Southern Republican Women Voting for Democrats?!?

The Associated Press released an article yesterday titled "War Turns Southern Women Away from GOP". Southern women are one of the reasons the current administration is in power today, but these same women are turning from their earlier beliefs. This shift is mainly taking place due to the failed war in Iraq. In fact, only 28% of women nationwide approve of how he has managed the war.

War Turns Southern Women Away From GOP
By SHANNON McCAFFREY
The Associated Press
September 7, 2006

"President Bush's once-solid relationship with Southern women is on the rocks. "I think history will show him to be the worst president since Ulysses S. Grant," said Barbara Knight, a self-described Republican since birth and the mother of three. "He's been an embarrassment." In the heart of Dixie, comparisons to Grant, a symbol of the Union, is the worst sort of insult, especially from a Macon woman who voted for Bush in 2000 but turned away in 2004. In recent years, Southern women have been some of Bush's biggest fans, defying the traditional gender gap in which women have preferred Democrats to Republicans. Bush secured a second term due in large part to support from 54 percent of Southern female voters while women nationally favored Democrat John Kerry, 51-48 percent...

"Republicans on the ballot this November have reason to worry. A recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that three out of five Southern women surveyed said they planned to vote for a Democrat in the midterm elections. With control of the Senate and House in the balance, such a seismic shift could have dire consequences for the GOP. Democrats need to gain 15 seats in the House and six in the Senate to seize control...

"The movement of some Southern women away from the Republican Party tracks with national poll results showing that women have become more disillusioned with the war and were more likely than men to list the conflict as the important issue facing the country. Nationally, the AP-Ipsos poll found that only 28 percent of women approve of Bush's handling of the war. Bush did better in the South, but only slightly -- just 32 percent of women in the region said they approve of his handling of the war..."