1. Kimberley Strassel praises Fiorina today for not playing the “gender card”: She doesn’t “pander on gender issues” or “pitch [her] womanhood as a qualification for office.” That’s right, in general, and deserves praising. But this super PAC ad supporting Fiorina sure seems to have a touch of identity politics to it. I hope we don’t see any more of it.
2. Donald Trump says that it’s unfair to criticize him for going after Fiorina’s looks, when she has gone after the looks of her opponents. I’ve seen a few journalists draw the same supposed parallel. It’s a phony one. Fiorina was caught by a hot mic saying something mildly unflattering about Barbara Boxer’s hairstyle. Trump was making a case against Fiorina on the record to a reporter. Everyone has juvenile moments, but not everyone makes a campaign out of them. (Another difference: I think men should be more inhibited than women in making negative observations about women’s looks. But then I’m a conservative.)
3. The New York Times has a story claiming that Fiorina offers “a credible antidote to the gender gap,” which it attributes, sans evidence, to abortion. Actually, female Republicans seem to have the same gender gaps that male Republicans do–and, for that matter, successful Republicans tend to have the same gender gaps that unsuccessful ones do. Ditto pro-life and pro-choice Republicans. The evidence that the 2012 election saw a record gap is also more equivocal than the story lets on. In 2000, women gave 11 percentage points more of their votes to Al Gore than men did. The gap in 2012 was 10 points.
4. Speaking of Fiorina and abortion, don’t believe the media line that she was wrong about Planned Parenthood. She was right, and the press is covering itself in shame.