Sunday, September 14, 2008

Why Hillary Voters Switch To Palin

In recent days, the argument has been made by the angry left that the women who voted for Hillary will not consider voting for Sarah Palin because their policy positions are mostly in opposition to each other. Left-wing feminists have said things such as “Palin has only a chromosome in common with Hillary” and equivalent.

This theory would be correct if all women voted for Hillary because of her policy positions to begin with. I doubt that is the case. Hillary's policy positions were 99% identical to Obama’s – and for that matter John Edwards'. Some people voted for Hillary because they disliked Obama’s personality. Other voted for Hillary because they really liked Bill Clinton. But others also voted for Hillary simply because she is a woman. It is that latter group which could very easily fall into Palin’s lap. Clearly, far from all Hillary voters will do so, but it probably doesn’t take more than 5%-10% to swing this election in McCain’s favor.

So there you have it: Some women voted for Hillary because she is a woman. Therefore, it should be no mystery that Palin is picking up many of them.