Obama needs to win over Clinton's female supporters

— -- Barack Obama at last has won the endorsement of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the woman who came closer to the Democratic presidential nomination than any other. Now he has to win over her millions of female supporters.

Women have been sent to "the back of the bus" again, says Mary Jane Coughlin, 46, a Long Island copywriter who says she will write in Clinton's name in November rather than vote for Obama. "We work twice as hard to get half as far."

Four years ago, women made up more than half the electorate. Democrat John Kerry edged out President Bush among women, 51%-48%, according to surveys of voters as they left polling places.

Obama has said he will stress the differences between himself and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, especially on issues such as health care, judicial appointments and abortion rights. Obama campaign spokeswoman Linda Douglass says female voters will respond to Obama's life in a "female-centric" family, as he discusses the influences of his mother, grandmother, wife and mother-in-law. The gender gap in the primaries wasn't anti-Obama, she says, but pro-Clinton. "I don't think it was about him, it was about her."

Groups such as NARAL Pro-Choice America, which endorsed the Illinois senator last month, will also help. The abortion-rights group plans to spend $10 million in the presidential and congressional elections this year, said president Nancy Keenan. It also will target independent and GOP women who favor abortion rights, particularly suburban ones in Pennsylvania and other swing states.

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These voters "could be the margin of victory in this race," Keenan says. "They will move once they understand the record of Barack Obama on pro-choice issues."

Clinton consistently won the votes of women during the primaries. Women 65 and older were strongest in their support: She won them by an average of 24 percentage points in contests where voters were surveyed as they left polling places.

In her farewell remarks Saturday, Clinton urged her supporters to back Obama, but acknowledged that their desire to elect a woman will have to wait. "We have to work together for what still can be. And that is why I will work my heart out to make sure that Sen. Obama is our next president," Clinton said.