President Obama Tries to Gain Women's Votes for Democrats

Fiorina says economic report on women is "all about election-year politics."

ByABC News
October 20, 2010, 7:00 PM

SEATTLE, Oct. 21, 2010 — -- In the pumpkin-festooned backyard of the Foss family today, President Obama pushed the argument that his administration and Democrats generally are better for women and the economy.

"Women have made such enormous strides that they now constitute half of the workforce," he said, clearly mindful that Democrats need to improve their standing with women voters in the pending midterm elections.

Women voters normally vote in greater numbers for Democrats, but the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll shows women divided almost evenly in the generic ballot, with 47 percent favoring the Democrat, 44 percent for the Republican. Four years ago, women favored Democrats by 12 percentage points in the midterm elections.

After the event in the Foss family backyard, a reporter asked the president if he can help with these women voters.

"Absolutely," he said.

Earlier today, White House economists issued a report on "Jobs and Economic Security for America's women" -- pushing equal pay initiatives, child care tax credits, and more general ways they said that the president's policies have helped women.

Coming the same day the president makes a campaign swing to help two embattled Democratic women senators with their job security, the timing of the report raised the eyebrows of Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard and Republican challenger to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

"I have no doubt that this is all about election year politics," Fiorina told ABC News of the National Economic Council report. "And I have no doubt that people are pulling out all the stops to save Barbara Boxer's seat."

The president will rally for Boxer Friday in Los Angeles.

Today was all about Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who won as the so-called "mother in tennis shoes" in the year of the woman, 1992.

"She was the mom in tennis shoes who was just looking to help a few people and solve a few problems," the president recalled today at the University of Washington. "A few years later, that's exactly what she's done. ... And now she needs our help so she can keep on fighting for you in the United States Senate."

Women insurgents in 1992 sold themselves as responsible with budgets, full of common sense and not part of the old boy's network.