As the "war on women" wages on during the 2012 presidential election race and single women choose sides, New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow writes that unmarried men are the real swing vote. While Mitt Romney trails President Obama in personal popularity points, according to ABC News-Washington Post polls, Republicans argue that voters can't "afford their own affection" for the president. Bachelors, it appears, might be listening.
Reviews of the internal number in the ABC News/Washington Post poll found that unmarried men had the widest gap between the percentage who viewed Obama favorably (63 percent) and those who approved of his job performance (41 percent). By comparison, 66 percent of unmarried women had a favorable view of the president and 63 percent approved of his job performance.
(As a point of curiosity, the only demographic group in which Obama's approval rating was higher than his favorability rating was among seniors: 47 percent approval to 43 percent favorability.)
According to 2008 exit polls, unmarried men with no kids were 11 percent of the electorate and Obama won that group 56 percent to John McCain's 41 percent. Obama's overall margin of victory in the popular vote was seven percentage points.
Read Charles M. Blow's entire op-ed at the New York Times.