Obama’s Woman Problem Gets Worse

The worst thing about the new Zogby poll that has Obama down five points to McCain (as opposed to his July lead of seven points) is that there is now virtually no gender gap in the race. In July, Obama was getting 53 percent of the support of women as opposed to 47 percent among men. But now he is winning only 43 percent of women and 41 percent of men, so while his male support is down by six points, his female backing is off by 10 points.

Normally, a Democratic presidential candidate will boast a 10-to-15-point gender gap, so Obama’s performance in both polls is way below average.

Obama’s convention will doubtless erase this temporary deficit, but the Republican conclave will doubtless erase this erasure. And we will be back to a close race in September after both are over. But it is very likely that Obama’s failure to win the votes of women will continue and will be very serious for his campaign.