Is America Ready for a Female President?

In 1920, women in the United States finally were given the right to vote with the passage of the 19th amendment. It took 64 years after that for a female to become a candidate for the Vice-Presidency for one of the two major parties. And now, 24 years later, Hillary Clinton looks to be the favorite for the Democratic Party's nomination for the Presidency. Is 2008 going to finally be the year that America realizes that you don't have to be a white male to rule the country? It is an interesting phenomenon to say the least. Women are over 50% of our population, and have increased their roles in our society. However, has America advanced so that any woman can be elevated to the office of the presidency, or is Hillary Clinton uniquely positioned to become the first woman president? The answer is clearly the later.

There are several reasons why Hillary is poised to become the first female to make a serious run at the presidency. These include her experience as a Senator, her name recognition from being the First Lady, her charisma and speaking ability, the fact that she has a built in base of women, and her popular husband: former President Bill Clinton. When we break down each reason, it will be easy to see that it is the combination of all of these that have allowed Hillary to become the first major candidate for the Presidency.

First off, lets look to her experience as a Senator. While being a Senator doesn't guarantee that you can be a viable candidate for the President, recent failed bids by Senators including Sen. Joseph Liberman in 2004 (when he was the V.P. candidate in 2000), Sen. Chris Dodd in 2008, Sen. Orrin Hatch in 2004, etc. The list can go on and on for Senators who gained little attention when they announced that they wanted to be President. However, being a Senator also doesn't hurt as well. Current and former Senators John Kerry, John Edwards, Al Gore (was in Senate before becoming V.P.), Hubert Humphrey, John Kennedy, etc. have been major candidates for the office of the Presidency and most used their experience in the Senate to help them. So, while Hillary's experience in the Senate does not guarantee that she can be considered a serious candidate, it does help her. Specifically, it has helped her step out of her husband's political spotlight and gain some valuable policy experience that she lacked before she was elected to represent New York. Since her election, she has been able to make speeches and vote on a variety of topics from the Iraq War and fighting terrorism to Health Care and Education. Also, being from New York, which has a very large population, will help her more than if she was a Senator from a smaller state such as Arkansas.

Secondly is her name recognition. Hillary Clinton redefined the role of the first lady when her husband was elected in 1992. Former first ladies took the role of the "classic woman's role." In this sense, they did not get into policy discussions with their husbands (at least in a public sense, we have all heard how influential John Adams wife was) but helped host dinners and appeared at various fund-raisers to help out their husbands. Hillary took a different view because of her background in law and politics. She was an activist for various issues and campaigns and did not want to stop just because her husband was going to be the President. While this did create a lot of controversy at first, it slowly faded away throughout the years once people got used to the idea of the first lady having a major part in the President's policies. This gave her the ability to run for the Senate in 2000 in New York. Most former first ladies would have been laughed at if they wanted to run for a political office, but Hillary had gained the respect of the public because they knew that she was involved in the policy-making of the president and knew that she could handle herself in the Senate.

Third, her charisma and speaking ability have been a huge asset to her campaign. This of course has been developed over the course of many years following her husband, considered by some to be the most charismatic President that we have seen. Hillary has been side-by-side with Bill Clinton during his many years as the Governor of Arkansas and then as the President of the United States. She was able to develop her speaking skills over that time with numerous campaign speeches, fund-raisers and commercials. Now, there are a lot of other people out there who are also very charismatic but have gained little attention in a Presidential race. However, when we look back to the major candidates for the Presidency over the past 30 years, it has taken someone who is charismatic to win the race. Former Governor of Mass. Michael Dukakis was considered a "cold fish" by a lot of people and that hurt him in his race against George Bush Sr. So, while charisma is no guarantee of getting attention, it is definitely not going to hurt her either.

Fourth, she has a built in group of supporters: women. Women overwhelmingly are supporting Hillary over the other candidates for the Democratic nomination. Why is this? Why is Hillary getting all of this support when someone like Elizabeth Dole didn't get nearly that type of support when she ran for office in 2000? The answer is a little complicated. A lot of women have always respected Hillary for her strong political views and her involvement in her husbands cabinet when he was president. Being out-spoken has gained her some enemies, but it has also allowed her to gain some adamant supporters as well. This has served her well so far in this campaign and has helped promote her campaign as the front-runner for the nomination.

Finally, and I think most importantly, is that she is married to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton is still one of the most popular politicians of our time. While the sex affair that he had with an intern hurt some of his popularity, he remains a very popular fixture, especially with Democrats. In fact, on an on-line poll conducted by Zoho, Bill Clinton actually leads all people for the presidency. They allow all names on their list and it seems that most people would rather have Bill Clinton back instead of any other candidate out there. This is not that surprising and it is easy to see why this helps Hillary in her campaign. Because of the 22nd Amendment that prohibits a person from serving more than 2 terms as President, we can't elect Bill Clinton again. However, if we can't get Bill, what's the next best thing? Hillary of course! In fact, according to the BBC News, Hillary wants Bill to play a major role in helping America's image. According to the article, a new poll that was released states that a majority of people would be comfortable with him as the "first spouse." This is big for Hillary. Bill's popularity and charisma give her an asset that very few candidates ever have.

So, the combination of these five things are the reason why Hillary Clinton is considered the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Does this mean that America is ready for a female president? I'm not sure about that, however it appears that Hillary has all the right tools to become the first female candidate that will be considered a major candidate. Would another female be able to do what Hillary is doing? Right now I would say no. However, if Hillary can break the boundary that women can't be President, it would open the flood-gates for women in the future to be considered serious candidates; which is a good thing not just for women, but for America as a whole.