Liveblog: Earn Our Votes: What Questions Do Women Bloggers Want Candidates to Answer in Election 2008?

Note: This session moved really fast, but I found it important enough to cover this that I'm willing to post this liveblog in its fully imperfect glory. I'll be cleaning it up today, with links, so you'll all have access to some great perspectives from smart women on some of our most pressing issues related to the upcoming election.

Lisa Stone introduced Morra Aarons, the moderator for today and Blogher's political director. Lisa is the timekeeper.

Morra is so honored by the women who have come to this panel and the women in the room. She will start with pollsters and strategists.

Sarah Simmons, GOP political strategist

Anita Sharma, Lake Research Partner, specialist in education and women's issues.

Jen Hogg, will lead Iraq breakout group. She is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War

Mary Catherine Hamm, videoblogger and blogger at townhall.com

Dr. Val Jones at Revolution Health will be leading the healthcare section.

Closing speakers will be Gina Cooper, executive director of yearlykos.com, Jennifer Posner, founder of Women in Media and News.

Morra handed it over to Sarah Simmons to talk about women voters. She says she always gets invited to these things because there aren't a lot of "Republican chicks out there". That's wrong. She would counsel you to remember that women are a diverse group of people. There are no "women's issues" - all issues impact women.

Who are women voters?

58 percent of women work outside the home. 52 percent are between 45-54,

62 percent are married, 35 are moms, 37 are single, and 27 are married moms.

In 2006, 55 percent voted Democrat, 43 percent GOP. In 2004, 51 percent voted Bush, 48 percent Kerry.

What do women care about?

She thinks Republicans did a great job in 2004, bad job in 2006 of figuring out what specific voters care about, and talking to them about it so they'll get up and vote.

Number one issue we think candidates should be talking about is Iraq. What's interesting is looking at the comparison of younger to older women. Women under 50 are much more concerned about healthcare. 30-60 have figured out how to do healthcare forms for children as well as parents.

Issues from most to least important according to polls.

Iraq
Health Care
Job creation/Economic growth
Illegal immigration
Terrorism
Environment

Older women are more likely to think that the situation has gotten worse than younger. Younger women are more likely to say that it's stayed the same. Older women are more likely to be home during the day, she says, more likely to watch the news?

Men believe that illegal immigrants help much more than it hurts, whereas women believe the opposite. Men: 50 percent believe it helps, 41 percent believe it hurts
Women: 43 percent helps, 47 percent hurts.

Women are much more likely to talk about how the kids get less attention at school because of focus on second language issues, or less service at the emergency room. Women personalize issues: environmental health means, "do my kids have access to clean drinking water?" or "can my family go on a hike." Politicians can personalize issues to talk to women in a more effective manner, rather than talking globally on a "plain paper" sort of issue.

Anita Sharma will echo Sara's statements about women voters. She'll recap women's vote in 2006.

Women decided in 2006 that the country needed a new agenda. Women's vote was key in the three Senate races in VA, MO and MT - the gender gap is how women and men vote for a candidate.

With each passing year America becomes more "unmarried". 2005 - 45 % of Americans were unmarried vs. 32 percent in 1960. Turnout in unmarried women shot up in 2002 and 2006. Unmarried women were more likely to vote for Democrats in the next election.

Women's agenda much broader - goes beyond Iraq to health care, education, environment, women's rights. Environment is a "second tier" issue for women. Why? It's a local issue where you can see the impact you can have yourself. Also some women tend to believe that we've made progress on the environment where we haven't on prescription drug costs or equal pay for women. If you use the word "environment" you won't link them in, but connect it to a broader platform, and you'll see more emphasis on women.

2006 as the year of the women leader. We asked voters on election day how they would rate women's issues. Over half said having a woman speaker was important. How do you think more women in Congress would impact growing scandal and corruption there?

Will 2008 be the year of the woman President?

A July New York Times poll said favorability for Clinton is 70 percent for Democratic women, 66 percent of Democratic men, 39 percent independent women, 35 percent independent men, 15 percent Republican women, 9 percent Republican men.

Sarah Simmons says in focus groups, swing voter women have issues with Clinton because she was able to get what most women can't get, which is a great career, and an ability to support her husband and family. She was able to have gotten to the level she's at without the struggle that most women go through.

The same New York Times poll said that 53 percent of single women have a favorable opinion of Clinton. 43 percent of married women, 39 percent of single men, and 32 percent of married men.

Nancy from buildpeace.blogspot.com - YOu can get skewing depending who you're talking to. Was there a control question such as finding out if people who like Clinton, for example, know she was pro-war. Do they know what they're talking about?

Lisa Stone: How do you qualify responses?
Nancy: It's all corporate mainstream

Jen from ToledoLefty: How can women candidates deal with jealousy because of their success?

Sarah: SOmething women can do much more effectively than men can be empathetic. Choices she has now compared to her mother are amazing, but they also offer a series of challenges. Women can talk about this with an authenticity that men cannot. You cannot pretend that women don't struggle with these issues.

Ramona Oliver from Emily's List says it's true that women can have problems with women candidates, but they ahved found that women overwhelmingly support women candidates. Biggest support for women candidates is women. Emily's list supports pro-choice Democrat women at all levels of government. They provide training and financial resources for women interested in running.

Jen Hunter from Learning Catalyst: What do you see as the opportunities in experiednce in polling to enrich the dialogue rather than just react, engage in political maneuvering.

Anita: Using the word "crisis" gets overplayed. Many things get labeled with "Crisis" (enivronment, health care, education) but using this term turns people off. YOu need to educate voters instead, inform instead of talking over or talking to.

Emily McCann - Motherhood.com - where do women play out in international affairs? Have you seen women's attitudes shift post-Katrina.

Sarah: Katrina has been a contributing factor. 70 percdent of Americans think the country is going in the worng direction and Katrina was a catalyst. International humanitarian issues don't register.

Jen Posner from Women in Media would like us to focus on the fact that women may dislike Clinton because of a Republican smear campaign or dislike of her voting record instead of jealousy or cattiness related to her success or things that have nothing to do with her political record.

Sarah agreed, but reiterated that there were

Dana from the Hillary Clinton campaign is here. She adds that one thing they have found over the past six months, is they're seeing in the early states like they did in NY that the more people get to know here, the more they like her. They get a better sense of who she is, and overwhelms a lot of the Republican parodies that have been made of her. She won NY with 67 percent of the vote, and in many counties where George Bush won. Every time she goes back to Iowa her numbers go up. The voters get to know her.

Sarah: Your job as a political operative is to break some of her paradigms, put her in situations to promote.

Lisa: At the end of the day, do you as pollsters feel that women make decisions based on policy or personality? Issues have nothing to do with how much she likes somebody.

Sarah: I worked for Arnold Schwarzenegger, king of personality politics - she used that personality to highlight issues that matter to voters. It's a mix and you have to find the right one. There are candidates. Phil Crane -the first survey he did, the numbers were upside down. We got him out and introduced him to voters. After six months his numbers were worse. Elementary school students cried after a visit from him - hmm, perhaps we were wrong.

Anita - Voters are so diverse. Some may base their votes on voting history, a specific issue (choice, healthcare) and someone may

Lisa: Are their reps of other campaigns in the room?

Tracy Russo from the John Edwards for President campaign.

Catherine Morgan - Blogher contributing editor and dabbler in politics. Her biggest problem with the "Hillary Clinton issue" is that it's life and death for women. If Hillary loses, it may signify that women can't. IF she wins, it will empower women and show that women can try. I'm afraid that if she loses it's almost a failure for woman.

Lisa: Would you vote for a women based solely on gender?

Kim Gandy, president of NOW is here: We always say we're going to vote for and endorse the person who is best for women. We are bipartisan, omnipartisan. We support the best candidate who is right to advance women. Do we love it if it's a woman? YES! Because the mirror is powerful - for ourselves as well as our daughters. To look at that person in office and say that that could be me, it's powerful. IT's important for our sons to see that women can be leaders. How will they deal with a woman boss or CEO if they don't see women in leadership?

Anita Sharma: Hillary losing wouldn't be black and white - let's point to the number of women leading state houses in the country right now. There are other powerful offices women are running.

Lisa - three minutes before breakouts, three more questions

Sarah Grainger - runs democratic campaigns. One of her clients is Emerge, supports women running for office. Having the first viable woman running for office is a big deal. Even if she doesn't win there has been progress.

Deborah Segal, Grl With Pen - Does any poll data speak to older and younger women and how they view Hillary? A reporter from the Post went to a block party HIllary was having. It looked like boomer women trying to appeal to hipsters: "They were playing all the wrong songs." ANother piece that ppeared in the American Prospect disagreed, said that "younger women are down with Hillary."

Sarah: Remember that single women also includes women who are older, widowed, never married - not just young people.

Lisa: Are you seeing a split between boomer women and 18-24 over Hillary today?

Anita: It's less an age thing than a college/non-college thing right now. Average Iowa voter, non-college, married; 39 year old white, college-educated women are going more for Obama.

Lisa: Not all women vote alike.

The group then broke out into four groups: Iraq, health care, the environment and economic future. I sat in on the healthcare panel.

Esther Dyson: When are we going to face the tough questions rather than promising nirvana? How do we deal with the fact that health care has to be rationed?

Katherine Stone: When will we achieve mental health parity?

Catherine Morgan: Insurance companies are questioning doctors. Someone decides on a whim that "depression isn't so important.:" Insurance companies need to get out of deciding - we need them to get out and let the doctor treat.

Veronica from Chicago Moms Blog: How will a candidate lead on health care policy without it being a partisan issue? How will they lead us in a good debate over healthcare issues that are threaded through with religion, unscientific methodologies.

Are we going to pick questions we think they're going to answer or are we going to pick questions that will push them?

What will we do about veterans? How will we allocate budget?

Emily McCann: What is good for women? What is good for families?

Iraq group:

How will you handle the money being spent on the war?
Will you work to end the war before the election? If so, how?
What are you physically going to do to help the Veteran's Administration instead of just paying lipservice?

Environmental group: (reached consensus on two questions)
We are reaching the point of no return on climate change. Wjat will your legacy be?

How will your policies help to protect people in their own bodies from pollution in their environment?

Economic group:

Most small business owners are women. Two folks in her group were self-employed. One of their questions is about the tax structure. Will the candidates give a tax credit to people who are self-employed and need to buy insurance.

Jennifer Posner says they spent all their time popcorning out all issues because it's sucha broad topic. They'll be wordsmithing these and coming up with actual "breaking it down" over the next week or so.

The second one is housing. She's never heard it addressed on the campaign trail. A question about the sub-prime mortgage industry, and how do you address predatory lending in the future.

The last one is grappling with the idea of people at the lowest end of the economic spectrum. Women and children are increasingly at risk. What are your solutions for poverty? How to break the cycle of poverty? We want to have accountability policy wise.

Health care group:

Val: "I think we've solved health care in twenty minutes"

The most popular question was not a common one. Rationing care, and what are you going to do about the fact that we just can't afford to give everyone everything they want.

Esther Dyson: Do you think care should be rationed by the market, the bureaucracy, face the facts and decide how you're going to allocate scarce resources?

Dr. Val: How do you intend to make sure that everyone gets health insurance?

How do we get birth control universally covered by health insurance?

Lisa: What about people who don't support birth control? Will you support birth control coverage or not, which doesn't leave people out who don't support birth control?

Morra: First of all, WOW! We will iterate these questions until we're all happy.

Gina Cooper and Jen Posner are going to talk about how we can take action:

Cooper: They were just a bunch of strangers who met online and started off just like this, having conversations with each other and making sure voices are heard. If you're just getting started, we're far ahead. there's a real opportunity here to put forward an agenda.

YearlyKos is a gathering of the progressive blogosphere. This year 1400 people are coming - entire slate of candidates will be there who are vying for the Democratic nomination. There will be the entire Democratic leadership there. It started out wtih a bunch of people online deciding that their voices mattered.

Women respond to being given the facts.

You have to put your voice out there, and build a coalition. Being part of something bigger is what will give us power, ultimately. Many small voices together can become something that's much more powerful.

The second thing is that you have two targets, the people you're recruiting and the candidates. She's stunned that there are not more representatives from candidates at the biggest gathering of women bloggers ever. "You see who's listening to you right now." (Directed towards the Edwards and Clinton campaigns.)

Morra: Is there someone you can recommend contacting from the campaign.

Liza Sabater: They're called outreach, sometimes communications directors - it depends on the campaign.

Sarah: There might be political directors, coalition directors - from the Republican sides that'll probably be a good place to start.

Gina Cooper: This is a new medium and candidates are still trying to figure it out. The more organized we are on our end, the easier it'll be for us to hear them. First you want to evangelize, gather together for a single voice, like Blogher.

As bloggers you have an opportunity to make long-term change by changing our culture. It's important to talk about politics. We have to have these conversations. We ahve to make it okay to disagree. We have to give people the information they need to make decisions for themselves. That means not spinning them. It means treating people as intelligent.

Organize, organize, organize.

Jennifer Posner from Women in Media and News says she guesses that in ten minutes she's supposed to tell us how to transfer the media debate so we can ask questions that we all want answered. It takes strategic communications and resources to influence what types of questions reporters ask. It's important for us to think of as a group how to use new media to affect and shift the corporate media debate. This is hard when corporate media is still the gatekeeper in many cases.

How can we ourselves as bloggers and new media aficionados move that debate in and outside the media?

How many of you have heard the question: "Where are the women bloggers?" Many hands were raised. How many of you have heard that women are more prevalent online but still have a long way to go? AGain, many hands were raised.

1/3 of bloggers consider their blog as journalism. 57 percent spend time linking to original sources, 56 percent spend time fact-checking. She'd like for us in the room for those numbers to be increased. We should all be thinking of ourselves as citizen journalists. You don't need a press pass to follow through with an Information Act request, or to call up a campaign and ask a question and blog the answer. And if they don't give you an answer, blog that, that you were blown off. You don't need a press pass to do substantive reporting.

Citizen journalists also need to understand that if you put it online it doesn't mean the majority of Americans will see it, as they will see CNN and Fox News. There's not that much a difference between the corporate media lines in so called "partisan" news outlets.

She thought the CNN/YouTube debate was a really good case study. Young woman Stephanie Mackley asked a question on there about flourescent light bulbs. Media spin on all the news outlets was that this was going to be a revolutionary debate. This type of question speaks to that. The majority of political coverage - collective problems are framed as individual problems.

Morra: What can we do to get the truth out there.

Jen: To interrupt thirtysome years of political coverage, we can do strategic communications to build relationships with reporters, and get involved with media reform and justice. We can use our own blogs to pose the kinds of questions we want to see asked. We can support independent media in addition to questioning corporate media.

You do have the power! Women are half the bloggers. You can cover the news.