GOP Gender Gap

(Cartoon by John Darkow, published 4/10/12, and featured at Cagle.Com.   Click on image to enlarge.)

I'm still giggling over the CPAC conference this weekend.  It reminds me that silly season is getting closer and closer.  The 2014 elections are just around the corner, and then the campaigns for the presidential nominations will get started in earnest.  CPAC laid out quite nicely just how silly the run-up to the nominating conventions are going to be.

One thing CPAC made clear is that the GOP still hasn't figured out this whole thing about women.  That was evidenced by their line-up of speakers.  Yes, yes:  Madame Palin spoke and even did some poetry, but she was one of the few women speakers.  Robin Abcarian noticed the same thing when she saw the list of speakers. Her March 7 column in the Los Angeles Times did the math:

By my count, the CPAC mobile app listed 163 speakers and panelists. Men outnumber women by far

The breakdown: 128 men (78%) vs 35 (21%) women. That’s a 57-point gender gap, people. If Republicans have any hope of stopping the Democrats' blockbuster narrative that they are waging a war on women, they must first solve their own war of attrition on women.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who closes CPAC on Saturday evening, is expected to be a highlight for many attendees. But one woman with mega-star power is not enough to dispel the notion that CPAC (and by association the Republican Party) is a retrogressive boys’ club.
When is the next Sarah Palin going to get some CPAC love?

Even a writer on the conservative website, Breitbart.com, was brutal: “CPAC could have invited South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley or New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez," wrote Mary Chastain. "These women are not only in a position of power, but they are also minorities. Martinez can reach out to women and the Latino vote, which leans to the left. They did not even bring in Condoleezza Rice … she is respected on both sides of the aisle. CPAC also left out Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.”

In a way, I can understand Cardenas’ obliviousness. He’s got man blinders on.   [Emphasis added]

I guess the GOP just doesn't get it.