Undecided Women Voters

When Governor Palin was announced as Sen. McCain's choice for Vice President there was the assumption that she was chosen because she is a woman and would help the campaign garner more women voters. This is a cynical assumption, of course, based on the idea that Sen. Clinton nearly took the Democratic Party nomination because she had a large following of women. That Sen. Clinton also had a huge following of male voters did not seem to be a concern.

But has the McCain strategy to attract more women to his ticket succeeded? Where, on the eve of an important Presidential debate, do women voters stand? I have found little from the media on the role of women voters in the last few days. A quick look at a pre-Palin/Biden debate Gallup poll sheds some light on where women voters stood before having a prime time look at Ms. Palin:



It is hard to tell from this poll if Governor Palin, simply by being a woman, had been able (before her debate performance) to attract women voters to her ticket. What is interesting is the concentration of middle income, child-free 35-54 year old women who do not go to church very often making up the bulk of the undecideds. It will also be interesting to see in Governor Palin is able to somehow use gender to attract more independent women voters. If Ms. Palin does decide to target this group, and if she is successful, then I would expect the media to more thoroughly cover the effect Ms. Palin's gender has had on this campaign.