Gender Gap Is Back

Just 30 percent of women approve of President Bush's performance in office, compared to 44 percent of men. That's the trend in our latest poll of 1,007 adults conducted by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University.

The gender gap is back.

About 3 million women who voted for Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election changed political direction in 2004 to support the re-election of George W. Bush. The reasons, of course, were security concerns in the post-9/11 world.

But women have grown disallusioned with the three-year-old war in Iraq and are increasingly critical of Bush. A 14-point gender gap is about a large as its ever been in national politics. Something else to cause Republican congressional incumbents to toss and turn at night.