“Mitt Romney’s electoral trouble with women — more precisely with college-educated women — is real enough. Recent polling has Romney trailing President Obama by 18 points among this group in Ohio, with similar gaps in other battleground states…

“In 2000, George W. Bush campaigned — in both the primaries and the general election — on increasing the quality of education for poor children, on humane immigration reform and on expanding care by faith-based organizations for the addicted and homeless. These issues were personally important to Bush. They also signaled to independents and women that he could think beyond normal ideological boundaries. This form of ‘compassionate conservatism’ is now broadly reviled among conservatives. The need for an analogous agenda, whatever it is called, remains unchanged. To secure a decent shot at this election, Romney will need to offer some positive vision for the common good…

“One of the best ways to appeal to women — and to humans, for that matter — is to show some humanity.”

“For all the analysis of Mitt Romney’s struggle to attract female voters, little has been made of the other gender gap — President Obama’s difficulty in attracting male voters…

“There are historical trends to consider — women have favored Democrats and men Republicans for decades.

“In this particular race, dissatisfaction with Obama runs deeper among men when it comes to issues of the economy and the deficit — issues Romney has tried to make the centerpiece of his campaign platform…

“‘Men are hurting more in this workforce in unemployment than women are,’ said Brad Blakeman, past adviser to former President George W. Bush. ‘Men have left this president because they are unemployed.'”

“Anyway, all of the attention on the changing views of women in this age group during the past month might miss a much larger, more important development that has gone largely ignored. Both of Gallup’s national polls and Swing States surveys for USA Today confirm that during the past six months, the more dramatic change in presidential preference has been among men, not women.

“In October, Gallup’s national poll found that Obama led Romney by 14 points among women (54 percent to 40 percent). That margin shrunk only slightly, to 12 points, in March. But among men, Romney’s 16-point advantage in October shrunk to just 3 points in March…

“Clearly, Romney can’t win the White House if he is winning only 40 percent of female voters nationally or 36 percent of female voters from the 10 swing states. But it’s equally true that Romney can’t defeat Obama if the Republican carries men by only 3 points (as he does in Gallup’s most recent national poll) or by a single point (as he does in the most recent Swing States survey).

“Why have we heard so much about female voters and little or nothing about men? I’d guess that it is because the narrative has been set (about the Republican ‘war on women’), so journalists look for data and anecdotes that fit into it.”

“Meanwhile, she said, the other side of the equation is overlooked: The Democratic Party has a problem with getting a majority of the male vote.

“‘And secondly we talk about the gender gap, the Democrats have — they can’t get men to vote for them,’ she continued. ‘I mean, I assume because Obama won so big, he probably got a majority of the men’s votes, but I didn’t look that up. Other than him, Democrats haven’t gotten the majority of men to vote for them since 1944, other than the 1964 landslide.'”

Via the Daily Rushbo.