The first Republican slugfest is coming up, so it's time to take a peek at how the candidates feel about the majority of voters -- women. Elbowing for the bottom rung has been fierce, but there's plenty of material on those we know will be on the podium.
The front-runner Donald Trump has the thinnest record on the issues, but he's a well-known misogynist who believes women's worth is in their looks, and says so often. He's predictably anti-abortion, and has even said reproductive freedom has nothing to do with the right to privacy. But he was at his creepiest when he remarked that his eldest daughter has a very nice figure, and if she weren't his child, perhaps he'd be dating her. It goes without saying I'm no fan, but the quintessential shoot-from-the-hipster does hit the target once in awhile -- like when he said Rick Perry put on glasses to make himself look smarter, but "it just doesn't work."
Moving to the more legitimate candidates -- 100% of whom are also anti-choice -- we get to a topic much on women's minds: equal pay. The GOP field ranges from the clueless Jeb Bush, who replied "What's that?" when asked about the Paycheck Fairness Act, to the very much attuned Scott Walker, who compared it to the Soviet Politburo and repealed his state's equal pay law. Marco Rubio called Paycheck Fairness a welfare plan for trial lawyers, while Ted Cruz merely dismissed it as a "distraction," as he cast his nay vote in the Senate.
Another topic high on the female concern list is Social Security, since without it more than half of elderly women -- who incidentally vote in droves -- would live in poverty. Most of the boys in the clown car want to privatize it or do away with it altogether, but they're not saying so out loud. 
Only Chris Christie and Rand Paul have jumped out front, touting raising the retirement age while turning Social Security into a welfare program by means-testing it.
Struggling in the middle, but still belligerently hoisting the far-right Christian fundamentalist flag, we have Mike Huckabee, who has repeatedly compared abortion to the Holocaust and slavery, defended Todd "legitimate rape" Akin, and even attacked women for using birth control. Ben Carson has also compared abortion to slavery, and has said women need "re-educating" so they don't get so "riled up" about having their reproductive autonomy taken away. But John Kasich outdid both of them when -- in a burst of pure logic -- he signed a bill that both defunded contraception services and at the same time greatly restricted access to abortion.
Over at the kid's table, Carly Fiorina, the field's only woman, will no doubt try to out-macho her loser-boy opponents by once again attacking Hillary Clinton on women's rights, and blaming the gender pay gap on "unions and government bureaucracies."
So whether you tune in to the Republican debate or not, know this: No matter who wins, women lose.
Listen to the 2 minute radio commentary here: