Obama is dealing with a lot of problems right now: the fallout from Gen. McChrystal’s recent comments, the war in Afghanistan, the Gulf oil spill, and implementing the health care overhaul.
Now he can add one more problem to his list: women.
Fred Barnes writes in The Weekly Standard this week that “Wal-Mart Moms” are turning on Democrats. These are women, he writes, “with children under 18 who shop at Wal-Mart.” In short:
the moms identified themselves mostly as middle class (38 percent) and lower middle class (55 percent). They are slightly less white and more African-American and Hispanic than the country at large. And they are more moderate (46 percent) than conservative (34 percent), approve of Obama’s job performance (53 percent), and favor more government action to help people (60 percent).
But he adds:
while they identify more with Democrats (43 percent) than Republicans (39 percent), they’re inclined vote for Republicans (40 percent) over Democrats (37 percent) for Congress in November. And the reason is quite simple: their finances are perilous — and not improving.
Barnes is shining a light on “Wal-Mart Moms,” but Obama is actually on the outs with women at large. As I wrote back in February, the Democrats, not just Obama, have a woman problem – and playing identity-politics might be why. Women clearly are not a monolithic voting bloc; yet, Democrats continue to treat them that way, handing out legislative candy like the Lilly Ledbetter Act rather than appealing to them through sensible policies that will expand freedom and prosperity.
As Barnes implies, women are acutely aware of their family finances and disapprove of the top-down, Keynesian economic policies the president is using to try to restore the economy. The fact is women have grown increasingly skeptical of big government. According to a survey IWV commissioned in Massachusetts last fall, “77 percent of women claim government spends money in a most inefficient way.”
They want to see less government, not more. They want a return to constitutionally limited government. And they understand that economic improvement will come as a result of more freedom, not less.