Elections

Kristol: Democrats might abandon ‘war on women’ theme for DNC convention

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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Democrats’ claims that some Republicans are engaged in a so-called “war on women” seemed to disappear last week, said Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, as surrogates working on Obama’s behalf in an official capacity avoided using that line of attack during the Republican National Convention.

“Wasn’t the theme two weeks ago the ‘Republican war on women?’” Kristol said. “They were just hammering that, both in paid advertising and speeches by senior Democrats. I don’t think I heard that phrase from [Obama strategist David] Axelrod or [Los Angeles Mayor Antonio] Villaraigosa.”

Economic themes, Kristol explained, could be more effective to a broader audience than the “war on women” would.

“I wonder if that was a little bit of a fake, and the base loved it, and they spent a week or two doing it, and the polling shows no one really believes the Republicans are waging a war on women,” Kristol said.

“The Republicans sort of half-believed it was a threat. They certainly low -rolled out — the theme of the Republican convention was, ‘We love women. We’re not engaged in a war on women.’ I wonder if that was misdirection by the Democrats or perhaps they are going to go with the economic argument: You are cutting taxes for the wealthy and you are not doing anything for the middle class. That is going to be their core argument, not the social issues, I suspect.”

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