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| Why Obama won the women's vote | Why Obama won the women's vote |
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| In the very long list of people who, in what might come to be seen as the most impressive achievement of his campaign, Mitt Romney managed to alienate (a single, late-breaking example: "He hates Chinese," said the deliveryman who brought around the takeaway to my flat on Tuesday night), the biggest and most damaging group by far was women. | In the very long list of people who, in what might come to be seen as the most impressive achievement of his campaign, Mitt Romney managed to alienate (a single, late-breaking example: "He hates Chinese," said the deliveryman who brought around the takeaway to my flat on Tuesday night), the biggest and most damaging group by far was women. |
| As the results came in, while we had to wait late and long for the final verdict – endure Karl Rove's 11th-hour meltdown; enjoy Diane Sawyer's awesome, possibly mini-bar-assisted close of show banter and louche upper-body sway – it was clear from relatively early on that while the Latino vote came out solidly for Obama, it was women, particularly single women, who made themselves most decisively heard. | As the results came in, while we had to wait late and long for the final verdict – endure Karl Rove's 11th-hour meltdown; enjoy Diane Sawyer's awesome, possibly mini-bar-assisted close of show banter and louche upper-body sway – it was clear from relatively early on that while the Latino vote came out solidly for Obama, it was women, particularly single women, who made themselves most decisively heard. |
| This shouldn't have been surprising. The Obama campaign had hammered away at Romney's record on women in pointed campaign ads from way back, targeting the customary staples – Romney's opposition to Roe v Wade, abortion under any circumstance and insurance coverage for contraception – so comprehensively that the danger became one of reduced impact through overexposure. | This shouldn't have been surprising. The Obama campaign had hammered away at Romney's record on women in pointed campaign ads from way back, targeting the customary staples – Romney's opposition to Roe v Wade, abortion under any circumstance and insurance coverage for contraception – so comprehensively that the danger became one of reduced impact through overexposure. |
| The surprise on Tuesday night was that, after such a long, repetitive and exhausting campaign, Republicans managed to refresh these arguments in such enduringly wacky ways as to provoke a kind of awe. You could only laugh as the coverage revisited them; in Missouri, let's hear it one more time for Todd Akin and his "legitimate rape" discourse; for Richard Mourdock in Indiana (babies born of rape are a "gift from God"); in the Pennsylvania Senate race, for Tom Smith comparing rape to unwed motherhood, and so on and so on – for a full list, see the Atlantic Monthly's helpful round-up. As many pointed out on Twitter, it was almost as if Republicans had forgotten women could vote. | The surprise on Tuesday night was that, after such a long, repetitive and exhausting campaign, Republicans managed to refresh these arguments in such enduringly wacky ways as to provoke a kind of awe. You could only laugh as the coverage revisited them; in Missouri, let's hear it one more time for Todd Akin and his "legitimate rape" discourse; for Richard Mourdock in Indiana (babies born of rape are a "gift from God"); in the Pennsylvania Senate race, for Tom Smith comparing rape to unwed motherhood, and so on and so on – for a full list, see the Atlantic Monthly's helpful round-up. As many pointed out on Twitter, it was almost as if Republicans had forgotten women could vote. |
| By contrast, Romney's modest gaffe about "binders full of women" looked rather sweet and paternal and mercifully removed from the crowded junction in his party where gynaecology and theology meet. | By contrast, Romney's modest gaffe about "binders full of women" looked rather sweet and paternal and mercifully removed from the crowded junction in his party where gynaecology and theology meet. |
| It was against this backdrop on Tuesday morning that people walked out to vote. In 2008, the atmosphere in New York on election day was like nothing I have experienced; for sheer community spirit, the only thing New Yorkers could compare it to was the city's 1977 blackout and the days after 9/11. Men in suits made eye contact with homeless people as if they shared a common reality; commuters on the subway, for whom smiling is usually defensive, facial air-freshener to conceal a bad smell – grinned warmly, conspiratorially. When I went up to Harlem that night, in what seemed afterwards to be the most indivisible unit of human emotion there is, people walked through the streets banging pots and pans together. | It was against this backdrop on Tuesday morning that people walked out to vote. In 2008, the atmosphere in New York on election day was like nothing I have experienced; for sheer community spirit, the only thing New Yorkers could compare it to was the city's 1977 blackout and the days after 9/11. Men in suits made eye contact with homeless people as if they shared a common reality; commuters on the subway, for whom smiling is usually defensive, facial air-freshener to conceal a bad smell – grinned warmly, conspiratorially. When I went up to Harlem that night, in what seemed afterwards to be the most indivisible unit of human emotion there is, people walked through the streets banging pots and pans together. |
| There was none of that this time and no one expected it. People rose early, anticipating huge queues after television coverage of early voting chaos. In an apartment block on the Upper West Side, a young couple emerged at 6am, bleary-eyed, in their tracksuit pyjamas and made their way downstairs to the polling station off the hallway. It was empty. In New York, at least, while an hour or so wait was not unusual, plenty of polling stations experienced sluggish starts as people forced themselves up and out to vote. | There was none of that this time and no one expected it. People rose early, anticipating huge queues after television coverage of early voting chaos. In an apartment block on the Upper West Side, a young couple emerged at 6am, bleary-eyed, in their tracksuit pyjamas and made their way downstairs to the polling station off the hallway. It was empty. In New York, at least, while an hour or so wait was not unusual, plenty of polling stations experienced sluggish starts as people forced themselves up and out to vote. |
| There was no romance; it was a question not of hope but of duty, giving voting queues in the city a muted, slightly martyred air. (Plus it was 1C out there). Those waiting wanted to get the job done, a sober ethos they hoped Obama would take with him into his second term. | There was no romance; it was a question not of hope but of duty, giving voting queues in the city a muted, slightly martyred air. (Plus it was 1C out there). Those waiting wanted to get the job done, a sober ethos they hoped Obama would take with him into his second term. |
| In Harlem, where four years ago you could hardly turn a street corner without tripping over an Obama campaigner, where everyone seemed to be wearing campaign badges and T-shirts, there were few outward signs of an election taking place. This was partly down to hurricane Sandy, still zapping the city's emotional and physical resources; on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, a long line of people waiting with cans to buy petrol was more feverish than the queue one block up to vote. | In Harlem, where four years ago you could hardly turn a street corner without tripping over an Obama campaigner, where everyone seemed to be wearing campaign badges and T-shirts, there were few outward signs of an election taking place. This was partly down to hurricane Sandy, still zapping the city's emotional and physical resources; on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, a long line of people waiting with cans to buy petrol was more feverish than the queue one block up to vote. |
| It was partly down to customary second-term campaign fatigue. Even by the standards of content-free cable news coverage, things were looking pretty burnt-out on Tuesday morning, with an MSNBC pundit trying to eke drama from polling data by suggesting that Nate Silver would never, for example, have predicted Dunkirk, to the bafflement of fellow panellists. | It was partly down to customary second-term campaign fatigue. Even by the standards of content-free cable news coverage, things were looking pretty burnt-out on Tuesday morning, with an MSNBC pundit trying to eke drama from polling data by suggesting that Nate Silver would never, for example, have predicted Dunkirk, to the bafflement of fellow panellists. |
| Mainly, however, the muted air came from a sense this time of No Messing About. Once the jokes about dogs on car roofs and Mormon underpants fell away, the stakes for this election became abnormally high. Obama didn't need to inspire; he just needed to be the guy not threatening to turn back women's reproductive rights to 1973. | Mainly, however, the muted air came from a sense this time of No Messing About. Once the jokes about dogs on car roofs and Mormon underpants fell away, the stakes for this election became abnormally high. Obama didn't need to inspire; he just needed to be the guy not threatening to turn back women's reproductive rights to 1973. |
| Comments coming out of the voting queues registered as much, and across party lines. "Seeing [his] attitude toward woman in general," Mary Mitchell Bartley from St Louis, and previously a Republican, told journalists, "voting for him would be impossible." | Comments coming out of the voting queues registered as much, and across party lines. "Seeing [his] attitude toward woman in general," Mary Mitchell Bartley from St Louis, and previously a Republican, told journalists, "voting for him would be impossible." |
| "I'm not the only one who sees it, right?" said Kathy McLean, 54, working her shift in a launderette in Brooklyn. She shuddered. "Paul Ryan? He doesn't have a clue." She had been up at the crack of dawn to vote in Prospect Heights and was a rare example of someone so angry she was excited to vote. "Excited, yes. Obama must win," she said, pointing a finger over a pile of laundry on the counter. "I needed the bathroom so bad this morning but I would have peed myself rather than leave that line." What was she voting for? | "I'm not the only one who sees it, right?" said Kathy McLean, 54, working her shift in a launderette in Brooklyn. She shuddered. "Paul Ryan? He doesn't have a clue." She had been up at the crack of dawn to vote in Prospect Heights and was a rare example of someone so angry she was excited to vote. "Excited, yes. Obama must win," she said, pointing a finger over a pile of laundry on the counter. "I needed the bathroom so bad this morning but I would have peed myself rather than leave that line." What was she voting for? |
| "For healthcare and child services for people in need; for people like me, the poor and the middle class. If Romney wins, it'll be all about the upper tier." | "For healthcare and child services for people in need; for people like me, the poor and the middle class. If Romney wins, it'll be all about the upper tier." |
| So it went throughout the day. As usual, the most moving sight of the election was those who had the most to overcome, making the most effort to vote; the old and infirm, coming up the street on walkers and the arms of carers, mixing, at the Brooklyn polling station I visited, with the predictable assortment of young men in skinny jeans and asymmetrical hair, brandishing books by Günter Grass. | So it went throughout the day. As usual, the most moving sight of the election was those who had the most to overcome, making the most effort to vote; the old and infirm, coming up the street on walkers and the arms of carers, mixing, at the Brooklyn polling station I visited, with the predictable assortment of young men in skinny jeans and asymmetrical hair, brandishing books by Günter Grass. |
| Some were inclined to give Obama a break. "He's only got two hands and a brain," said Ronald, a 47-year-old who asked to be identified only as "a Virgo, been single for two years". He said: "He spent all that time straightening out what Bush did." | Some were inclined to give Obama a break. "He's only got two hands and a brain," said Ronald, a 47-year-old who asked to be identified only as "a Virgo, been single for two years". He said: "He spent all that time straightening out what Bush did." |
| "I'm not excited to vote," said Lydia, a 68-year-old African American retiree. "Last time, it was very exciting. This year, less exciting. I vote because if the wrong person gets in, it'll be a question of not what you know, but who you know." | "I'm not excited to vote," said Lydia, a 68-year-old African American retiree. "Last time, it was very exciting. This year, less exciting. I vote because if the wrong person gets in, it'll be a question of not what you know, but who you know." |
| Belinda Nettles, 42, guarding her plastic bottle collection on the corner of Atlantic Avenue, voted for Obama in the last election. She didn't vote this time for two reasons: one, in a telling indicator of the way democracy functions these days – "I haven't seen the TV for a very long time, and I can't vote without seeing the personalities." And two, because since the last election she has become homeless, "kicked from shelter to shelter". | Belinda Nettles, 42, guarding her plastic bottle collection on the corner of Atlantic Avenue, voted for Obama in the last election. She didn't vote this time for two reasons: one, in a telling indicator of the way democracy functions these days – "I haven't seen the TV for a very long time, and I can't vote without seeing the personalities." And two, because since the last election she has become homeless, "kicked from shelter to shelter". |
| It's a fair bet that Nettles is one of the 47% of people Romney would have a tough time respecting. But she became homeless under Obama. So would she have voted Republican? | It's a fair bet that Nettles is one of the 47% of people Romney would have a tough time respecting. But she became homeless under Obama. So would she have voted Republican? |
| She grinned. "Hell, no." | She grinned. "Hell, no." |
| In the end, the assumption made by decent, liberal Republicans – that this wasn't the real Romney; that once in office he would simmer down and remember himself – became too much of a gamble to take. If any further evidence of that were needed, there it was in his concession speech. Looking weary, Romney spoke as if from his father's era, thanking his sons for their help, "and their wives" for holding the fort at home. He sounded, as he always has, like a nice guy from the 1950s who, when he hears a woman speaks about anything beyond dinner, sees in the corner of his eye a dog on its hind legs. | In the end, the assumption made by decent, liberal Republicans – that this wasn't the real Romney; that once in office he would simmer down and remember himself – became too much of a gamble to take. If any further evidence of that were needed, there it was in his concession speech. Looking weary, Romney spoke as if from his father's era, thanking his sons for their help, "and their wives" for holding the fort at home. He sounded, as he always has, like a nice guy from the 1950s who, when he hears a woman speaks about anything beyond dinner, sees in the corner of his eye a dog on its hind legs. |
| In the post-game analysis there will be speculation that Romney's defeat will mark the end of the Tea Party, given the damage it did to his mainstream appeal. And there will be a temptation to write off the whole thing as idiotic. | In the post-game analysis there will be speculation that Romney's defeat will mark the end of the Tea Party, given the damage it did to his mainstream appeal. And there will be a temptation to write off the whole thing as idiotic. |
| The sobering fact is that if Romney had won, with three places on the supreme court potentially up for grabs during his tenure, he could have changed the social landscape of the United States. According to exit polls, 68% of single women voted to stop him – women who, I think it is safe to assume, voted partly out of a desire to retain governance of their own ovaries, rather than outsource them, say, to a Republican senator from Missouri. This is as decisive a moment in feminism as there has been. Debates about where we are in a post-post-feminist world, how squeamish women are about calling themselves feminists, whether to wax or not to wax – all the tap-dancing that supposedly must be done these days to engage women in their own political interests – all of that fell away. Red or blue, left or right, "career woman" or "homemaker", they voted as one. | The sobering fact is that if Romney had won, with three places on the supreme court potentially up for grabs during his tenure, he could have changed the social landscape of the United States. According to exit polls, 68% of single women voted to stop him – women who, I think it is safe to assume, voted partly out of a desire to retain governance of their own ovaries, rather than outsource them, say, to a Republican senator from Missouri. This is as decisive a moment in feminism as there has been. Debates about where we are in a post-post-feminist world, how squeamish women are about calling themselves feminists, whether to wax or not to wax – all the tap-dancing that supposedly must be done these days to engage women in their own political interests – all of that fell away. Red or blue, left or right, "career woman" or "homemaker", they voted as one. |
| As Obama said on the stump: "Don't boo; vote. Voting is the best revenge!" | As Obama said on the stump: "Don't boo; vote. Voting is the best revenge!" |
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