Support among Women Falling for Hillary Clinton

WASHINGTON — Women like Hillary Clinton less now than when the primary season started in January, a national poll released Thursday found.

The Democratic senator from New York was the only remaining presidential candidate to suffer a negative shift among women who had changed their opinions in the survey conducted by Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake.

Overall, the survey showed that more than 40 percent of women had changed their opinions of the Democratic candidates, Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. About 30 percent had changed their opinions of Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

However, of the 41 percent whose views have shifted on Clinton, 26 percent said they now like her less while 15 percent like her more. With Obama, 45 have changed their opinions but 23 percent now like him more and 22 percent less. With McCain, 15 percent view him more favorably and 15 percent less favorably.

In a three-way presidential race, Clinton got 27 percent of the women's vote while Obama and McCain got 25 percent apiece.

Of those who now like Clinton less, 67 percent pointed to personal traits, mainly citing dishonesty. Obama's association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was the most common reason that women liked him less — cited by 36 percent of this group.

"People volunteered (Rev. Wright's) name" in answering an open-ended question, said Conway, founder and president of the polling company inc./WomanTrend. She said that indicated residual resentment on this issue that the candidate needs to overcome.

There was no such specific mention of Clinton's misstatements over undergoing hostile fire, for instance, she said.

The poll was the third during the 2008 election season sponsored by Lifetime under its "Every Woman Counts" campaign, which began in 1992 and is now in its fifth presidential election. The national telephone poll was conducted April 2-7. The sample was 500 women nationwide, with oversampling of 100 extra women in Pennsylvania, the site of the next major primary, and of 100 additional African American women and 100 extra Hispanic women. The margin of error for the main sample is plus or minus 4.4 percent.

Women are split on how news coverage of Clinton has been influenced by her gender. While a third of the respondents believe she is receiving negative coverage because she is a woman, slightly fewer think she is receiving positive coverage. However, 43 percent of Clinton supporters said she is being treated unfairly because she is a woman.

By a two-to-one margin, women think Obama is being helped more than hurt by his race in media coverage — 41 percent vs. 20 percent who think being an African-American has hurt him. Among black women, though, 30 percent of the respondents thought he was being hurt by his race. However, nearly half of Hispanic women thought being an African American was helping him obtain favorable coverage.

Women were nearly twice as likely (36 percent to 19 percent) to say John McCain was being hurt rather than helped by his age of 71.

The economy and jobs is the top issue for women — with 38 percent listing that as their major concern, the poll found. It was followed by health care, Medicare and prescription drugs (31 percent) and the war in Iraq (28 percent).

The survey found that only 13 percent of the respondents want to see Clinton drop out of the race and only 7 percent want Obama to quit. Only 11 percent are worried that the prolonged primary season is hurting the Democratic Party.

In Pennsylvania, interest in the continuing campaign is intense, with 94 percent of the women saying they will vote in the primary. About half — 53 percent — said they have decided on a candidate. Among these women, 34 percent said they will go for Clinton, 29 percent for Obama and 20 percent for McCain.

"Add Clinton and Obama together, and you see that women are strongly Democratic. In Pennsylvania, 63 percent of women say they are voting for a Democrat," said Lake, president of Lake Research Partners.

The poll showed that women are clearly worried about the future — with 42 percent saying their economic situation is worse now than it was a year ago, compared to 20 percent who said they are better off.

On the lighter side, the poll showed women believe Meryl Streep is the actress most fit to portray Clinton in a Lifetime movie. Streep was picked by 17 percent of the participants, followed by Glenn Close and Diane Keaton, who tied with 11 percent.