Obama and Romney: How Women Measure the MenThe men running for president are dead even in the polls. American women will be the tiebreakers. We'll take the measure of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney as May flowers fade and the campaign heats up this summer. We're the majority of the electorate and good at this kind of thing. It's in our job description, the work that never ends. We see into men's souls in trying times. The two are like black and white every which way, but let's talk shades of gray. Is the Democratic president or his Republican opponent a woman's kind of man? Permit me: A woman's man understands, respects and enjoys women's worldviews. Not those who dote on their wives in an excessive way, aka "uxorious." Romney is a tad uxorious toward his wife, Ann, a rich man's preening, just as George W. Bush acted toward his wife, Laura. Romney had a long, hard primary season to speak to women. Instead, this father of five sons affirmed his flip on a woman's right to choose. So much for sisterhood. Oblivion is one explanation for his neglect. In his male-dominant worlds — from the tony Cranbrook School to Bain Capital — Romney reigned as the dominant male. How young Romney used his power at Cranbrook to force a classmate to the floor and cut his hair — sorry, that's no schoolboy prank. Hair is the first thing they take away to shear individual identity. The English poet Alexander Pope composed pages of verse for "The Rape of the Lock." Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Mormon Church is top-heavy with men. Romney is a Mormon Church leader and devout believer in its patriarchal faith and practices. A few "elders," Mormon missionaries, came over the other day to discuss converting me.
But we of the gentle sex doubt Romney can find a common language to speak to the other half. Vulnerable Americans include the war-wounded, college graduates wading in debt and looking for work, public employee unions, gay and lesbian couples, victims of abuse and hate crimes, and those on food stamps, for a start. Massachusetts, the state he governed, was founded by Puritans and remains largely white, with no woman ever elected senator or governor. Forgive us our skepticism. Women like empathy in a man, and a sense of shared destiny. Romney shows scant concern for the less fortunate — the 99 percent. His exclusive realms are sharply limited experience for the White House. Heck, Dwight D. Eisenhower, born of Kansas, is salt of the earth next to Romney. Obama has written that his unconventional mother, his grandmother, his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, have been his greatest influences. That makes him unusually adept at reading the female mind. He has appointed two women to the Supreme Court and signed legislation to prevent wage discrimination as his first bill sent from Congress. And how fabulous to name Hillary Clinton secretary of state. He clearly has a lot of time for women in his life, at home and at work. Women have lots of reasons to like Obama, and we do. Yet we hear on the grapevine that his inner circle, made of men, is a hard wall for women to breach. Basketball and golf are involved. At the end of the day, Barack is a man's man. But that's OK, since he does right by us. When it comes to understanding us, ladies, there's only one William Jefferson Clinton. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
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