“I cannot see a more counterproductive candidate for women,” said Jillian Manus-Salzman, a leading California Republican activist and generous GOP donor in the nation’s most populous state, an ATM for presidential campaigns. “I cannot vote for McCain.”
Susan Eisenhower - granddaughter of former GOP President Dwight Eisenhower and a Washington, D.C.-based expert on foreign policy and national security issues - said Wednesday she is backing Obama over McCain because the Democrat has shown more understanding of how the Iraq war, the economy and other key issues affect women’s daily lives.
And Harriet Stinson, the 82-year-old founder of Bay Area-based Republicans for Choice, said that - after 60 years of Republican registration - she has finally reregistered as a Democrat.
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said, arguing that on issues like funding birth control and support of sex education, McCain “couldn’t be worse.”
…
Stinson said GOP women must ask critical questions of their candidate.
“If McCain is so against abortion,” she asks, “why does he oppose all the measures needed to reduce the need for it - making insurance companies cover contraceptives, federal funding for birth control and comprehensive sex education?”
…
Manus-Salzman said she hasn’t yet endorsed Obama, but she will not be surprised if Republican women begin writing checks and openly expressing their support.
“I would have had a hard time selling Republican women on Hillary Clinton,” she said. “But selling Republican women on Barack Obama is a whole different story.”
“They don’t see him as a partisan,” she said. “My instinct, as a woman, is that this is a truly special person who respects women, who will listen to our voice and use women to rejuvenate and resurrect this country.”
…
– Jillian Manus-Salzman, Atherton literary agent, GOP activist and a generous donor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: “I cannot vote for McCain. I cannot …we don’t want to be perceived as a one-issue vote. But in this case, the Supreme Court is in play, medical advancements are in play …to ignore his positions … and simply say, ‘We’re going to agree to disagree?’ ” I don’t think we can do that.”
– Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of former GOP President Dwight Eisenhower and now a Washington strategist and consultant, and lifelong GOP voter: “The war issue is a strong one … as lower-income, middle-American families are taking a disproportionate share of the burden. … It really touches the lives of women who are left behind while their husbands are deployed overseas and families who have lost a loved one.”
– Harriet Stinson, 82-year-old founder of Bay Area-based Republicans for Choice, who said that after 60 years as a Republican, she has reregistered as a Democrat for the first time: “If he overturns Roe v. Wade, what criminal penalties would he propose?” she said. “He’s had a terrible record (on reproductive rights). He’s zero, he couldn’t be any worse …he’s all against big government, and he wants big government … to get involved in the most private decision women can make. And a lot of women have no clue on how he is on this.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/18/MNS211BBRL.DTL
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