Karen Finney

Recent polling suggests female voters are a key part of Mitt Romney’s Florida success. At 51 percent of the overall population, and 55 percent of voters, women across the political spectrum should play hard to get in 2012, requiring candidates to rethink and rewrite the pitch to women voters. Three events in the last week should remind women — who may again play a decisive role in the outcome of the 2012 elections — how high the stakes are in protecting the gains we’ve made and ensuring continued progress.

Most of the State of the Union pontificating focuses on what’s at stake for the president (regardless of political party), particularly in the election-year address. What about a president’s supporters? The people who have been and will continue to do battle over the next year from the ground game to the airwaves, fending off a barrage not only attacking the president they support but also their own judgment? Or the people who are frustrated but want to believe again? 

Who’d have thought Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Sarah Palin would be effective drivers of Democrats’ economic message in a way that would benefit both President Obama and congressional Democrats? Their recent attacks on Mitt Romney not only undermine the central argument that his business acumen makes him the best choice against Obama in the general election. Questioning claims of job creation versus job destruction and profit increases for companies like Bain Capital directly contradicts and undermines congressional Republicans’ argument against Democrats and their support of tax and regulatory policies that protect millionaire and billionaire “job creators” like Romney and Bain.