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Obama focuses on women's issues in Ohio

BY NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON | nia.henderson@newsday.com

September 4, 2008

NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio - Seeking to capitalize on the inroads he's made with Hillary Rodham Clinton Democrats, particularly women, Barack Obama yesterday held a small economics forum centered on women's issues in this swing state, signaling that his campaign isn't going to cede any ground or momentum to the Republican ticket.

In fact, the entrance of Gov. Sarah Palin into the race has led to a sharpening of Obama's message on issues such as health care, pay equity, and abortion rights. In an ad, the campaign has hit the Republican ticket over its anti-abortion stance and also criticized John McCain for not supporting equal pay legislation.

The importance of the women's vote has also given him reason to be more personal on the stump and to talk about his mother's and grandmother's struggles trying to raise him as they bumped up against the proverbial glass ceiling.

If anything, aides say, John McCain is trying to play on their ground, and his choice of Palin, who doesn't have the record or recognition of Clinton, allows them to draw stark contrasts on the issues.

Yesterday, he was introduced by a young, single mother working for minimum wage and paying her way through school. When he took the microphone, he told his mother' story - a young, single woman, sometimes on food stamps, struggling through school.

Dismissing the idea that the election will be about personality and identity politics - as a top McCain aide suggested - he said it's the issues that will matter most of all this election cycle.

"I want to make sure that our daughters have the same chances as our sons, to make a decent life for themselves," he said, adding that his grandmother never had a chance to go to college. "We still have a situation where women are making 77 cents to every dollar that a man makes on the job ... when I am president of the United States, we are going to pass equal pay for equal work."

Obama added that he differs with McCain and Palin over the issue of equal pay, adding that "those are the kinds of fights that we've got to engage in if we are going to continue this American promise."

The issue of abortion rights is clearly another fight that will define the fall, with polls showing that 50 percent of women consider themselves supporters of abortion rights and 43 percent, anti-abortion.

Recent polls show Obama with a slim lead in Ohio, which George W. Bush won in 2004. Obama campaigns in Pennsylvania today.