THE PARTY OF DWINDLING MINORITIES

Democrats Have 'Man Trouble' And Gender Gap Is Just A Crack (BRIAN MITCHELL, July 21, 2003, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY)

Democrats thanked soccer moms for their success in the 1990s. But "office park dads" could spell their doom in 2004, warns Democratic pollster Mark Penn.

Penn told a June meeting of the New Democrat Network that white males prefer the GOP 2-to-1. Just 24% of white males consider themselves Democrats; 53% call themselves Republicans.

That's even worse for Democrats than Al Gore did in 2000. Gore got 36% of white male votes--less than Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996.

President Bush won 61% of white men with college degrees, 63% of white men without degrees and 62% of white men making more than $75,000 a year.

The growing GOP pull among white men is a double blow to Democrats. White men are still 39% of the electorate. Men also give more money to political causes than women do--three times more in the 1990s, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. [...]

Democrats still do well with single women, blacks and Hispanics. In 2002, 88% of blacks, 60% of Hispanics and 69% of single women voted Democratic, says Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg.

But Republicans raised their take of the female vote in congressional races from 45% in '00 to 48% in '02.

"The big news since last time isn't really what's happened to men so much as what's happened to women," said William Galston, professor of public affairs at the University of Maryland and an adviser to presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.

"For a lot of women--soccer mom types, women with families--Sept. 11 has turned national security into a domestic security issue," Galston said. [...]

Even on some women's issues, the trend favors the GOP.

In a recent poll by the pro-choice Center for the Advancement of Women, 51% of women favored limits on abortion, up from 45% in 2001. Just 30% said abortion should face no restrictions.

Sure, losing their grip on white women is unhelpful, but look at that 60% Hispanic number. If the GOP can just get that to 50-50 it's all over but the cryin'.. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 19, 2003 8:41 PM