Clinton voters still skeptical of Obama for 2012

President Barack Obama passes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before delivering a policy address on events in the Middle East at the State Department in Washington, Thursday, May 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

While the report was not especially groundbreaking, many women were pleased to see it, as there had been no report like it for decades.

“So that does represent a commitment, a focus, out of the White House that has not been there in 30 years,” Bennett noted.

Like Conway, Turner believes that words and symbolism are one thing, but to get women to take notice, Obama actually needs to present tangible results.

“I think he could have done a lot more,” Turner said. “I just think this whole White House Council on Women and Girls is just symbolic of the higher problem that he’s going to have with women. We’re asking, ‘show us what you’ve done’ and we get a very nice dissertation about Joplin, Missouri. Okay, that’s interesting, but what have [you] to done to help women and girls in this country?”

Rothschild told TheDC that Obama will likely not win the Clinton vote as easily as he did in 2008, now that they have seen how he governs.

“He’ll do what he did last time, he’ll take the Hillary vote for granted,” she said. “I understand why people went with him in 2008. It was ‘hope’ over experience. Well now we actually have seen the experience.”

While Clinton supporters remain frustrated that their candidate got the shaft in 2008, Conway noted that now Clinton is even more popular than Obama, a Pyrrhic victory, to be sure, but a victory nonetheless.

“It’s amazing – I would say that many of these women feel exonerated, vindicated, and, even if under-appreciated, because Hillary Clinton is 20 points more popular than she was on Election Day 2008, and more popular than her boss, Barack Obama,” Conway said. “I think women will look at that as sweet justice.”

Follow Caroline on Twitter