A Mama Grizzly is “someone who is watching what is going on that is adversely affecting our cubs, our children, the future of America,” Sarah Palin told NBC recently. “It’s all about stopping Obama, Pelosi and Reid.”
Palin’s metaphor is a not-too-subtle suggestion to Moms that Democrats are making the country worse for their children. Her target is smart, as women, and particularly white women, will be the largest and most the pivotal vote in 2010 and ‘12.
If white women were the only people to vote in 2008, Barack Obama would have lost the national popular vote 53%-46%, but in a twist of irony, he would have won the Electoral College 273 to 265 over John McCain.
The map below from Inoljt at Swing State Project shows how Obama ran with white women. His worst states were in the SEC (he won only 12 percent in Alabama!), Texas, and Oklahoma, and his best states were in New England, D.C., and Hawaii.
Will white women stick with the president and his party? I’m going to look to statewide races with white woman candidates in states like Arkansas, California, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Washington to tell.
