Pro-Abortion Clinton Backer Not Sure if Obama Can Appeal to Women 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 15, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A leading pro-abortion advocate who is one of the main backers of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she’s not sure if Barack Obama will be able to appeal to women voters. That’s the assessment of Emily’s List founder and president Ellen Malcolm.
Malcolm told the Statesman Journal newspaper on Tuesday that Clinton, as a woman, has a particular insight into the interests of women voters.
"I don’t think we can answer that at this point," she said about whether women would stay home in November if Obama wins the nomination.
"There is a critical group of women we’ve worked with over the years: noncollege educated women," Malcolm added. "And I think they believe that Hillary understands what’s going on in their families. She has been a working mom and she gets it. And they believe she will come up with solutions and make things better for them."
Malcolm then addressed the issue of Obama’s potential lack of appeal to women.
"I think one of the unanswered questions going forward in the primaries is whether or not Sen. Obama can close the deal with these voters," Malcom said.
Malcolm also made it appear she doesn’t think Obama has the ability to win the votes of lower-income voters.
"I think people make these decisions on a very needs-driven basis, and you can see it in the Clinton polling data. The people that really need help from the government are for Hillary," she told the Statesman Journal newspaper.
"The higher up the economic scale you go, the more inspired they are by (Obama’s message of) hope," she said.
Emily’s List has come under fire within pro-abortion and Democratic Party circles for promoting pro-abortion women candidates against pro-abortion men.
These latest comments saying Obama may have troubles winning over women voters — in an effort to boost Clinton’s chances — could put the pro-abortion group in a bad light with Obama supporters both now and after the primary.
Malcolm told the newspaper she thought it could be a long time before another significant female candidate for president runs again if Clinton fails to capture the nomination or win in November.
