On August 31 at Newsbusters, Warner Todd Huston caught NBC political correspondent Andrea Mitchell's assessment about the kind of women who would be supporting the McCain-Palin ticket:
..... they (McCain-Palin) think that they can peel off some of these working class women, not college educated, who, the blue collar women who were voting for Hillary Clinton and may be more conservative on social causes.
Combining Mitchell's take with the statement by Eleanor Clift (noted by NB's Brent Baker) that "in many newsrooms" McCain's pick of Sarah Palin was "greeted by "laughter," you get the distinct impression that the media believe that women who are supporting McCain-Palin aren't very smart.
The Mitchell-Clift Maxim isn't passing the smell test in Ohio, at least if the results of the University of Cincinnati's Ohio Poll released earlier today (a PDF can be retrieved at this link; HT to NB commenter Dee Bunk) are to be believed.
The overall results show McCain-Palin up 48% - 44%, which is barely outside the poll's 3.5% margin of error. The demographic results based on education level contradict the Mitchell Maxim in a major way:
- Those with less than a high school education favor Obama by 63-32.
- Those with a high school education favor Obama by 49-42.
- Those who have some college education favor McCain by 52-37.
- Those who have a college degree favor McCain by 50-44.
There's no breakdown between males and females within education level, but it's hard to imagine that McCain is getting a majority of women in the first two categories.
As a resident of the Buckeye State, I can say informally that this result seems to conform to reality.
What was that you were saying, Andrea and Eleanor?
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
