She's Just Not That Into You

In the latest round of polling, we see that the President is creating quite a gender gap, even in the solid South:

"I think history will show him to be the worst president since Ulysses S. Grant," said Barbara Knight, a self-described Republican since birth and the mother of three. "He's been an embarrassment."

In the heart of Dixie, comparisons to Grant, a symbol of the Union, are the worst sort of insult, especially from a Macon woman who voted for Bush in 2000 but turned away in 2004.

In recent years, Southern women have been some of Bush's biggest fans, defying the traditional gender gap in which women have preferred Democrats to Republicans. Bush secured a second term due in large part to support from 54 percent of Southern female voters while women nationally favored Democrat John Kerry, 51-48 percent.

Now, anger over the Iraq war and frustration with the country's direction have taken a toll on the president's popularity and stirred dissatisfaction with the Republican-held Congress.

Republicans on the ballot this November have reason to worry. A recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that three out of five Southern women surveyed said they planned to vote for a Democrat in the midterm elections. With control of the Senate and House in the balance, such a seismic shift could have dire consequences for the GOP.

Mothers don't like it when their sons and daughters keep being sent into danger halfway around the world, and the results are mass anarchy and civil war. And women in general, I'd gather, are put off by the cocky flyboy who never admits that he's wrong. Bush is the husband who won't ask for directions when he's lost.

I don't know how much the loss of Southern women will actually impact the fall elections, except for in Virginia, where the continuing revelations about George Felix Allen and his coziness with neo-Nazi and Klan-friendly white power groups has led even local boy Jerry Falwell to praise his opponent:

Ten weeks before election day, conservative TV evangelist Jerry Falwell is heaping surprising praise on the Democrat opposing Sen. George Allen's re-election bid in Virginia.

In an interview on Forbes.com, Falwell, 73, makes his first comments about Allen's opponent, James Webb. Falwell says he disagrees with Webb on social issues, but gives the politician a personal ranking of "A-."

I don't agree with Falwell pretty much at all, but he's pretty smart at the political dance, and this wet kiss to Jim Webb is clearly an attempt to hedge his bets. Maybe the women in his congregation are feeding him tales about how much they've had it with Republicans.

Georgie, they're just not that into you.