John, Fred, and you-know-who

With a scant 14 months to go, time is running out and we will soon need to make a choice for our next President. The time has come to confront the most intriguing question of the campaign, the unspoken question that everyone is quietly pondering - is John Edwards bisexual?

No, sorry, that's not the question I meant to ask. The real unspoken question that everyone is quietly pondering is this - doesn't Fred Thompson look like he might just kick your ass?

Sorry again, so sorry, not where I was really going. Just a little distracted today. Let's get to the REAL unspoken question, the whispered query, the question even true believers hear inside their heads, the question my pal Big Tex actually gave voice to the other day - Hillary can get the nomination, but can she win the office?Face it, even the most die-hard Dems must be tussling over this question. After all, the 2008 election is a walk-over for their party, agreed? There's nothing the Democrats could possibly do in one year to fumble this chance away, right? Well, none of that is really true, but for sure they have a leg up on the GOP, what with the sitting President's approval rating approaching absolute zero. He's blown it, the Republicans have become the party of scandal, and so the Democrats walk into the White House.

But can it really happen with Hillary at the top of the ticket?

Seems to me we reserve a particular type of disdain for women like Hillary. They make the mistake of achieving success and positions of power by acting a little too much like men. Not deferential enough. Not concerned enough with hairstyles and Italian shoes. Too self-assured. Something fishy about a woman who doesn't seem like she needs to be rescued. "Iron Maiden." "Ice Queen." "Bitch on wheels." Strangely enough, other women are often far more harsh toward a woman like Hillary that men could ever be. And it says something about our progress toward "equality for women" that the unspoken question is more "can Hillary really win a general election?" than "could America really elect a black man?"

Granted, these are foreign concepts to a lot of the people I know here in coastal California. Hillary wins on both coasts, no contest. But can she carry the "heartland?" Can you picture her beating a white male Republican (insert any name here) in November '08 in Nevada? Arizona? Texas? Kansas? Kentucky? Florida? Need I go on? It has all the makings of another 50/50 election, even a repeat of the "popular vote winner-electoral vote loser" scenario we've already seen played out. And boy, that's just what we need.

Comments

DodgerScott said…
Wow, to think you threw Arizona and Texas to the red side before Tom Brokaw. That's impressive.
September 5, 2007 at 1:11 PM
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