Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review Oct. 25, 2004/ 10 Mar-Cheshvan, 5765

Suzanne Fields

Fields
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

Talking softly, with a big schtick


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | The spiciest interpretation of Teresa Kerry's sour put-down of Laura Bush's job history is that "Heinz was in a pickle." She got out of it with a quick apology, patronizing though it was, but clearly revealed what she actually thinks about women who devote all their time to raising their children.


The Democratic presidential campaign spent a whole day playing ketchup in its pursuit of the women's vote. The New York Times, desperately searching for signs of hope, reports that John Kerry is once more winning the loyalty of the ladies (by 50 percent to 40 percent). Newsweek gives the edge to George W., 49 percent to 43 percent. Other polls say the ladies can't decide who's the winning wooer, and call the distaff vote a tie.


If this were a debutante ball, you can be sure there would be no wallflowers. Every dance card would be full. If this were a fairytale, the candidates would be turning out glass slippers in wholesale lots of different sizes. It's difficult to say how many women who are actually undecided will vote and, besides, women have been known to change their minds, often at the last minute.


Since women make up 53 percent of the electorate, for the next two weeks even the plainest among us can enjoy the role familiar to the beautiful women who luxuriate in being picky, very picky.


It's a given that the Democratic candidate has to win big with women to reduce the gender gap - men are expected to vote in big numbers to re-elect the president. But this year it's possible that women, usually conservative if their families' safety and security are in the balance, will find reasons to return to the Republican candidate they abandoned for the flatteries and blandishments of Bill Clinton and Al Gore.


Two savvy conservative women who combine appeals to women on both domestic issues and foreign policy have established an organization to run television commercials to tap into this natural conservative feminine spirit. Lisa Schiffren and Heather Higgins call their advocacy organization "Softer Voices," to counter the more strident voices that make up the noise of scream-and-shout television.

Donate to JWR


They might rework Theodore Roosevelt's advice, and urge women to "speak softly and carry a big shtick." Both women are mothers and relate to women who are not ideologically doctrinaire but who are instinctively conservative on war and taxes. Heather Higgins is chairwoman of the Independent Women's Forum, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., organized to counter "the woman as victim" ideology.


Lisa Schiffren is a Republican speechwriter whose most famous lines were spoken by Dan Quayle, the vice president who challenged the television message of unwed motherhood as portrayed in the television sitcom "Murphy Brown." She talks about how she was deeply affected by the siege of the Russian school at Beslan. The deadly siege brought home the horror of Greek tragedy: "There but for the grace of G-d go I."


Both women describe the effects Sept. 11 had on their lives and, like Rudy Giuliani, recall how reassured they were that George W. Bush was the president to answer al-Qaida's challenge to civilization.


Terror is not a woman's issue, but it is the issue to galvanize women to vote. We live in an imperfect world; the war against terror is messy. It requires a toughness that John Kerry has not had as a senator. He talks tough now, but it's a fact that he voted against the first war in Iraq when the whole world joined the coalition organized by President George H.W. Bush.


If John Kerry had been president in 1991, Saddam Hussein would still be in Kuwait. If he had been the president in 2003, Saddam Hussein would still be enthroned in Baghdad.


George W.'s father famously lacked "the vision thing." His son has "the vision thing," and it's a vision that planting democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq will make the world safer. It won't happen quickly, but this is the vision that promises to enable our children to grow up in a world where terrorism is a diminished reality.


The first television commercial of "Softer Voices" runs in Toledo, Pittsburgh and Washington. It opens with a globe spinning through space and children of today and tomorrow walking in open fields. A narrator creates a sense of urgency: "In the war on terrorism, America knows our enemies are here, planning, watching. . . . The threat is real, the dangers are great."


Then the narrator asks: "Who will lead the fight for our freedoms, who will defend our families? Who can America trust to win the war on terrorism?" The answer, the ladies believe, is obvious.


Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

Comment on JWR contributor Suzanne Fields' column by clicking here.

Up

Suzanne Fields Archives

© 2001, Suzanne Fields. TMS