Sure, Barack Obama has had trouble winning over white working-class voters. But he’s shown surprising strength with another (slightly less sizable) constituency:
The daughters of Republican presidents–and potential presidents-to-be.
Last night on CNN, the still-living, still-suspendered Larry King asked First Twin Jenna Bush and her mother Laura, who appeared with her, whether they preferred one Democratic candidate to the other. Thanks to her expertly programmed CPU, Laura gave the proper answer. “My favorite is the Republican,” she intoned. But Jenna, ever mischievous, wasn’t so sure. “I don’t know,” she said. “I mean, who isn’t open to learning about the candidates?” Realizing, it seemed, that the most obvious answer to her question is “a Bush,” she immediately backtracked. “I’m sure everybody is like that,” she stammered. “I honestly have been too busy with books to really pay that much attention.” But it was impossible to ignore the implication: that daddy’s little Republican was “open to” voting Democratic. And since the Clintons aren’t exactly friends of the family–and the elite, 26-year-old Jenna falls squarely into Obama’s demographic sweet spot–one could only imagine that it was the senator from Illinois, not New York, tempting her to the dark side.
If so, she wouldn’t be the first. In August, Slate revealed that Caroline Giuliani, 17–the daughter of Rudy, who was then the Republican frontrunner–had joined a pro-Obama Facebook group. Meghan McCain, a 23-year-old self-described “independent,” has called Obama “sexy,” “cute” and a “rock star”; something tells us that if her dad weren’t the GOP nominee, the “socially liberal” McCain (she loves stripper Dita Von Teese) wouldn’t be backing Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee for president. Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that Julie Nixon Eisenhower–sired by Tricky Dick, married to Ike’s grandson–has already given the maximum allowable donation ($2,300) to (you guessed it!) Obama. And that’s after donating to McCain in 2000 and Bush in 2004. She joins her sister-in-law Susan, who’s been a prominent “Obamacan” since endorsing the senator back in February. “Barack Obama will really be in a singular position to attract moderate Republicans,” she told NEWSWEEK at the time. “I wanted to do what many people did for my grandfather in 1952. He was hugely aided in his quest for the presidency by Democrats for Eisenhower.”
Why the flood of past and possible First Daughters (and Grandaughters) for Obama? Who knows. Some of it may have to do with the candidate’s much-discussed crossover appeal. Like most pro-Obama Republicans, the women in question tend to be well-educated: Julie Nixon attended Smith, Susan Eisenhower attended the American University in Paris; Meghan McCain attended Columbia; Jenna Bush attended UT-Austin; and Caroline Giuliani is a freshman at Harvard. Moreover, all of the defectors are young and/or moderate–also leading indicators of Obamacan tendencies. That said, it’s probably a stretch to read much else into what’s really just a weird (if intriguing) coincidence.
Still, if Susan Ford Bales endorses Obama, we’re totally saying “told you so.”
