Obama woos white women with pay promise

Seeking to draw female voters to his campaign, Sen. Barack Obama on Monday pledged to deliver equal pay to women, increase the child care tax credit and expand paid leave for new mothers.

Courting white women - the strongest constituency of his former party rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton - the presumptive Democratic candidate toured a baking facility in Albuquerque, N.M., and told personal stories about being raised by his single, white mother.

On equal pay, Mr. Obama said his opponent, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, opposed legislation earlier this year that would have made it easier for women to sue their employers for pay discrimination.

“I’ll continue to stand up for equal pay as president - Senator McCain won’t, and that’s a real difference in this election,” said the Illinois Democrat, who supported the bill.

The McCain campaign fired back, using Mr. Obama’s own words from last week, when he said that once Clinton-supporting women realize “John McCain is not in their corner, that would help them get over it.”

“When you consider women are a major driving force behind small business start-ups in this country, Barack Obama’s proposals to raise taxes on millions of small businesses isn’t going to help women voters ‘get over it,’” McCain spokesman Jill Hazelbaker said.

In Albuquerque, Mr. Obama said he would expand the child care tax credit, increase funds for after-school programs and expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover small businesses so that companies with as few as 25 employees would be covered.

Later, during a question-and-answer session with a group of about 30 women, Mr. Obama said he struggles with the same dilemma many women face - how to balance work and family.

“I’m away from my daughters all the time, and I’m away from my wife all the time,” he said. “And so I’m always comparing, ‘OK, is what I’m doing - running for president or even being president - worth the sacrifice of not being with my family?’”

Since Mr. Obama all but locked down the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this month and Mrs. Clinton abandoned her bid, he has praised the New York senator for the barriers that she broke. But women have been slow to shift their allegiance to Mr. Obama, especially white women, who preferred Mrs. Clinton by 24 percentage points during the primary season.

Mr. Obama on Monday again praised the New York senator as a trailblazer, saying the nation has come closer to one where women have equal opportunities “because of the extraordinary woman who I shared a stage with so many times throughout this campaign - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Mr. Obama also lauded Title IX, the federal law that banned sex discrimination in all education programs, on its 36th anniversary.

“Thanks to Title IX, we have made much progress. Women now make up more than half of the students in our nation’s colleges and universities. American dominance in women’s sports on the world stage is a testament to the door that Title IX opened for young female athletes - and we know the women on the U.S. Olympic team will make America proud this summer,” he said.

Still, he said he will “fight to make sure our female students have equal opportunities from pre-kindergarten all the way through graduate school.”