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By Kevin Liptak, CNN

updated 3:07 PM EDT, Fri September 19, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- Democrats were making an election-year pitch to women on Friday, mindful of their past advantage among the voting bloc and hoping to convince enough women to cast ballots for their candidates in November's mid-term contests.

Without strong turnout and support from women, Democrats stand little chance of keeping control of the Senate -- the party's top priority this year.

The biggest draw at the Democrats' Women's Leadership Forum in Washington was Hillary Clinton, their leading 2016 potential presidential contender and, in the minds of some Democrats, a potential boost to mid-term candidates. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden also were on the event's roster.

"We have fought for families, for moms and dads and kids and the values that hold us all together," Clinton said during her midday speech, which was warmly received by the room of party activists.

Women have provided Democrats a boost in recent elections, including in 2012, when 55% voted for Obama in that year's presidential contest. But as Obama's poll numbers have slid, so, too, has his support among women.

The most recent CNN survey of Obama's popularity showed 55% of women disapproved of how Obama is handling his job -- the same percentage that voted for him in 2012. That disapproval rate was on par with the figure for men.

On pressing issues including terrorism, the economy and Ukraine, more women than men disapprove of how Obama's doing his job.

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Amid worrisome polls, Democrats make new pitch for women votes

Washington Many top Democrats are upset with Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, apparently. Thats the point of a big Politico piece this week thats got much of political DC buzzing.

The nut of their objections appears to be that the Florida representative is trying to leverage her DNC spot to promote her own political ambitions at the expense of the partys fortunes as a whole.

Politico quotes critics to the effect that Representative Wasserman Schultz hits up donors for cash for her own PAC, as opposed to pushing them to donate to party organs; plans her travel schedule to promote her own priorities; and pushes DNC staff to work on her own projects. Shes also tried and failed to get the party to pay for her clothes, according to sources.

Shes also made some high-profile verbal gaffes, such as her recent comparison of Republican tea party adherents to wife-beaters.

Shes become a liability to the DNC, and even to her own prospects, critics say, writes Politicos Edward-Isaac Dovere.

Nor is Politico alone in dishing on Wasserman Schultz this week. Buzzfeed has a similar story, though its not quite as harsh.

That means at least a few top Democrats really do have it out for the DNC leader. Why are they so mad?

The first and most obvious explanation is that its all completely true. Were just talking hypothetically here we have no independent knowledge of these alleged shortcomings.

Sometimes frustration with a politicians leadership grows so acute among staff and contacts that they feel anonymous leaks are their only weapon to deal with their boss.

But lets face it self-regard is as common in Washington as smart phones. If you cleared Capitol Hill of every politician guilty of overweening pride and too much focus on their own problems then the halls of Congress would be empty.

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Why are Democrats so mad at DNC chief Debbie Wasserman Schultz?

Democrats were making an election-year pitch to women on Friday, mindful of their past advantage among the voting bloc and hoping to convince enough women to cast ballots for their candidates in November's mid-term contests.

Without strong turnout and support from women, Democrats stand little chance of keeping control of the Senate -- the party's top priority this year.

The biggest draw at the Democrats' Women's Leadership Forum in Washington was Hillary Clinton, their leading 2016 potential presidential contender and, in the minds of some Democrats, a potential boost to mid-term candidates. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden also were on the event's roster.

"We have fought for families, for moms and dads and kids and the values that hold us all together," Clinton said during her midday speech, which was warmly received by the room of party activists.

Women have provided Democrats a boost in recent elections, including in 2012, when 55% voted for Obama in that year's presidential contest. But as Obama's poll numbers have slid, so, too, has his support among women.

The most recent CNN survey of Obama's popularity showed 55% of women disapproved of how Obama is handling his job -- the same percentage that voted for him in 2012. That disapproval rate was on par with the figure for men.

On pressing issues including terrorism, the economy and Ukraine, more women than men disapprove of how Obama's doing his job.

Those figures worry Democrats, whose prospects in this year's contests are closely pinned to voters' perception of Obama. Those anxieties have led to scant invites for Obama on the campaign trail.

Less worrisome in the mind of some party operatives is Clinton, who's been enlisted to stump for candidates in several states ahead of the November 4 vote.

On Friday, she said the congressional and gubernatorial contests were just as important as the higher-profile presidential race she's currently considering.

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Democrats making hard sell to women

An immigration reform advocate from Marshalltown whose brother is facing deportation led a community discussion on immigration Thursday night at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church.

Two dozen people attended the event, which was hosted by A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy, a community-building group active in Ames. Karina Mendoza-Alvarez, a 19-year-old student at Marshalltown Community College, led the conversation with Mark Grey, a professor of anthropology at the University of Northern Iowa.

Mendoza-Alvarez described her mothers five-year ordeal in the immigration court system to gain legal residency after she was swept up in an immigration enforcement raid of Marshalltowns JBS Swift meatpacking plant in 2006, when Mendoza-Alvarez was just 11 years old.

In the week following the raid, Mendoza-Alvarez was taken care of by her older sister, Maria, who is now 25 and in the country legally as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. Mendoza-Alvarez was born in Iowa, but her mother, sister and brother, 23-year-old Diego, moved to Iowa from Villachuato in west-central Mexico.

Now, Diego is going through the immigration court system, his legal status unclear and the chance of deportation a real possibility.

With a broken immigration system, its never going to end, said Mendoza-Alvarez, who in July was one of more than 100 people arrested in Washington, D.C., outside the White House protesting for immigration reform.

Grey, the lead author of Postville: USA, a book on the infamous 2008 Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant raid in the northeastern Iowa town, spoke before Mendoza-Alvarez. He described the influx of Mexican immigrants into Iowa that began around 1993 but subsided after the Postville raid.

Some AMOS volunteers, like Mendoza-Alvarez, voiced support for comprehensive immigration reform, which could provide a path to citizenship for many of the 11 million or so undocumented immigrants estimated to be in the country.

A major second-term initiative of President Barack Obama, immigration reform has been stalled in Congress for more than a year in large part because of resistance to such a broad-based approach, often criticized as amnesty for illegal behavior, in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, one of the Houses most vocal opponents of immigration reform and programs including DACA, was invited to attend Thursdays meeting by AMOS volunteers at an August town hall the congressman held in Ames. King said he would probably be in Washington, D.C., Thursday but would be willing to send a representative on his behalf.

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AMOS hosts immigration conversation

Let me start out by admitting my bias. I'm a strong supporter of the First Amendment. With very few exceptions (like child sex abuse images and yelling "fire" in a crowded theater), I believe that free speech is an absolute right for people of all ages and it makes me feel good when I learn that others, especially young people, tend to agree.

The reason I love it when young people support free speech is because they are our future.

If people grow up believing in something, they're more likely to continue to hold those beliefs as they get older. So, I'm especially pleased that high school students are even more supportive of free speech than adults, according to a new survey from the Knight Foundation.

The foundation conducted a national study of 10,463 high school students and 588 teachers to coincide with the celebration of Constitution Day, which took place Wednesday. Several of the questions were identical to those of a Newseum Institute survey of adults, which enabled researchers to compare results across age groups.

What the study found is that students are more supportive of free speech rights than adults, with the heaviest consumers of social media showing the strongest support. The study found that only 24 percent of students agreed that the "First Amendment goes too far" compared to 38 percent of adults who responded to similar questions. This is a major shift from most previous surveys such as in 2006 when 45 percent of students felt that way compared to 23 percent of adults.

The study also found that today's students are more likely to agree that people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions with 88 percent agreeing this year compared to 76 percent in 2007 and 83 percent in 2004. There is also increased agreement that "newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of a story," up from 51 percent in 2004 to 61 percent this year.

I was fascinated by the finding that students who more frequently use social media are more likely to support people's right to express unpopular opinions. Among those who use social media more than once a day, 62 percent support other people's rights to express unpopular opinions compared to 54 percent who use it just once a day or several times a week and 49 percent of youth who use social media weekly or less often. More than 7 in 10 students who read news online more than once a day support other people's right of speech, compared to 53 percent of those who read online news weekly.

Of course, correlations don't prove causation. There could be other factors at play, but the fact that social media use does correlate to first amendment support is encouraging, considering how many young people are using social media.

The study looked at such issues as free speech, surveillance and privacy. There is also a correlation between studying about First Amendment rights and support for free speech. Since 2004, the percentage of students who say they have taken First Amendment classes increased from 58 percent to 70 percent, according to the report.

In an interview, Eric Newton, senior adviser to the president of the Knight Foundation, said that interviews with journalism faculty confirmed that "what's really important is news and media digital literacy being taught more significantly in high school. Just mentioning the First Amendment in a social studies class isn't' enough." He said that "the flip side of freedom and responsibility is that you need to not ban digital media but actually teach students all about digital media in school. How to create it, how to navigate it and how to use it."

Continue reading here:
Magid: High school kids show strong support for First Amendment