Bill O’Reilly, conservative pundit and Fox News anchor, aired a segment on Thursday night meant to explore one of the most sought-after voting segments in the upcoming United States election – single woman. O’Reilly dispatched producer Jesse Watters out on Halloween to interview young women enjoying the festivities and asked their views on the election, who they plan on voting for and why.

The segment was offensive, sexist and condescending. The women were all white, and most appeared at least a little intoxicated. Watters spends the segment leering at them, and making “Can you believe she can vote?” faces at the camera.

Watters asked one Obama supporter if she was a “radical feminist”. After she points out that feminism is a matter of believing women have equal rights to men, the audience is reminded that we’re supposed to find that answer ridiculous with a sarcastic quick cut to a man saying, “I sure do appreciate knowing that.”

O’Reilly’s editors clearly know what the show’s demographic wants – although this segment was heavily edited to make the women appearing in it as ridiculous as possible (One woman claims her major news source is “the subway”, yet somehow I think creative editing was involved here), its main focus seems to be discrediting a major voting bloc that is supporting Obama much more than Romney.

The Obama campaign has been ramping up efforts lately to push their message in support of women’s rights. Although with viewpoints like this on the right, is it that surprising that the Romney campaign is lagging behind?