Palin Lifts McCain Among White Women

John McCain has made huge strides with female voters since choosing Sarah Palin, says a new poll reported. Before tapping his running mate, McCain trailed Barack Obama 52% to 18% on the question of which candidate better understands “women and what is important to them,” Politico reports, deconstructing the Lifetime Television survey. Now the Republican leads, 44 to 42.

Obama still leads overall among women, but his margin is not as great as it has been for him and other Democrats in the past. That slump ties into slackening support from whites of both genders, Gallup numbers show. Women under 35 remained firmly in the Obama-Biden camp, but the addition of Palin to the GOP ticket appeared to be siphoning off women aged 35 to 64.