Open Letter to Kerry Campaign

One of the biggest questions this election year is how to get women, particularly single women, to the polls. Well, you've got to make the issues, besides reproductive rights, relevant to women's lives.

For that to happen, you've got to know where women's pain is.

Frank Luntz, the architect of the neo-con's rhetorical approach (Iraq, for example), in an interview, in July, explained the strategy for winning the women's vote.

My gut tells me he's absolutely right. The Kerry campaign should capitalize on this. The true number one issue for women is not seen as a political issue: it is the lack of free time.

How does the campaign capitalize on that?


Find out and communicate the ways in which women's time is affected by political issues, like this:

When President Bush signed the law that took away people's overtime pay, he did more than take away your money - he created an incentive for your employer to require you to work longer hours.

He knows that, because of the mess he has made of the economy, you'll work those extra hours, because you know there may not be another job to go to if you refuse. It doesn't matter that your child will be stuck either alone or in daycare, instead of with you during those hours, you need your paycheck, so you'll work them.

He's allowing companies to blackmail you into giving up more of your time to them - for nothing.

He is doing the same thing when he refuses to raise the minimum wage. He is stealing your time by causing you to work extra hours, or more than one job, just to feed your family and keep a roof over your head.

The campaign should analyze every issue, and see how it can be tied back to women's time. Whatever you come up with will work for many men, as well. Everyone feels the time crunch, women just pay more attention to it.