Friday, February 29, 2008
Polls show Clinton with the advantage among Ohio women.
COLUMBUS (AP) — Fighting to survive, Hillary Rodham Clinton is counting on female power to energize her faltering presidential bid.
She’s hoping a double-digit lead among women in Ohio is the answer.
“I am thrilled to be running to be the first woman president, which I think would be a sea change in our country and around the world,” the New York senator said this week in Cleveland, emphasizing anew the pioneering aspect of her candidacy.
The remarks had a call-to-action flair and underscored just how much she is relying on women, always a key part of her support, to help her win Ohio and, perhaps, Texas on Tuesday as she seeks to get back on track in the Democratic nomination fight.
Clinton hasn’t won a primary in a month and is looking for big-state victories to breathe new life into her campaign. Clinton leads in Ohio in recent polling, while Barack Obama has a slight edge in Texas.
Women may hold the key for Clinton, particularly in the Midwestern state. Polls in the past week have shown her with a wide advantage — 17 percentage points in one poll, 18 in another — among Ohio women. She also leads among Texas women, but the margin is slimmer.
“If Hillary is going to regain the front-runner status and win the nomination, it starts with and ends with women,” said Jenny Backus, a Democratic strategist who is not aligned with either candidate. “She has struck a chord with women, especially in Ohio.”
On Thursday, Clinton stopped at a Bob Evans Restaurant in Rio Grande, Ohio, and made a bee line for the counter and the all-female wait staff. She posed for pictures, arms around them for a photo op worthy of the “Nine to Five” song that often is featured at her events. “I’ve waited tables before,” she told them. “That was when I was much younger.”
Ohio Democrats say women here admire her for the barriers she has broken and the troubles she had overcome. That good will, they say, coupled with the support of popular Gov. Ted Strickland and her jobs-focused economic message, has resonated with women across economic lines, education levels and ages.
Margie Bennett, 44, a laid-off accountant from Zanesville, calls herself a feminist but says she’s been a Clinton fan for years because of who the senator is, not because she’s a woman.
“She’s a tough fighter. She’s been through a lot. And, she’s the best candidate,” Bennett said after a Clinton-led economic round table this week.
That sounded much like the rationale Kay Israel, 67, gave minutes earlier. “I respect Hillary’s strengths as far as overcoming obstacles against all odds,” the teacher from Zanesville said. “I admire her effort to make history. She’s smart. She’s educated. She knows the issues.”