Though many are lukewarm about the Democratic candidates (Sedaris says she is "not at all interested in or excited about Kerry" and Maldonado can only recall Al Gore as "what's his name, the guy who lost"), single women still gravitate toward the party. They're more concerned about social issues, more likely to be pro-choice, and more likely to oppose the war. In 2000, "what's his name" led Bush by 36 points among single women, whose numbers matched that of all African American, Hispanic, and Jewish voters combined. In a survey this March by "Women's Voices. Women Vote," 65 percent of single women said they believed the country was on the wrong track, as opposed to 51 percent of the total electorate. And that was before news about the torture of Iraqi prisoners deepened disgust and anger with the president.

Taking female votes from a president whose administration closed the White House Office on Women's Issues and had fact sheets about equal pay for women erased from government websites should be easy. The hitch for Kerry is that single women will only cast their ballots for him if they feel engaged enough to go to the polls in the first place. And even though political strategists think they're hot, these would-be swing voters feel taken for granted.