Hillary Clinton site for young women: www.icanbepresident.com

WASHINGTON -- If you are a woman between 18 and 35 years old, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is aiming a Web site at you to get your vote for her 2008 presidential campaign.

Clinton's planned Web site -- expected to be up and running as soon as this week -- is designed to target feminist-minded girls and young women, who political strategists say are crucial to her quest for the White House.

"If she brings in this younger group in particular, it will offer a real opportunity for her in getting the Democratic nomination," says Democratic pollster Celinda Lake.

Lake says the Democratic primary electorate is 59 percent female and that younger women indicate that they -- more than other age or gender groups -- yearn for a female president. Lake says young women voters have voted two-to-one for Democrats since the 2004 election.

She says Clinton could mobilize young female voters -- who traditionally skip the polls -- to create a "significant Democratic voting block."

Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Center for the People and the Press, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center, notes that his polls of 1,509 American adults last month showed that Clinton draws more support from younger women than from any other voter group.

Forty-five percent of women 18 to 35 years "are most likely to say there is a good chance they'll vote for Hillary," higher than any other age group, Keeter says. An additional 26 percent say there is "some chance" they'd vote for Clinton.

Of 36-to-64-year-old women, 32 percent say there is a good chance they would vote for Clinton, while 38 percent of women 65 and older say so.

The name of the Web site -- www.icanbepresident.com -- has a feminist ring to it, embracing the American dream that every girl, as well as every boy, can grow up to be president.

Ann Lewis, senior advisor to the Clinton campaign, says the young women voter segment emerged as a target group after Clinton and her campaign aides noticed large numbers of young women bringing their daughters to Clinton events. It's the voting moms that Clinton is aiming for.

Lewis says the Internet campaign is aimed at parents of girls who will vote for Clinton with the hope that new doors are opening for their daughters, college-age women and women in their thirties. The Web site will provide a visual map of where young people have stepped up to be part of the Clinton campaign, Lewis said.

The Web site will also link to other social networking sites like MySpace.com and Facebook.com, according to Peter Daou, a creator of the site.