cheney, a specialist in women's empowerment in the Middle East and a daughter of Vice President Cheney, and Doro Bush Koch, who founded a Maryland literacy group and is the president's sister.
Koch pointed to the president's mother, his wife, their twins and various appointees, and drew laughter by saying: "Our candidate is strong on women's issues, and there can be only one reason why: He's surrounded by strong women."
Ann L. Wagner, co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, charged that for Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), "W stands for 'waffle.' "
During the hour-long program, homeland protection and the war on terrorism were emphasized over abortion and child care. "You heard a lot of speakers today talking about issues of health care, issues of education," Cheney said afterward. "What you're seeing, though, is that the set of issues that women care about has really broadened in a lot of ways since September 11. Security is an issue all Americans care about."
Cheney, whose fourth child is due July 1, said that she recently spoke to a group of Hispanic women in Wisconsin, and that several of them told her they had moved to the Republican Party even though their families had historically voted Democratic. "There is sometimes a tendency to talk about women as though we are a herd and to say 'Women believe this' or 'Women want that,' " Cheney said. "That does a real disservice to us."
A poll released yesterday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed the group has its work cut out. Women who are registered to vote favored Kerry over Bush by 12 percentage points, compared with Kerry's 5-point margin over Bush among all voters. Male voters favored Bush by 4 points.
The group is a successor to "W Is for Women" in the 2000 campaign. The campaign released a 25-page list of the Bush-Cheney '04 National "W Stands for Women" Leadership Team, and announced plans for similar groups in key states and localities.
Chad Clanton, a Kerry spokesman, replied: "The 'W' in George W. stands for 'wrong' on women's issues," including equal pay, the environment and education. Kerry's Web site has a "Women's Action Kit" for building support online and in neighborhoods.
Nader Secures Reform Party Endorsement
Ross Perot. Pat Buchanan. And now, Ralph Nader?
The Reform Party has endorsed Nader, the independent presidential candidate, creating an unusual political alliance that will give the longtime consumer advocate a boost in his fight to get on the nation's ballots for the November election.
The decision earlier this week gives Nader a crack at the spaces the conservative third party has reserved on ballots in seven states, including swing states Florida and Michigan. Kevin Zeese, a spokesman for the Nader campaign, said it has not decided which of those ballots it might use.
The announcement also creates one of the stranger political partnerships of this election season. The Reform Party previously nominated Texas billionaire Perot and, later, conservative commentator Buchanan. More recently, it has fought attempts to revamp the nation's immigration policies, advocating, instead, much stricter controls on who enters the country. Nader, meanwhile, is widely identified with liberals who supported his two previous presidential bids, when he ran as the Green Party's standard-bearer.
Zeese said Nader disagrees with the Reform Party on some issues, including immigration. But he said they agree on many others, such as withdrawing troops from Iraq and cracking down on corporate crime. The campaign touted the endorsement as a sign of progress in Nader's efforts to appeal to a broad swath of voters who are disenchanted with the major parties' presidential candidates.
"This endorsement shows that our independent campaign is receiving support from across the political spectrum from people upset with President Bush and looking to shift the power back to the people so a solution revolution can take hold and solve many of the nagging problems and injustices in our society," Nader said in a statement.
Political researcher Brian Faler contributed to this report.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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