Are Americans ready for Ms. President? It appears so

[NNN0LHI]

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2007/05/americans_ready.html

Posted by Mark Silva at 6:10 am CDT

Are conditions favorable for the presidential candidacy that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is waging? You know, forget Clinton for a moment. Are Americans ready to elect a woman?

The Gallup Poll has found that 88 percent of those surveyed say they would vote for a well-qualified woman for president, notes Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. And that's a bigger base than existed in 1969, the year that New York's junior senator graduated from Wellesley College -- when just 53 percent told Gallup they would support a well-qualified woman for president.

"Around the world, women are no strangers to contests for the top leadership position - France's Ségolène Royal being only the most recent, though unsuccessful, contestant,'' Kohut notes. "And women have been victorious in such elections in countries as varied as India (Indira Gandhi), Israel (Golda Meier), and Great Britain (Margaret Thatcher). But elections in other countries offer little or no guidance as to likely U.S. voter reactions to a female candidate among either men or women.''

So Pew took a look at American elections -- examining exit polls from 40 senatorial and gubernatorial elections since 1998 in which a female Democratic candidate faced a male Republican. Pew found that, on average, the female Democratic candidates captured the votes of 55 percentof women compared with 47 percent of men -- with the average eight-point "gender gap'' in these contests running identical to the gap found in a hypothetical match-up between Clinton and New York's Rudy Giuliani in a Newsweek survey.

"When the 40 races involving female Democrats are compared with a control sample of elections from the same regions involving male Democratic candidates, the Democratic women performed at least as well as the men,'' Kohut reports. "On average, Democratic female candidates for senator and governor won 51 percent of the vote... Democratic male candidates in the control group won 47 percent of the vote.

[rodeodance]

1. I suspose it is progress, yet the #'s are still low (to elect a women Pres in the great

US of A.!!

[ShortnFiery]

2. IMO it doesn't matter because we don't have a woman worthy of that position today.

Well, unless Nancy Pelosi will run. ;)

As pro-women as I am (and I AM), I don't want our first woman president a DLCer. I'm willing to wait for a woman in the White House who I can be truly proud of ... that's definitely NOT HRC. :thumbsdown:

[NNN0LHI]

3. Would you vote against her if she wins the Democratic nomination? n/t

[YOY]

5. No, but lets not let it lead to that decision Don

I think the DLC has had it's chance and it did better than Monkeyboy, but lets get some fresh blood in there for a change.

[ShortnFiery]

7. No, I would write-in Kucinich (a true democrat) for the General Election.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ShortnFiery]

9. That's the spirit! Intimidation and bullying worked in the past two elections, why quit now?

:eyes: BTW I voted twice for Clinton (92', 96'), once for Gore (2000) and finally for Kerry (2004) but NO MORE DLCers. It's time to wash these corporate whores out of OUR Party. Whatever the price, we must stop the DLC from selecting our Democratic Nominee for future Presidential Elections.

No, although I've folded in every other presidential election - voting for a DLCer - I'M NOW AS MAD AS HELL AND *FINALLY* I REFUSE TO COMPROMISE MY ETHICS TO VOTE FOR CORPORATE WHORES IN THE FUTURE!

Although it may be a "gentler form" with HRC, it still will be fascism. Bank on it. :grr:

[dogday]

11. Makes her an American who has the right

to cast her vote as she sees fit and a vote for a Democrat is not a vote for Nader... Your vote is the most precious thing you can have, and you should exercise it as you see fit, not as others see fit for you....

[NNN0LHI]

13. So you would in effect vote for the RNC over the DNC to show you are a "true" Democrat?

Who do you think Kucinich will be voting for next year?

:hi:

Don

[Joe the Revelator]

10. I will go on record as saying "yes, I will"

I've always voted a straight "D" ticket, but if we make the mistake of nominating Hillary, I will be voting either third party or abstaining.

[NNN0LHI]

15. And I know who you voted for in the past exactly how?

:eyes:

Don

[Joe the Revelator]

18. The same way you can gleen anything off of a message board post...

I could ask you the same question.

[Captain Hilts]

4. But they will have different expectations than for a male president. nt

[madokie]

6. I'm ready for a Woman to be my President

hell I like 'em, had one for a mother now have one for a wife and a daughter in law and they are/were great. Actually I think it is the solution to the mess we have gotten ourselves in today, Women just don't take much shit from anybody and think of family first and if I'm not believed then ask any of 'em they'll gladly let you know. ;-)

[watercolors]

12. I AM READY, SO READY!

men have sure screwed up this country and the world!

[RedStateShame]

14. I am more than ready for President Pelosi.

Rather, I guess I'm more than ready for the circumstances that would bring about President Pelosi.

[Hidden Stillness]

16. Sometimes, it is Not That Simple

Sometimes these polls can be tricky. I read several years ago in a book about polling, (it may or may not have been "Tainted Truth" by Cynthia Crossen, which was a great book), that some further follow-up on the "would vote for a qualified woman" answer sometimes produces the revealed result that it "just so happens" that no matter who is named, no woman is ever "qualified." They answer "yes" just to get the judgment off them, then when it gets more specific, they actually would not vote for a woman, but claim that it is because "none of the ones named are 'qualified,' " etc. Also, I am not thrilled with Hillary Clinton, Inc., either. I would prefer our great Michigan Governor, Jennifer Granholm, who was our great Attorney General before, but she can't run because she was born in Canada, or Nancy Pelosi--very impressive recently--or even Dianne Feinstein, also very impressive lately, with the investigations of Gonzales and Attorney firings. Again, though, people will sometimes answer that they accept something when it was a distant abstract, but then if there is a real candidate, they will not do the thing that actually made it exist. You don't know the real opinion, until the situation was real.

[DefenseLawyer]

17. Do you think

if we asked the poll question "Are you a racist?", the result would reflect the level of racism in this country? I don't know the answer the the question, but my guess is it would be more than a little off.