Please Mitt, Ditch The Plaid

There is a popular, conservative talk show host in Florida who enjoys telling women to step up and vote like a man.

Why would a libertarian-conservative radio host risk turning off half of his listening audience? Because he's making a point. He knows that a huge majority of men will vote for Romney in November, but he also knows that women overwhelmingly favor Obama. He also knows that this gender "gap" will be enough to throw the November election the President's way.

In a news article published Monday the National Journal proves the point. The article, "Women Kick Obama Into Lead Over Romney - Poll," explains:

Women have helped push President Obama into his most significant lead yet over Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, according to a Gallup/USA Today Poll published on Sunday. It shows the president leading Romney 51 percent to 42 percent among registered voters in swing states.

According to the poll of 933 registered voters, women under 50 have swung over to Obama: More than 60 percent support him now, compared with less than half of this group in February. Meanwhile, their support of Romney has dropped 14 points to 30 percent.

It is ironic that while we men pound our chests debating the Presidential election every which way in every which blog, our wives and daughters are calmly nullifying our bluster by making up their minds to vote for the President.

Why do women lean away from Romney and toward Barack Obama?

I put this very question to a very special woman I know. "I just don't like Mitt Romney," she answered.

"But why don't you like him?" I asked.

She thought for a while, then finally gave me an answer that astounded me: "He's too nice."

She must have noticed my surprise, because she immediately explained herself. "He reminds me of dating," she said. "Romney is always on his best behavior. He's polite. He courteously tells you things you want to hear. He gives you compliments. In short, he wouldn't say shit if he had a mouthful. It's after a guy like that gets his hooks into you that he disappoints you, hurts you. Why can't the Republicans nominate a guy, like Chris Christie, who's authentic, who is genuinely passionate about his beliefs, who isn't afraid to tell it like it is no matter who he offends? Where's Romney's conviction? When on a rare occasion he does bow up and get in somebody's face, he can't pull it off because that's not really him. The real him is just too polite...too nice."

"In other words it's the 'girls like bad boys' complex," I suggested warily.

"No," she said sternly. "That would be condescending. Women are attracted to honest passion. Take Romney and his plaid shirts, for instance. Does he think wearing plaid makes him one of us? Does he think we're stupid? Wear a crisp white business shirt, for crying out loud. Don't try to hide the fact you're successful and wealthy. Be proud of it. Women just don't like guys who jerk us around."

"So you're saying Obama doesn't jerk you around?" I asked.

"No. Frankly Romney and Obama are two peas in a pod. Both of them come across as guys who will say anything and do anything to get in your pants."

"Then how do you explain the poll results," I persisted. "Why are women likely to vote two to one for Obama?"

"Look," she said. "Women are not a monolithic voting block. We're all over the map. For instance, I will vote against Obama. If that means I have to cast a vote for Romney, so be it. But there many women -- young single women -- who will vote for Obama because they fear Republicans are going to bogeyman their womb."

"The Republicans are going to what?"

"You know, screw up the progress women have enjoyed. You know it used to be that you men wouldn't let us vote at all. Women have been under the thumbs of men for years. You paid us lower wages. You installed a glass ceiling over our head so we couldn't enter the board room. We put our careers on hold to have your children..."

"But that's all changed!"

"Don't interrupt!" she said. "It's still women who have babies! A woman's womb makes them vulnerable but at the same time the womb is a tremendous source of power."

"Power?"

"Yes, power. Now we can't be forced to have your babies. It's our choice now."

"Ahh," I said. "The old pro-choice argument..."

"I haven't finished!" she glared. "Yes, Obama and the Democrats are pro-choice. And their aim is to make it easy for young, single women who are financially and emotionally vulnerable to choose abortion. Young women like the independence and power they think the government is granting them by giving them a "right" to abortion and contraceptives. But young women are also naive and, frankly, stupid. They don't understand that what the government grants can also be taken away. China, for instance, has taken away a woman's right to have more than one child. Young women here in the US haven't learned that you have to be careful what you wish for. Allowing the government to control your womb eventually backfires. As women grow older and become more financially and emotionally independent, they begin to understand this."

"So what's the solution?" I asked.

"It's just like a man to ask that," she said. "All I know for sure is that Romney should ditch the plaid shirts!"

The lesson I took from this conversation is that the Florida talk show host is wrong. It's stupid to ask a woman to think like a man and vote like a man, even in jest. Women, especially single young women, vote with their hearts and with their own self-interest in mind. To be honest, we all do.

For years men in society have dominated women emotionally and financially. They've used a rigid moral code to force women to stay in their place. Women fought back valiantly. However, for many American women the quest for justice, equality and independence from men has carried them too far. Too many women have now become dependent not on men but on government for emotional and financial stability. They have lost the essential moral values that have served American women well for centuries, values like courage, self-reliance, perseverance and self-respect.

As for men? It's time we stopped flapping our political gums for a second and listened to the women! This next Presidential election isn't going to turn on rising gas prices or a falling stock market. It's going to turn on whether or not the women in our lives like our candidate!

So please, Republican candidates, stop being nice! Stop trying to be everything to everyone.  It's time to stop jerking people around. It's time to be passionately honest!

And Mitt, for God's sake, ditch the plaid!