If the Republican Party has in fact declared a war on women, the parade of high-profile female speakers at the party’s national convention this week suggests strongly that the women are winning.
Quite apart from Ann Romney’s dazzling personal testimonial to her husband, the TV cameras brought an impressive group of female Republican leaders into the nation’s living rooms.
They include Govs. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Nikki Haley of South Carolina.
Gov. Martinez’s highly personal account of her transformation from Democrat to Republican was both instructive in its details and especially relevant to the debate over which party is more hospitable to women.
Meanwhile, Mayor Mia Love of Saratoga Springs, Utah — now running for a House seat — arguably became the RNC’s breakout star from the moment she took the stage Tuesday, talking about her belief in the American dream.
As a conservative black Mormon born to Haitian parents in Brooklyn, Love turns the notion that Democrats own the diversity issue on its head.
As, of course, does former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
After two full terms in the George W. Bush administration, she’s already a familiar face to Americans.
However, her Wednesday speech reminded Americans that this classically trained pianist and former Stanford provost may be one of America’s smartest and most insightful public servants ever.
Without rancor or cheap shots, she calmly spoke about American exceptionalism and the need for America to lead. (And, ahem, not “lead from behind” — OK, maybe one cheap shot. She’s earned it.)
Rice put these views in the context of a nation’s journey in which a “little girl [growing] up in Jim Crow Birmingham” could become secretary of state.
And, we suspect, a serious contender for national office, should she ever choose to go that route.
Whether the Democrats will be able to match such candlepower next week is very much an open question.
After all, only two of the nation’s six female governors are Democrats — and the party’s highest-profile female leader, Hillary Clinton, is apparently skipping the convention altogether.
No surprise. In the “war on women,” her party is badly outnumbered.