Young women_maybe not old enough to vote_as a secret source of support for Barack Obama?
Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, a conservative Democrat, had intended to sit out his state's primary, but came out for Obama last week. Among the factors cited by friends of Casey was that his four daughters were Obama fans.
Political analyst Charlie Cook told a symposium at Hofstra University in Hempstead on Thursday evening that his two daughters were Obama fans, and added a race/gender/generational twist.
Forget his 15-year-old son, the jock, Cook said. No politics for him. But his two daughters are into politics and are Obama supporters. His daughters think that it is more important that an African-American get elected president than a woman, he said.
Cook speculated that his daughters_one of whom plans to be a doctor_have not encountered the sort of barriers to a professional career that earlier generations of women had to face. And, he said, they do not have the emotional bond Hillary Clinton has with older women.