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"FacebookPinterestGetty Images\n\nIs it boorish to point out that being called a slut in front of millions of people was possibly the best thing that ever happened to Sandra Fluke? Probably. Still, there's no denying that ever since February, when Rush Limbaugh pinned the scarlet S on the then-30-year-old law student for having the temerity to testify in front of Congress in favor of expanded access to birth control, Fluke has refashioned herself as feminist icon, enjoying the sort of fame and attention many Congresswomen never taste. First, there was the condolence call from President Obama. Then there were the MSNBC hits. Then came the speeches around the country, including Obama campaign events in New Hampshire, Ohio, and Florida. And tonight, Fluke caps it off with an address to the Democratic National Convention.\n\n\"I'm never going to say that those attacks were positive for me,\" Fluke protests when I pose my boorish theory to her as we talk on the street outside the convention hall her in Charlotte, \"but I think what they showed to the country was the types of issues we're still grappling with, the misogyny we still have in our country, and it gave us a chance to highlight the policies that are being debated in our legislatures.\" A moment later, we're interrupted by a couple of middle-aged women delegates who want their picture taken with Fluke.\n\nWith her stylishly bobbed hair, knee-length skirts, and perfect diction, Fluke doesn't immediately call to mind Samuel Wurzelbacher, aka \"Joe the Plumber,\" the bald, spitting-mad everyman whom Republicans embraced as a working class hero in 2008. But she is definitely the Joe the Plumber of 2012. And Democrats are using her as the tip of their spear in an effort to further widen the gender gap between Obama and Romney.\n\nOn the first night of the DNC, the convention stage boasted a half dozen Congresswomen, who spoke on reproductive health issues; Michelle Obama, who told a national television audience that her husband \"believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies\"; and the NARAL Pro-Choice America president, who reminded the world that \"rape is rape.\" Meanwhile, outside the convention hall, pink-shirted Planned Parenthood volunteers hand out condoms \"as protection against Romney-Ryan\" and the accessory of choice, at least among a certain group of young women delegates, is a \"Sluts Vote\" button. It's all such a naked play for the female vote that, as one of my (male) colleagues jokes, this gathering in Charlotte at times feels less like a political convention than a Take Back the Night rally.\n\nFluke knows her role in this effort. After addressing a Planned Parenthood Rally but before attending a tea with Nancy Pelosi, she walks with me (and the two aides who are glued to her side) and talks about her goals for the week. \"It's never been just about contraception or women's health to me. It's also about women's economic security, about fair pay, about violence against women,\" she says. \"So that's mostly what I'm focusing on this week. Of course there are lots of issues that are very important to me. You know, gay rights is close to my heart and immigration reform and anti-poverty, but for right now I'm focusing on women's issues.\" After Charlotte, she'll go back out on the stump--and not only for Obama: \"He has to have a Congress who can work with him, and so there are a lot of important races that are critical for that, and in general I just want to see more women in office, as well.\"\n\nIn fact, it's not difficult to imagine Fluke taking a shot at elected office herself some day \u2014and not in the kamikaze fashion of Joe the Plumber (who's currently running a laughable Congressional race in Ohio). She already has an elected official's entourage. As we talk, two aides hover nearby; later, when I have some follow up questions for Fluke, such as where she was when she found out she'd be speaking at the DNC and how much vetting her speech has undergone, one of those aides steers me to a third aide \"who is coordinating Sandra's schedule,\" who in turn refers me to a fourth assistant, who finally emails me Fluke's responses. They're totally bland and uninteresting, as a good politician's written answers always are. (\"At the time, I was in Sacramento, marching with domestic workers for the California Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights. Since then, I've put a lot of thought into how to make most clear to American women what choice we are facing this November, and I've been lucky enough to have time this week to practice my remarks and polish up my thoughts.\") Her verbal answers are just as polished. While Democratic strategists are giddy about the godsend Todd Akin has been to their efforts to win over women voters \u2014\" 'Legitimate rape' is the new 'transvaginal ultrasound!'\" a (female) Obama aide tells me\u2014Fluke evinces only sorrow and anger discussing his remarks. \"I am grateful for the opportunity to talk about the policies and make people aware of them, but I do want to remember that there were a lot of women and men who were victims of sexual assault, who that was very hard for, and that that ensuing discussion was hard for them,\" she says gravely, \"and I heard from several friends and acquaintances of mine with whom I didn't realize had suffered that, so there's always a consequence to those types of comments.\"\n\nWith practiced, talking point responses like that one, Fluke has already succeeded in a way that Joe the Plumber never could. The question now facing Democrats is whether Fluke, and the play for women's votes that she represents, will succeed. While she clearly (and literally) speaks to younger women voters, what about older ones? After Fluke heads into her tea with Pelosi, I ask the two middle-aged women who asked to have their picture taken with her what they think.\n\n\"I like what she's saying,\" Lisa Starr, a California delegate and the mother of a 13-year-old and two eight-year-old girls, \"I don't want my daughters to be having these conversations when they're her age.\"\n\nBut what about the \"Sluts Votes\" buttons? Does that sort of stuff \u2014and the kind of aggressive activism Fluke seems to have inspired among younger women\u2014make them at all uncomfortable?\n\n\"Would I wear that button? Probably not,\" Diane Welsh, a delegate from Wisconsin says. \"But it's taking our voice back. You know what, some of us are having sex and we vote.\"\n\n\"Just because some idiot calls a woman a slut doesn't mean that woman needs to be ashamed,\" Starr says. \"I'd rather be a slut than an idiot.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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