Presidential debate moderators announced: Crowley is first woman in 20 years

The 2012 presidential debates will feature a female moderator for the first time in 20 years.

The Presidential Debate Commission announced Monday that PBS’s Jim Lehrer, CBS’s Bob Schieffer and CNN’s Candy Crowley will moderate the three presidential debates, while ABC’s Martha Raddatz will moderate the lone vice presidential debate between Vice President Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Continue Reading »

The ‘war on caterpillars,’ and what Reince Priebus meant

The battle over women voters in the 2012 presidential campaign reached a fever pitch early Thursday, with Democrats crying foul over Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus’ comments using an insect — a caterpillar, to be exact — to call into question Democratic tactics.

Because there’s already so much spin out there about the comments, let’s first look at exactly what Priebus was asked and what he said.

Here’s the exchange from a taping of this weekend’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” on Bloomberg TV:

And, here’s the transcript:

HUNT: Let me ask you this. The Democrats of course say you are waging, the GOP is waging a war on women. I know you don’t agree with that, but looking at the polls, you have a gender gap problem. Recent polls show a huge, huge margin for Democrats among women voters. How big a problem is it? How do you close it?

PRIEBUS: Well, for one thing, if the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars, and mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we have problems with caterpillars. The fact of the matter is it’s a fiction and this started a war against the Vatican that this president pursued. He still hasn’t answered Archbishop Dolan’s issues with Obama world and Obamacare, so I think that’s the first issue.

Democrats immediately jumped on Priebus’s comments, accusing him of comparing women to caterpillars.

Continue Reading »

Barack Obama doesn’t have a ‘women’ problem. At least not yet.

Amid stories of dissatisfaction among high-level female staffers in the White House, it’s easy to extrapolate that Obama has a “women” problem.

Except that he doesn’t.

In the most recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, Obama’s approval rating is at 47 percent among women as compared to 38 percent among men.

Continue Reading »