Election 2008
(2008-07-24)
null
In Atlanta today, surrogates for Presidential candidates Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama tried to answer that question.
They spoke to the group, Business and Professional Women USA, as part of its 4 day national conference.
Hundreds of female business owners and employees heard Carly Fiorina tell them John McCain is the man for the job. Fiorina, a long time business executive, is well known for running computer company Hewlett Packard from 2000 to 2005.
Fiorina says McCain understands how hard it is for working women to juggle their personal and professional lives.
FIORINA: John McCain co-sponsored the Family Friendly Workplace Act, which allows employers to provide flexible work schedules to help employees balance the demands and deeds of work and family.
On the issue of personal tax exemptions, Fiorina said McCain wants families to get 7000 dollars for each dependant instead of 35 hundred. Fiorina's points about McCain were enlightening but not convincing to women like Sherry McKanless. She lives in West Palm, Florida and has owned a copy center there for 20 years.
MCKANLESS: I have to admit I saw Senator McCain in a different light, but I'm definitely leaning Democratic.
McKanless says she's probably going to vote for Barack Obama, but really wishes Hilary Clinton was still in the race. Compliments about Clinton came from conference attendees, Fiorina and from 3 star Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy.
Kennedy worked on Clinton's campaign until it was over. That's when Kennedy says she faced 2 choices.
KENNEDY: One was to be disappointed and exclude my participation in any other political activity or to take a careful look at Senator Barack Obama.
Kennedy chose Obama because she says he supports equal pay and work rights for women and health benefits for veterans. But it was talk about Clinton's campaign that caught the attention of Susan Parsons Reed; a marketing and communications controller from New Jersey.
REED: I think that's important for other women who had been supporting Senator Clinton to hear because a lot of them are still disappointed in the fact that she didn't make it to the nomination.
Most women at the conference say they already knew their Presidential pick before today. They say the speeches didn't change their minds but gave them food for thought. © Copyright 2009, WABE
