Why Women Shouldn?t Support Obama

According to some polls, President Barack Obama holds as much as a double digit lead among women voters. But women supporting Obama may not be aware that he takes their backing for granted. The president has shown in recent weeks that while he may be interested in their votes, he doesn't really value women's interests.

Case in point, Obama's infamous Life of Julia campaign. The patronizing animated advertisement glorified a life of female frailty and dependency on the government. Poor women, Obama seemed to be saying, without the government there to hold their hands, and carry them through every problem, they'll simply be overwhelmed.

In American politics, there has scarcely ever been a more demeaning affront to women, nor a better clue as to how low an estimate of intelligence and sophistication the Obama campaign has of women.

To think that women were supposed to be compelled by a silly cartoon to realize just how desperately they need Obama to care for them and shepherd them and provide for their every need. It's insulting.

Obama's policies are as unhelpful to women as his political advertisements are disrespectful to women. Just look at the economy.

With the economy in tatters, and joblessness abounding, young women face an ever-narrowing field of options when it comes to the difficult task of balancing work and family ambitions. In their 20s, they are burdened by educational debt and are increasingly unable to find secure employment. This causes young couples to delay marriage and put off or cancel plans to have children.

For women, taking a temporary leave from the workforce, or taking time away to have a child with the hopes of starting back to work in a few years, is much more difficult now that jobs are scarce.

What is Obama's answer to our economic problems? Trillions of dollars in new government debt, putting us all the more in the hole while Obama cronies at companies like Solyndra cash out paychecks backed by government loans -- loans that your children (if you can afford to have any) will be paying interest on decades from now.

The Obama administration's economic missteps are just the start of its bad-for-women policies. Obama has pumped millions into Planned Parenthood -- the nation's largest abortion provider -- which, just this week, was caught on tape encouraging a young woman to abort her child because it was a girl and not a boy. Don't believe it? Then watch the video for yourself.

The message coming from the Obama administration got very bizarre last week after the Department of Justice told the University of Arkansas that a 38-year-old anatomically male student, who identifies himself as female but who nevertheless recently fathered a child with another woman, must be allowed to use the women's restrooms on campus.

If you ladies don't want to pull your pants down next to someone who stands up to pee, too bad. According to the Obama administration, any man who says he feels like a woman must be allowed access to women's restrooms. Deal with it.

Is this what we've come to? Anyone who says they are a woman must be legally considered to be one? Apparently, to this president, being a woman is all in the mind. Come to think of it, maybe that's why Obama's policies so often seem to be working against the interests of women. Perhaps he isn't even sure that they are real.

Nathan Harden is editor of The College Fix. He writes about culture and politics every Wednesday for the International Business Times. Follow him on Twitter @nathanharden