AMERICA'S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

Whether or not we're already tired of the skirmishes MONTHS ahead of time, this IS the most exciting political race to come along in years. It's no wonder that the Clinton and Obama camps have to hit below the belt--it's SUCH a difficult choice that hair-splitting becomes a desperately needed aid.

But as I listened the other night in a restaurant as someone described an unattributable claim of the KKK backing Obama just to avoid having Hillary in the White House, I realized how deep the national fear is of . . . a woman. It is absurd, of course, that it has taken this long for this country to treat a black man as a man of equal stature, and there is something positive in the fact that there are those who will finally overcome their bigotry to vote color-blind. (And he is, of course, an estimable candidate.) But if they are overcoming their bigotry just so they won't have to overcome basic misogyny . . .

Every intelligent, modern nation but the U.S. has had a woman leader at one point. It many cases, it has been the most stable and productive tenure these countries have had. Why are the men of this country so scared? Why are so many women willing to bash a leader from amongst their ranks?

You want to try killing ALL conversation somewhere? You won't believe me, but if you casually ask a group of women to name a woman they most admire, they will be stymied! And if all they can come up with is Eleanor Roosevelt or Mother Theresa . . . we're in trouble.

Polls everywhere are showing that Hillary Clinton is considered more experienced and better equipped, and yet the same polls show people PREFER Obama, who so far is just claiming he's going to change things. DON'T WE EVER LEARN? George W. was deemed a more pleasant Sunday dinner guest than Kerry, and so we got another four years that have sent us down the toilet. We still, after all this press coverage, really don't know much about where Obama stands, other than that he wants to make changes. And when things don't go his way, he tenses up and gets rather whiny. With the mess that needs to be cleaned up, don't we need someone who just doesn't care anymore about what someone says about them? It's a dirty business, people, politics. Let's choose someone who can survive it. LET'S VOTE FOR COMPETENCE, FOLKS!

And this fear that a woman can't lead us effectively--GET OVER IT!

photo credit: Hillary Clinton: © Jose Gil | Dreamstime.com ; Barack Obama: © Misty Pfeil | Dreamstime.com"