Last week, I joined a conference call with the Independent Women’s Forum about a poll that The Polling Company conducted on women’s attitudes and the health care debate. I meant to write about this earlier, but sadly all of my free time was taken up with creating a Meghan McCain Halloween costume. (Yes, it was awesome.)

Carrie Lukas, Vice President for Policy and Economics,  started off the call by stating, “we think women are missing important information about the health care system and trade offs that are involved. The press sometimes misses women’s real concerns.”

Since women make the majority of decisions regarding health care for their families, IWF commissioned KellyAnne Conway to survey only women about health care.

This random digit dial surveyed 800 women over seven nights with a proportionally represented sample of female registered voters.

The point I found most interesting was the timing. Congress and the media keep insisting that there’s a crisis! and Americans demand that health care be reformed now!

Not quite:

When asked when Congress and the President should enact healthcare reform,
9% hoped for action in the next few weeks; 20% wanted change by the end of the year; 22%
preferred to see reform in the next one or two years; and 43% of women say that Congress and
the President should enact healthcare reform “only when quality legislation is developed, even
if it means there is no deadline.”

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In a recent interview on the O’Reilly Factor, Laura Ingraham (subbing for Bill O’Reilly), interviewed Sally Quinn and KellyAnne Conway about the media’s obsession with Sarah Palin.

While the interview is another example of ad hominem discussions about Palin, Quinn’s quotes are very telling. Her attitude exemplifies the hypocritical standard of the modern feminist movement: you can follow the definition of a feminist, but you aren’t actually a feminist unless you hold certain political views.

SALLY QUINN, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, of course, she is a feminist. I mean, if you look at all the things you’ve just said about her, she’s a feminist. I mean, she clearly believes in equality for women.

INGRAHAM: And babies in the womb.

QUINN: And most women I know are feminists. So I think it depends on who you call feminist. I think one of the producers was saying the sort of raging crazed pro-choice liberal women. But I have to say that of all the people I know, I don’t know a single person who feels jealous about her. I think that most of the people I know who are not Sarah Palin fans just don’t like what she has to say.

Really? Palin is a feminist? Interesting. What exactly is “feminism?”

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