The Bush/Kerry tie among women has engendered much commentary about how "the gender gap has disappeared." Actually, the gap is as yawning as ever. Bush still leads Kerry among white men by double digits, a considerable "gap" among a certain "gender." But the media has never dubbed the GOP lead among men a "gender gap" quite worthy of endless commentary and dozens of Kennedy School panels.
In reality, the race between the two parties has always been about which could deal with its gender problem first. The prominence of terrorism has given the GOP an opening. "This could mean that Republicans can better address their gender gap than the Democrats," says Winston. "If Bush is close, just close, among women, he is going to win the election."
The soccer mom has been associated with much that was contemptible in our politics, especially soft-focus, meaningless policies like that old Clinton soccer-mom sop, his promotion of the so-called "V-chip," which was supposed to protect America's children from untoward TV programming. Who knew that soccer moms were made of sterner stuff? In the 1990s, Zell Miller's rip-roaring Republican Convention speech would have frightened them away. But he couched his uncompromising call for a vigorous national-security policy in terms of protecting his family, and scored. In his new talk of terrorism as a threat to families and in his scorching anti-terror language, Kerry now seems to be doing his best to channel his inner Zell (if he has one).
Of course, other factors are influencing women's views of the candidates besides terror, and Kerry is underperforming among everyone at the moment. But it just might be that tough counterterrorism is the new V-chip. The old saying goes, "When momma ain't happy, nobody is happy." The same apparently applies when she's not feeling secure.