The Man Vote

Posted: August 30, 2012 in Contributors, Culture, Political Opinion
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A story reported ad nauseam this and every other election cycle is the fact that The Democrats poll better among women than Republicans.  The current Gallup poll has Mr. Obama ahead among women by 8%.  Even if you have been a regular consumer of news you may not know that this same poll has Romney ahead by 8% among men.  You probably do not know that the vote preference given by men has proven recently to be a better indicator of the overall winner of a presidential election than the advantage among women.  Why don’t we see a headline across newspapers or broadcasts asking the question…“What does Obama have to do to get the man vote?”

Exit polling has been in place since the 1972 election for President, and this has included separating the participants by gender.  For most elections, women and men vote in majorities for the winner.  Recently, however other trends have developed.  Women have voted for the Democrat running for president since 1992.  These votes have twice led to women voting for the loser in the presidential race.  If Mitt Romney loses women in this year’s election, it will just be the continuation of the 20 year trend of women voting for Democrats.  Men on the other hand have voted for the winner all but once in this same period of time.  That winner (Bill Clinton 1996) only lost the man vote by 1% (http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/national-exit-polls.html).  Men seem to be up for grabs in each election, whereas women lately have consistently given the edge to Democrats.

If you were a promising young reporter, or even a grizzled veteran, isn’t this a better story?  Don’t these facts point to the man vote being a better indicator of the winner?  Are the current reports just media bias, since it makes the republican look bad?  Maybe they report this women gender gap so they can bring up abortion.  Many think that this is the reason for women leaning toward democrats, and it is controversial.  The media certainly loves to report on controversy.  When you see a gender gap story chiding the Romney campaign for their lack of support with women, occasionally they will also show the poll for men.  This is the part of the story that won’t be addressed by the reporter, but can actually give you useful information as we get closer to election day.  If history is our guide, this gender gap will tell you who will be the next president.

I don’t know any presidential campaign that would be stupid enough to rule out roughly 50% of voters when crafting its message.  It is interesting, however, that when the media chooses to break down the electorate, they choose the wrong gender to focus on for the possible victor.  The media is fixated on the fact that women are showing a preference for President Obama by 8%, while they ignore the same preference number for Romney by men.  Perhaps a rebel will have a story saying that no one has ever won the presidency while losing the man vote by more than 1%.  If it ever happens, they may be on to something.

Author Bio:

Michael has been an editor and contributor at the website www.freemarketsfreepeople.net for over 2 years. He has over 20+ years of diverse business experience, from running complex operations where he managed hundreds of people, to starting and running small businesses such as www.realinterestfund.com. He is blessed, or perhaps cursed, with a logical mind which he uses to analyze government, media, politics, and culture. He believes that his life experiences help him bring a unique perspective to the issues of the day.
  • Venter

    Good story and it is something that should be discussed  .     I hope women would stand up for themselves and not led by the MSM .   Women are in the market place and working long hours and more involved outside the home  like the men.   I believe womens voting trends will change in this election.  Women have brains in their heads not ovaries.   Women are intelligent and  hard workers like men  , Things have change in the past 4 years..  A follow up after this election  could be interesting  

  • jim from R.P. beach

    Great story there should be more out there like this one, but rest of the media doesn’t know this.

  • bonaparte3

    “What does Obama have to do to get the man vote?” I agree; that ought to be the story, but it doesn’t fit the left’s narrative.

  • wally

    As I recall, Winston Churchill stated something like this: When you are young if you are not a liberal, you have no heart and when you are old if you are not a conservative, you have no brain. That sounds a little harsh but the general thought is that the young tend to vote with their hearts. I think Obama knows this and is attempting to get as many young people, both women and men, to vote for him by promising them a free lunch.

  • Frederick Theobald

    I think I know of one man who won’t be voting for Obama.  Tiger Woods has won 14 Major titles (5 when Bill Clinton was President, 9 when George W Bush was President but NONE AT ALL since then).  Must have some significance.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HP4YJ2L3NOTXDT37UGJ7CTP3PY John

    Women have good reason to vote for Democrats in Congressional and Presidential races since the main thing the federal government does is transfer income from men to women.  The Congress and the executive branch do this first by collecting most of the taxes from men both in payroll and income tax, then paying out benefits mostly to women in the form of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and TANF.  Most federal subsidies for college students go to the 60% of students who are women.  When you rob Peter to pay Pauline, you always get Pauline’s vote.