Women bolster Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire

Other than the female ranks of the Christofascists and their Tea Party cousins and wealthy women who embrace the GOP's reverse Robin Hood agenda, I candidly do not know why most women would ever support the Republican Party which (i) is obsessed with regulating women's private parts, (ii) thinks wage inequality is perfectly fine, and (iii) believes rape is merely a storyline put out by promiscuous women who have second thoughts about their sexual dalliances.  As Politico notes, in New Hampshire, women voters seem to be rallying to Hillary Clinton.  Here are article excerpts:

When Hillary Clinton visits New Hampshire, she’s returning not only to the scene of her own 2008 victory but also to a state that has had an unusual record of breakthrough candidacies for women — and that is not lost on her campaign.

The Granite State has a Democratic female governor, female senators of each party, and, until recently, an entirely female congressional delegation. It would seem to be an easy place for Clinton to make the case that she should be the first female president. But Clinton’s advisers and allies, including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, think she doesn’t need to make any allusions to her potentially groundbreaking candidacy — at least for now.

Clinton’s local backers, including a huge roster of women who’ve won elections in New Hampshire, argue that the state has already proven it’s very open to electing female leaders — including Clinton when she last ran for president, in 2008 — so there’s no need for her to carry a gender-specific message for now.

Still, the large number of female officials who are close to her — including current and former U.S. representatives, the sitting governor, former state party chair, and past leaders of the legislature — are a key resource for Clinton, and part of the reason Clinton’s team sees New Hampshire’s primary as protection against the unpredictable forces that sometimes skew the result of the Iowa caucuses.

If necessary, some members of her campaign team and close allies say, Clinton’s specific argument about her historic candidacy may come later, but for now the theme is best approached through a handful of particular issues that resonate with female voters, such as family leave policies, health care and education.

“Hillary herself is rightly keeping her focus on the people,” said Jess McIntosh of EMILY’s List, a political group that backs Democratic female candidates and is closely aligned with Clinton. “Making the case about yourself is never going to be the best way to introduce yourself as a candidate.”

The former secretary of state’s two-day swing through the state was punctuated by two public stops — one at an educational toy and furniture factory in Keene, another at a technical community college in Concord — where she spoke about lowering college costs, improving upon health care reform, protecting Social Security and maintaining American competitiveness and jobs. It was the kind of pitch her allies expected to see during her first few trips as a candidate.

Clinton’s strategy of zeroing in on voters, rather than herself, has defined much of her campaign so far, in a stark contrast to her last White House bid.

Clinton focused in particular on young workers on Tuesday morning, referring to the “something like 5 million people between 18 and 24 who are neither in school or at work,” but politics were not far from the discussion at any point.