And so it begins

MILWAUKEE – President Obama has opened the first significant lead of the 2012 campaign in the nation's dozen top battleground states, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, boosted by a huge shift of women to his side.

In the fifth Swing States survey taken since last fall, Obama leads Republican front-runner Mitt Romney 51%-42% among registered voters just a month after the president had trailed him by two percentage points.

The biggest change came among women under 50. In mid-February, just under half of those voters supported Obama. Now more than six in 10 do while Romney's support among them has dropped by 14 points, to 30%. The president leads him 2-1 in this group.

…

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina says Romney's promise to "end Planned Parenthood" — the former Massachusetts governor says he wants to eliminate federal funding for the group — and his endorsement of an amendment that would allow employers to refuse to cover contraception in health care plans have created "severe problems" for him in the general election.

"Romney's run to the right may be winning him Tea Party votes," Messina said in an interview, but he says it's demonstrated that "American women can't trust Romney to stand up for them."

Read the full article here.

When the Republicans started with their bullshit against women, I mentioned that in the 2008 election, women made up 53% of those who voted, and that we were not going to forget this.

Well, right on, Sisters! [fist in the air] We have received your message loud and clear, Republicans, and we are responding accordingly. Millions of women use Planned Parenthood every year, with only a small percentage of that for the purpose of abortions; they do good work in providing basic health care to millions of American women. The threat of cutting off all funds to the organization is seriously not cool. A bill introduced by a Republican legislator in Arizona would allow businesses to require a doctor’s note to show that a woman was using birth control for medical purposes, not for birth control. There is some talk of allowing employers to not pay for birth control if they have a “moral objection” to it. Perhaps they would like to accompany us to our doctors’ appointments to ensure that we don’t discuss anything they deem to be out of line or “morally objectionable.” Or maybe someone from the RNC will observe during my next pelvic exam, just to make sure I don’t deviate from acceptable topics, and so they can get a rundown on the general state of my uterus.

We are paying attention, and we are not liking what we’re seeing. I’m sure that Mittens will pivot to the center in the general election, and he’ll try to say that he didn’t mean it that way, or that he was taken out of context, and he’ll try to pretend that he cares about women’s health. He doesn’t. There is videotape to prove it. Women don’t forget much, or haven’t you figured that out yet, Mittens? We’re listening to what you are saying now. And we’ll be voting in November. You can put THAT in your ballot box and stuff it.