TRUMP’S GENDER “PROBLEM”: The repeated talking point that Donald Trump has a “problem” with female voters turns out to be driven largely by party affiliation and race rather than gender itself.  The New York Slimes Times has a piece today titled “The Women Who Like Donald Trump,” as though it such women are a rare breed worthy of examination. Salon has an even more ridiculous piece, “Trump’s Misogynist Campaign.”

But exit polling from the Republican primaries in West Virginia and Nebraska indicate that Republican women supported Trump at essentially the same rate as women’s participation in the primary. The same absence of a “gender gap” existed prior to Cruz and Kasich suspending their campaigns, as is evidenced by exit polls in Republican primaries such as New York, Wisconsin, and Indiana.

Even the Quinnipiac poll released yesterday that focuses on the swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania show that while Clinton outpaces Trump among all women voters (not merely Republicans), her gender advantage appears to be race-specific, with Clinton holding a commanding lead with non-white women, but Trump actually beating Clinton among white women. In Florida, Clinton has a 13 point advantage among women (48-35) but Trump actually leads Clinton by 3 points among white women (43-40).  In Ohio, Clinton enjoys a 7 point lead among female voters over Trump (43-36), but once again, Trump has a 7 point advantage over Clinton among white women (42-35).  In Pennsylvania, Clinton enjoys her largest gender advantage, beating Trump by 19 points among women (51-32)– a gap that narrows to 6 points among white women (45-39).

Clinton’s gender advantage is weaker than Obama’s 12 point advantage over Romney with female voters in 2012.  And the gender difference in presidential elections almost always favors the Democrats’ candidate, suggesting that Hillary’s gender advantage may be due more to the fact that she is a Democrat than any particular gender “problem” specific to Trump.  Other recent Republican candidates had similar gender gaps without facing incessant accusations of misogyny. John McCain, for example, had a 14 percent deficit versus Obama among female voters in 2008.  George W. Bush had an 8 percent female deficit versus Gore in 2000. Indeed, the last Republican presidential candidate to win among female voters was George H.W. Bush in 1988, who beat Dukakis among women 52-48.

There is little doubt that Trump has high “unfavorable” ratings with women, but this doesn’t appear to be translating into voting against him, at least among Republican women and white women. This should not be particularly surprising, as Hillary Clinton’s “unfavorable” ratings among women are also quite high–with 52 percent of women characterizing Clinton as “unfavorable” in a recent PPP poll–and of course even higher among men (59 percent), yet it doesn’t appear to stop Democrats of either gender from pulling the lever for her.

Don’t get me wrong: Donald Trump is more popular among men than women, and Hillary Clinton is more popular among women than men. But the gender gap between the two candidates is not as large as has been reported by the media, and appears to be driven mostly by party affiliation and race than gender itself. I would be very interested to see any data that focuses specifically on the Trump-Clinton gender preference among independent voters, which may be a more accurate indicator.

UBER VS. THE SECOND-RATE CITIES: “Given a choice between annoying its long-established transit cartels and confirming itself as second-rate, Austin voted for second-rate,” former Austin resident Kevin D. Williamson writes:

In December, Austin’s city council passed a set of regulations that make it difficult for companies such as Uber and Lyft, another app-based ride-sharing outfit, to operate in the Texas capital. A referendum would have overturned those regulations, but Austin’s voters rejected it. Austinites are conservative in the old-fashioned sense of that word, the way politically progressive people in San Francisco and Tribeca tend to be deeply conservative, desiring to preserve their favorite coffee shops in amber. Even Austin’s unofficial city motto — “Keep Austin Weird” — is fundamentally conservative, in that sense. Disruptive innovation? Not in my backyard, says Austin.

* * * * * * *

As our friend Avik Roy points out, the same city council that is demanding criminal background checks on Uber drivers had, only six weeks before, prohibited other companies from asking job applicants about their criminal histories. This isn’t about safety — it’s about the taxi racket and the gentlemen who operate it, an old-fashioned Democratic interest group.

Related:

Voter turnout for Prop 1 was at 17%, with Uber/Lyft losing the election by 12%. Given the number of voters who showed up at the polls, Uber/Lyft spent $223.15 for each vote that they received. The reason why voter turnout was so low as simply because one of Uber and Lyft’s target markets, college students, really don’t want to take the time to vote. I’ll admit that people my age don’t care enough to prevent something like this from occurring, instead opting to wait until what they like is taken away from them for them to complain. It’s been fascinating seeing the backlash on social media following Prop 1’s decision, especially given that it isn’t statistically possible for all of the students complaining to have actually voted for the proposition.

— “Why Uber and Lyft left Austin,” at Medium.com.

(H/T: 5’F)

I REMEMBER THIS FROM WHEN I WAS A KID: Now Online: David Frye’s Richard Nixon: A Fantasy.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals in Home & Kitchen.

Plus, enjoy the Spring Poolside Sale.

MICHAEL LEDEEN: Trump’s Secret? Religion: A Trump rally is like a religious ritual.

FASTER, PLEASE: Long-term survival achieved in metastatic melanoma with personalized vaccine.

HAVING SOLVED ALL OF HER CITY’S MYRIAD PROBLEMS, BALTIMORE MAYOR BANS TRAVEL TO NORTH CAROLINA, MISSISSIPPI.

Because bathrooms, of course.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING IRANIAN NUKE TALKS VIDEO AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT: Watch the video disappear in a flash and then—presto-chango!—magically reappear!

CONTAGION: Pregnant Connecticut teen tests positive for Zika after visiting fiancé in Honduras.

CIVIL RIGHTS IN VIRGINIA: Freedom under attack.  (I’ve been under the weather, and not posting as regularly as I’d like to, but a friend pinged me with this.  The hearing is tonight and it’s important.  If you’re in Virginia, consider going.)

SO I’M TOLD THAT ROD WALKER IS THE NEW HEINLEIN, and that his Mutiny in Space is in the tradition of the Heinlein junior novel. I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve downloaded a copy to my Kindle.

SCHADENFREUDEMANIA: HILLARY’S SON-IN-LAW CLOSES HEDGEFUND WHICH BET ON GREEK ECONOMIC REVIVAL AFTER LOSING 90% OF ITS VALUE.

I wonder if Marc Mezvinsky received a variation on “I can’t be responsible for every undercapitalized small business in America” when he told “Queen Tut” the bad news?

Update: “I felt bad for those who lost 90% in Hillary’s son-in-law’s hedge fund, until I realized they actually gave money to Hillary’s son-in-law,” Iowahawk tweets.

AT AMAZON, Spring Deals on Women’s Swimwear.

APPARENTLY, “FAT-SHAMING” DOESN’T PRODUCE CELIBACY: Number of overweight, expectant mums rising dramatically, health insurer warns.

BLOOMBERG: CONGRATS ON WINNING THE WHITE HOUSE; HERE’S YOUR RECESSION — Recession May Loom for Next U.S. President No Matter Who That Is.

Note that this is running in Bloomberg, home of the Obama era “unexpectedly” whenever there’s bad economic news. President Trump obviously won’t be shown such a courtesy from the media – and based on her less than messianic coverage, likely neither would a Hillary administration, at least to the same extent as Obama has received.

THE SLARTIBARTFAST ELECTION: “In 2016, all the numbers are awful.”

HISTORY: When Scientology Sponsored Race Cars.

DON’T DO STUPID SH*T: Senate votes down Iran amendment to energy spending bill.

Wednesday’s vote was the fourth time the Senate considered — directly or with the spending bill as a proxy — the Iran amendment. The measure, from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) would block the United States from buying from Iranian heavy water, a component used in nuclear reactors.

Under the terms of the nuclear deal, Iran is required to reduce its stock of the fuel. The U.S. said last month it would spend about $8 million to purchase heavy water from Tehran.

Cotton and other Republicans have said the United States shouldn’t make those purchases, equating them to subsidizing Iran’s nuclear program. Cotton introduced an amendment to the energy and water bill saying so.

Democrats balked, however, saying the amendment would earn the bill a veto from President Obama.

It would also have kept Obama’s Iran Deal lies in the news.

WHOSE NEWS IS IT, ANYWAY? Right Angle’s Scott Ott is on the Facebook case.

PROGRESS: Teach For America Drops Social Justice Training. I’m glad to see TFA getting on the right side of history.

JESSE WALKER: Sanders Voters for Trump: Why would a Donald Trump fan vote for Bernie Sanders? Here are some possibilities…

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Gentlemen, put down your razors. The hairy chest is back in style!

Well, that’s a relief, as I have more body hair than a hirsute Wookie. But then, I’ve never been one for fads.

And on the flip-side of grooming news you can use…

FASTER, PLEASE: 1,284 new exoplanets, thanks to new method of verifying Kepler’s discoveries.

Scientists have verified in one sweep 1,284 new planets that were discovered by NASA’s planet-hunting telescope Kepler, thanks to a new statistical analysis technique developed at Princeton University.

This doubles the number of exoplanets, or planets orbiting their own stars outside of our solar system, that Kepler has discovered since it was first launched in 2009.

“Before the Kepler space telescope launched, we did not know whether exoplanets were rare or common in the galaxy,” Paul Hertz, the astrophysics division director at NASA, said in a statement. “Thanks to Kepler and the research community, we now know there could be more planets than stars.”

There are approximately 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1098. Marking the third anniversary of the IRS Scandal being made public via a stage-managed question at an ABA conference.