Obama 'Julia' web tool courting women draws GOP scorn on Twitter

The Obama campaign launched a new Web tool Thursday targeting female voters by illustrating how the president's policies might aide a woman at different stages over a lifetime. But the website drew swift scorn from conservatives on Twitter, who used the site to mock the president over recent flaps.

Dubbed "The Life of Julia," the website follows a hypothetical character from age 3 to 67 and provides examples of when she might benefit from policies backed by the president — while suggesting that presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney would support policies that might have the opposite effect.

For instance, the youngest example — a 3-year-old "Julia" — is enrolled in a Head Start pre-K program backed by the federal government. But, the campaign warns, "the Romney/Ryan budget could cut programs like Head Start by 20 percent, meaning the program would offer 200,000 fewer slots per year."

The website is the latest in a string of attempts by the Obama administration to court female voters. Last week, during a blistering speech at the Women's Leadership Forum, the president said that Republican positions on women's health issues were "appalling" and "offensive" and equated an effort to block his regulation to mandate free contraception to like "being in a time machine."

The effort has paid dividends, with a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showing Obama holding double-digit leads with women in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

But Republicans were quick to mock the website, tying the fictionalized "Julia" figure to reports Wednesday that President Obama wrote of multiple ex-girlfriends as a single composite figure in his memoir. Although Obama admits to doing so in the forward of the book, a Vanity Fair article publishing excerpts from his college-aged love letters prompted Republicans to jab the president of his admitted "compression" of girlfriends.

According to the social networking tracker Topsy, there were thousands of mentions of the "Julia" figure over just two hours Thursday morning. A sampling of some of the conservative criticism:

#Julia is the Sandra Fluke of composite hypothetical non existent women

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) May 3, 2012

So #julia needed an SBA loan to start a web business? I started three w/o a penny of taxpayer money. #mylife @barackobama

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 3, 2012

So #julia needs Obama to grow her business? I need Obama to get out of my face & pocketbook. #mylife

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 3, 2012

After growing up under Barack Obama, #Julia has to master the art of Chinese Cooking.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 3, 2012

Silly #Julia , you can't accomplish anything without the male-dominated government!

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) May 3, 2012

Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.) used the trending topic to lambast a government program that provides subsidized cell phone service to poor Americans.

Q4 @BarackObama @WhiteHouse: Would #Julia also get a free cell phone under #UncleSamsUnlimitedPlan? VIDEO: facebook.com/RepTimGriffin/… #ar2 #tcot

— Rep. Tim Griffin (@RepTimGriffin) May 3, 2012

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee took to a different social media - Tumblr - to mock the different stages of "Julia's" life, pointing out unfavorable statistics about the economy during the Obama administration.

In the RNC's version, "Julia" is struggling to find a job or "has to pay double for gas from what she paid 4 years ago."

--This post was updated at 12:50 p.m.

---