IS IT GUY TIME? – AT 9:03 A.M. ET:  We males have felt so oppressed, so downtrodden in recent years, so ignored by trendy journalists, that it's got to be time for a comeback.  Or at least a warm hand.  And maybe that time will come on election day.  The Politico reports on the half-important male vote, and where it's going:

Some of the most dramatic recent polls suggesting that a Republican “wave” will overtake Democratic majorities this year share a single ingredient: testosterone.

The gender gap that in 2008 resulted in 6 percent more men than women supporting Republican John McCain is likely to be even greater this year. But this time, evidence suggests Republican-leaning men are likely to prove the driving force behind a GOP surge.

Men are not only more loyal to the GOP than two years ago but also more motivated to vote, recent polls suggest. This year’s central issues are ones that politicians traditionally use to appeal to men, especially worries about budget deficits.

“Polls show some acceleration of the gender gap, and also, for the first time in a while, men seem more energized than women to turn out and vote,” said Mark Penn, a former campaign pollster for both Bill and Hillary Clinton.

And...

“There’s a bigger gender gap than I’m used to seeing,” said Quinnipiac pollster Doug Schwartz. “We’ve seen it in all our races.”

Other Quinnipiac polls have also found wide gender gaps that endure even with the large margins of error of subsamples, like one that found GOP Senate candidate Pat Toomey leading Rep. Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania, thanks to an 18-percentage-point margin among men.

COMMENT:  Some press reports indicate that women's groups are putting pressure on the Democratic Party to emphasize women's issues, but I wonder if it's a big too late and too obvious.  Also, "women's issues" has the tone, fairly or unfairly, of "left-wing issues," which may alienate independent voters still more.  Further, and our readers know this, millions of American women dissent from the standard positions of many "feminist" organizations, which may account for their lack of enthusiasm for the Obama line. 

Also, on national security, Obama is widely perceived as weak, a turn-off for men.  That cannot be reversed by election day.

September 27, 2010