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On the heels of fresh coverage claiming women and feminists remain bitter about Hillary Clinton's defeat, here's a bipartisan poll that offers some real numbers. Sixty-nine percent of American women do believe Hillary was a trailblazer for other female politicians, but their hopes for the future of women in politics aren't pinned on her shoulders -- less than one-third now believe she will be the first woman president. Optimistically, though, about half of the women surveyed believe the U.S. will have a female president by 2016. What that suggests is that many women would be thrilled by the pick of any woman as a vice presidential nominee.Here are some other takeaways from the poll, conducted by Republican Kellyanne Conway and Democrat Celinda Lake:
--Dana Goldstein
- Obama would benefit twice as much as McCain from offering the second slot to a woman (29% more likely to support Obama if he picks a woman vs. 15% who would be more likely to support McCain).
- Forty-seven percent of Hillary Clinton's primary voters said they'd be more likely to vote for Obama if he chose a woman running mate, and 4% said less likely. This is the exact breakdown of current Obama supporters overall.
- Obama also holds an advantage among Independent women, who favor him by a twelve point margin (42% for Obama to 30% for McCain). However, one out of five Independents are still undecided.
- Despite all the talk about sexism in the presidential campaign, the majority of women voters laid the blame for Hillary's loss squarely on her and her strategists' shoulders; they largely reject gender as a cause of her demise. Thirty-four percent believe she lost "because of the kind of campaign she ran"; 31% said because of "who she is and what she stands for"; and 21% said "because she is a woman."
