Media Myths: Palin and Women

Media Myths: Palin and Women
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The media seems captivated by the idea that the addition of Sarah Palin to the GOP ticket has changed the gender dynamics of the presidential race. This Politico forum "Why Are White Women Flocking to McCain And Will It Last?" is a great example. The only problem is that there's no evidence that women, white or otherwise are flocking to McCain. Here are the Gallup tracking poll numbers for the last week broken down by sex. The numbers are for Obama's margin over McCain. Positive numbers indicate that Obama leads McCain, while negative numbers indicate that he trails McCain.

>These numbers indicated that McCain's surge came equally from men and women since he gained 5 points in both groups.

What about among whites? Here are the numbers:

These numbers indicate that McCain actually improved more among white men than among white women, the opposite of what you would expect from listening to most of the media.

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